Delicious Sherry in Jerez

We stayed in Gibraltar just one night and in the morning took a taxi to the Gibraltar Airport in order to pick up our car rental. There are no direct trains between Gibraltar and Seville so we had to find alternate transportation. Turns out it was vastly cheaper to rent a car one way with a drop off in Seville than it was to hire a driver. Plus we now had the flexibility to stop in a little town called Jerez de Fonterra that is known around the world for its sherry production.

So we planned a tour of the Lustau Bodega in Jerez for mid day as we made our way to Seville. But first the car which is unique because the car rental desk is inside the airport terminal which is in Gibraltar.

So you sign all your papers and then they direct you to the lot where your car is waiting in Spain. That means exiting the UK and entering the EU between paper-signing and getting car. So odd.

The drive from Gibraltar to Jerez is only about 90 minutes and it’s lovely as you make your way north from the Mediterranean. Once in Jerez we found the Lustau Bodega and also found parking without even saying the parking prayer.

The tour of the sherry bodega was as you would expect but even though it starts with grapes. sherry production is a bit different.

Part of the tour is a tasting of a few varieties of sherry that you’ve seen in the store: Fino, Amantillado, Oloroso, and Palo Cortado. Those are the dry sherries and then we also sampled a couple of sweet sherries, Pedro Ximenez and Moscatel.