A Taste of Revolution

Sporting some seriously Che Guevara-like facial hair and carrying a pocket full of cured meat and salted almonds Fernando, our rep from T. Edward Wines, began a very special tasting of Almacenista sherries with the chant: Viva la Revolución!

The revolution that dry sherry enthusiasts (including myself) are hoping for is that the world will suddenly embrace these seriously undervalued wines and liberate them from their centuries-long struggle against obscurity.

Almacenista (meaning warehouseman or storekeeper) is the name given to a group of entrepreneurs maturing limited quantities of the finest quality, handcrafted, dry sherry in tiny bodegas hidden amongst the tangled maze of narrow side streets in the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera and the coastal towns of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Puerto de Santa Maria.

Said to be the keepers of tradition—many of whom have “day jobs” in other professions—the Almacenistas’ reward is not easy money but the intense love of sherry, which is passed down from generation to generation.

In the past this steadfast group of professionals supplied the larger sherry houses with these rare and unusual wines for blending purposes, but in 1997 the laws changed allowing Almacenistas to bottle their own stocks of limited-production sherries.

At the tasting last week I had the opportunity to sample a range of sherries from three such producers. My next post will contain tasting notes and producer information that I hope will have you clamoring to join this counterculture with a toast of: ¡Nunca los olvidaremos! We will never forget them!

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Tags: wine | sherry wine

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