Back to Jerez

Yesterday afternoon we went to a sherry tasting at one of the big bodegas, Lustau. When the financial crash hit Jerez, lots of the big name bodegas, such as Domecq, went bust but of course they still had warehouses full of maturing sherry. Lustau must have had cash resources so they bought up lots of the stock. Since then they have been marketing it in addition to their own. They seem to have been very good at selling it, presumably cheaply, to the big UK supermarkets, so if you buy own-brand sherry from Sainsbury's or Waitrose for instance, in little letters on the label on the back it will say "Lustau". My favourite sherry was Rio Viejo from Domecq, and for ages it hasn't been available in the Uk, so I've had to import it from Spain, and every time I asked a bar or restaurant here in Jerez what their house sherry was it was Rio Viejo. This time it appears on the the wine list and in the shops, and in the bodega at Lustau there were rows and rows and rows of barrels of it. At least now I know that are still making it, even if I will have to still buy it in from Spain!Read more