751 years to the day have passed since the
Battle of Jerez and its re-capture from the Moors by King Alfonso X “El Sabio”
(the wise) and his knights from Castilla. They built the Church of San Marcos
to celebrate. The Moors had been in possession of the city since 711 when Tariq
Ibn Ziyad and 7,000 men took much of Spain from the Vandals. The word Andalucía
derives from the Arabic “Al Andalus” meaning the kingdom of the Vandals. The Moorish
defeat in the battle left them with the Caliphate of Granada as their only
remaining possession, which was lost to El Cid’s forces backed by the Catholic
Monarchs in 1492.
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| Alfonso kitted out for battle (foto:drinksbusiness) |
Alfonso was grateful to his knights granting forty
of the bravest six “aranzadas” (@3 hectares) of land on which they planted
vines. One of them was Fernán Yañez Palomino who would give his name to the
Sherry grape, another was Alonso Valdespino. During the Moorish occupation wine
had not been encouraged as it is forbidden in the Koran, but vineyards survived
for the Arab love of pasas (raisins), and certainly some Emirs looked the other
way. At this time distillation was introduced but more for the purposes of
alchemy in search of cures and perfumes. We all owe a large debt to Alfonso for
liberating Jerez and encouraging its vineyards. He certainly was wise.
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