Jerez Wine

We’re fully into the swing of things at the EWBC, and I’m a bit pushed for time so this will be a quick roundup of things so far.

My EWBC 2009 experience started at 7am on Thursday 29th October when I left Jerez, in my car, for Portugal.

First stop was a pre-EWBC event at Cortes de Cima in the Alentejo. The Jorgensens really looked after us beautifully and put on a fantastic lunch. We had a live tasting of their full range of wines (including the illegal one), live because a group of people in Lisbon were able to join us. We had a quick look around their winery, a very slick and organised operation and finally – my favourite bit – we were each given four varietal wines from 2009 to make our own blend. We voted for the best blend after a blind tasting and that is going to be made up and bought to the EWBC in Lisbon. By one (winemaker’s casting) vote the competition was won by Wink Lorch and Sam Ockman (otherwise it would have been my blend)! They were talking of calling the blend “Sink”, a bit more of Wink in it than Sam methinks.

After Cortes de Cima I headed into Lisbon with Jim Budd and Per Karlsson in the car. It’s amazing how interesting discussion helps chew up the kilometres.  After a quick change it was off to Gemelli where we had a very convivial meal. It was great to catch up with old friends from EWBC 2008 and meet new people and I was feeling excited.

After a lie-in and look around the center of Lisbon, Friday 30th’s activity started with registration for the conference at the swish VIP Grande Lisboa hotel. Then we had a tasting sponsored by Vinoble, who weirdly for an organisation presenting at a bloggers conference have a website which does not even work? It points at the spanish Vinum wine magazine site. A bit of an own goal.  Apparently Pancho Campo MW was supposed to be leading this, but I guess due to Campogate gaining momentum he didn’t turn up. Mr Campo’s Marketing Manager, Esteban Cabezas, lead the tasting instead and after a sales job for Vinoble and Wine Academy Spain we got to taste some fantastic wines.

Next was the Douro Boys tasting, which had six flights of wine, 18 wines altogether. The whites’ fresh acidity was a revelation for me, especially as they come from a hot climate. The Douro Boys are all entertaining, humorous and fun. A very enjoyable tasting. We were then treated to a buffet dinner by the Douro Boys, with more of their wines and a few “specials” which were magic’d up. Like an 80 year old white port from Niepoort, the “Douro Boys” blend, a Douro Riesling, the Robustus 05 which appeared when we mentioned that Jamie Goode thinks the 04 could possibly be Portugal’s best wine ever and finally the most interesting for me, a collaboration between Niepoort and Equipo Navazos, a light palomino wine from Jerez, which has had only 3 months of flor on it before bottling. A bit like the young “mosto” wines which are sold in and around Jerez at this time of year.

Ah, finally, packed and ready to head off to the EWBC 2009 tomorrow morning. I’ve been looking forward to this EWBC since the last one. Ryan, Gabriella and Robert proved last year that they know how to put on a good show and as the program for this year’s conference has fleshed out over the last few months I have become more and more excited.

This year they have also managed to get some awesome sponsorship.

What am I looking forward to the most? I’m not sure where to start. There is quite a lot (in no particular order):

2. It’s going to be great to see old friends again.

7. Meeting new people who weren’t there last year will be fun.

9. The pre conference gathering at Cortes de Cima in the Alentejo. They have even set up a parallel tasting in Lisbon so we can all blog together live.

8. Given my obsession with sweet and fortified wines and that I live in Jerez, I’m REALLY pleased that Vinoble are getting involved, although I do wonder if since  The Wine Academy Spain recently won the contract to produce Vinoble any probing questions are going to be asked. It could all get very interesting…

4. Learning something new from the sessions, which are very grown up this year. Even “streamed” and all.

1. Food, especially food with wine. It looks like we’re in for a treat with the restaurants we will be eating at:  Gemelli, Restaurant 11 and Alfândega.

6. Regional visits. It goes without saying I chose Setubal.

3. A chance to learn all about Portuguese wine. My slightly ulterior motive is I definitely need more Portuguese wine knowledge for that dreaded and all encompassing WSET Diploma Unit 3 exam.

5. Finally, I was lucky enough to be included on the two-day visit to the Douro organised by the Douro Boys. That might just be a nose ahead in the most-looked-forward-to stakes.

I told you it was in no order. What would your favourite be?

Photo by Daquella manera











Serrano ham definitely has terroir, there’s no doubt about that, and there is a skill to slicing it, so if you want to learn your Bellotas from your Pata Negras and your Guijuelos from your Jabugos first read Niamh’s post on her blog Eat Like a Girl and then, like Niamh, get yourself booked onto a lesson with Brindisa at the Borough Market.

Apparently Niamh’s class were allowed to sip on Manzanilla while tasting the different hams. That alone would be enough to get me out of the house…

This is for those of you in the UK.

My colleague came home from her travels yesterday via London and armed with a copy of the newly free-to-air Evening Standard. In Andrew Neather’s column “The Discerning Drinker” he recommends Spanish wines including the Marks and Spencer Manzanilla made by Williams and Humbert.

It clocks in at £5.99.

Worth a try I would have thought. Even with the days drawing in I’m sure there will be opportunities for sipping this with a few strips of Serrano ham, an olive or two, or even better some nice and crispy whitebait.

Read all about it at Spittoon

An interesting post by Dr Vino.