Eating Well in Jerez

Jerez has become the centre of innovative cuisine in the province of Cádiz. The number of haute cuisine establishments has grown spectacularly in recent years and experts in the sector agree that the reason behind this gastronomic movement is the new fashion for quality Sherries which attracts ever more gastronomic tourism to the city and has also sparked the growing interest of the locals in this kind of cuisine so closely linked to quality Sherry which accompanies it so outstandingly well. Below is a list of just some of the best restaurants in Jerez:

Lu Cocina y Alma, Calle Zaragoza, 2, Jerez

Owned by Juan Luis Fernández Fernández who used to work at the 3* Poniente in El Puerto de Santa María, Lu received its first Michelin star in 2018. The kitchen is in the centre of the designer restaurant which offers tasting menus which change daily according to the chef´s inspiration or what ingredients are available.

Mantúa, Plaza Aladro, 7, Jerez

Established in 2017 by Israel Ramos who also owns the excellent Albalá. The restaurant is very small but very good with various tasting menus and an extensive wine list specialising in Sherry and local wines.

Tiemar, Calle Sierra del Aljibe, 8, Jerez

Isidro López Lozano opened this restaurant in 2017 and focuses on textures and fusing foods from different cultures with a wealth of ingredients. Tapas and main dishes are available and the menus change quarterly with a couple of new offerings fortnightly.

T-22, Calle Torneria, 22, Jerez

Very recently opened, this restaurant is located in the stunningly refurbished 5* Hotel Casa Palacio María Luisa. The cuisine focuses on local produce and combines tradition and modernity paying particular homage to gypsy cooking. The chef is Ángel Taboada.

Universo Santi, Finca El Altillo, Avenida de Andalucía, 20, Jerez

Located in what was once the beautiful home of González Byass founder Manuel María González Ángel, this restaurant is unique in only employing people with some form of disability. It pays homage to the late Santiago Santamaría who ran Cataluña´s famous 3* Can Fabes and uses some of his recipes as well as some new ones. Voted Spain´s 2nd most romantic restaurant.

La Carboná, Calle San Francisco de Paula, 2, Jerez

Founded and run by Javier Muñoz (“El chef del Sherry”) and Ana Soto since 1994 and located in an old bodega with a fireplace in the middle, the restaurant specialises in tasting menus and uses Sherry in the cooking. They use local produce in innovative ways and are meat experts with a list of over 100 Sherries. It has a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Alboronía, Calle Gibraleón, 3, Jerez

Victor Marín and Adelina Pandelet offer a short but interesting menú based on seasonal produce, meaning it changes frequently, with a blend of Arab and Andalusian styles augmented by daily specials.

Atuvera, Calle Ramón Cala, 13, Jerez

Located opposite the lovely statue of Lola Flores (Atuvera was one of her songs) this establishment offers upmarket bar food such as fine charcuterie and cheese along with all shorts of innovative fusion cuisine by chef Pablo Lázaro.

La Espartería, Calle Paraíso S/N, Edificio Jerez, 74, Jerez

Run by Javier Parra, this establishment has no menu, but rather two blackboard groaning with tapas and desserts made freshly innovatively and imaginitively from whatever was available at the market that day.

Hermanos Carrasco, Avenida José Manuel Caballero Bonald, Bloque 10, Local 1, Jerez

While they specialise in grilled beef from all over Spain they also offer anything else you could possibly desire in their tapas bar, terrace and dining room. The chef is Juan Manuel Carrasco and his brother Miguel Ángel is front of house.

Cuchara de Palo, Avenida Alcalde Álvaro Domecq, 10, Jerez

Located on the lower floor of the NH Hotel and with a covered terrace and ample windows allowing illumination to the black walls covered in food and Sherry related things, chef Carlos Herrero focuses on fresh local produce with a twist of the oriental and other cultures.

La Cruz Blanca, Calle Consistorio, 6, Jerez

In a pretty central square this restaurant has a good list of Sherries by the glass, a good selection of tapas and desserts and intersesting and innovative main dishes with new offerings every week. Salads and fish dishes are excellent as are the classic dishes.

Albores, Calle Consistorio, 12, Jerez

Run by chef Julián Olivares, Albores with its architect-designed interior with recycled wood and iron, has a good wine list with plenty of Sherry and a wide range of dishes from tapas to main dishes specialising in classic Jerez styles such as his much admired clams in Sherry vinegar.

Hermanos Grimaldi, Avenida Voltaire, Edificio Apex, Jerez

 Jesús and Gonzalo Grimaldi come from a catering family and are both ex tutors at the Jerez Catering School. The restaurant has large windows giving a bright atmosphere and they offer a Good list of Sherries as well as a large range of innovative dishes designed for sharing.

La Condesa, Calle Tornería, 24, Jerez

Situated in the basement of the central Palacio Garvey Hotel, chef David Porras offers innovative seasonal dishes designed for sharing. Like many local chefs he trained at the Jerez School of Catering and in 2017 Michelin awarded La Condesa a Bib Gourmand.

Albalá corner of Duque de Abrantes and Divina Pastora
Located close to the Sandeman bodega and the Real Escuela, this bright modern restaurant run by Israel Ramos offers a wide range of interesting and creative tapas and main dishes with lots of Sherry by the glass.

Not only can Jerez boast these top quality restaurants – and there are many other very good ones too – but also every two years in May the city hosts the final of the Copa Jerez, a Sherry and food matching competition of ever increasing international importance. The city is then replete with famous names in the worlds of wine and gastronomy who offer all sorts of tastings and demonstrations. Hopefully the above will convince you to pay a visit to this fascinating place with fascinating wines. You certainly won´t be disappointed.

Agostado Cortado 2016 15%, Bodegas Cota 45

Appearance

Light amber brassy gold with old gold highlights.

Nose

Quite light and relaxed, and not totally unlike a slightly and gently oxidised Fino and with aromas of the asoleo: traces of riper fruit, rounder and less punzante.There are hints of straw, apple sauce and faint traces of flor, and it is at a crossroads between biological and oxidative ageing - the encrucijado of previous vintages. It is charming, complex and interesting.

Palate

Light to medium bodied with that faintly toffee apple flavour of early oxidation, that trace of overripeness and a faint bitter flor note and the dry chalky texture associated with albariza soil and it finishes dry though there is a very faint suggestion of residual sugar which is balanced by a judicious level of acidity making it very elegant, long and delicious.

Comments

This lovely wine is the new vintage of the much admired Encrucijado from Ramiro Ibáñez, but he has had to change the name for some sort of rights reasons. It is effectively the same outstanding wine however; a young vintage Palo Cortado made from grapes from the pago Miraflores. The grapes were hand picked and selected from the inner bunches for more malic acid then trodden before fermentation and ageing in butt. It was bottled without filtration. In the old days, when the fermentation was over the wines were left as añadas in sobretablas and their development was carefully monitored before later being classified as Palmas, Cortados and Rayas. The Cortados would lose the flor and begin oxidative ageing and that is what has happened here. It has spent about half its life under flor and the rest ageing oxidatively. It has not been fortified, the grapes having been briefly sunned to give higher sugar levels and thus more alcohol. Then the wine is sold at not much more than two years old which distinguishes it from what one is accustomed to with standard Palos Cortados, and makes it all the more interesting being an old fashioned style. Agostado is a vineyard job involving the preparation of the soil for the planting of vines and takes place in August.

Price
37.95, De Albariza

Pandorga PX 2017, 8%, Bodegas Cota 45

Appearance

Mahogany tinged amber fading to amber with copper/old gold highlights, viscous.

Nose

Delightful! Intensely aromatic, rich, super complex and charming with totally natural aromas of overripe grapes and the texture of their pulp with notes of raisin, quince jelly, tarte tatin, dried apricots, orange blossom honey, esparto and lots more, it really gives so much.

Palate

Despite the sweetness it is very fresh and clean, helped by the perfect level of acidity, in fact it is mouthwatering! The texture is such that you can almost chew those raisins and apricots and as you let it lie on the palate loads of subtle flavours keep pouring out and it just goes on and on.

Comments

This exquisite PX is made by Ramiro Ibáñez from grapes grown in the Viña La Panesa in the pago Carrascal which, with its barajuela and tosca cerrada forms of albariza, allows perfect sugar concentration in the grapes. Picking was later than for the normal harvest giving a degree of overripeness and the hand picked bunches were laid out to dry in the sun for 10 days, less than for normal PX, and reducing their weight to a half. Again unlike normal PX, the must was fermented in butt rather than being fortified, reaching a natural strength of 8%. It then aged for about a year in the same American oak butt before bottling. So this is a 100% naturally sweet wine which reflects the characteristics of the vineyard, grape variety and vintage. The word Pandorga is sanluqueño for kite.

Price

31.15 per 50cl bottle, Licores Corredera

The Classic Pagos of the Marco de Jerez: Balbaina

Sometimes spelled “Barbaina” this important pago is situated between Jerez and El Puerto de Santa María. The origin of the name is not known for sure, but some believe it has something to do with its ownership by the Balbo family in Roman times. The family of the important 1st century Roman writer on agriculture Columela had an estate here and his works “De Re Rústica” and “De Arboribus”, which include tracts on viticulture, survive.

This large pago, which lies southwest of Jerez bordering those of Añina, Marihernández and San Julián to the north, can be seen shortly after leaving Jerez on the road to Sanlúcar. It divides into two parts: Balbaina Alta, the larger area closer to and in the municipality of Jerez and Balbaina Baja, closer to and in the municipality of El Puerto. Despite its great size of 1,825 hectares, not even half the total area is planted with vines, in fact many have been replaced by unsightly wind turbines and solar panels since some of the vineyards were grubbed up to equalise supply and demand.

This 1907 map shows only the Jerez part of Balbaina, the El Puerto part extends from bottom left

Lying some 6km from the coast, towards which it is oriented, the pago – especially the Baja area benefits greatly from the Poniente wind. Soils in Balbaina are generally quite heterogeneous with plenty of albariza with lustrillos and bujeos while elevation is moderate between some 50-60 metres in the Baja and reaching a maximum of 92 metres in the Alta. These conditions are very suitable for the production of Fino or indeed Manzanilla – Hidalgo La Gitana own vineyard here – and by extension, Amontillado, and many fine examples have their origin here such as Fino Pando, Amontillado Jalifa and Fino M Ant. De la Riva.

During the XVII century many cargadores a Indias owned vineyard here but as trade grew with Britain in the following century many vineyards were bought by bodegueros in El Puerto from where huge quantities of wine were exported. Famous bodegas which owned vineyard here include: Cuvillo, Matthiesen Furlong (now Forlong), Hijos de Jiménez Varela, Osborne, Campbell & Co and the Jerezanos José de Soto (Viña La Esperanza) and Agustín Blázquez.

Entrance to Viña Santa Cruz belonging to Huerta de Albala (foto:entornoajerez)

Famous plots include Viña Cuco, Viña del Calderín (Alta), Viña La Tula (Baja), Viña La Esperanza (Alta), Viña La Guita (Alta), Forlong (Baja), Viña Campbell (or María Luisa, Baja), Las Cañas (Alta - belongs to Sánchez Ayala), La Blanquita (50 ha, Barba family supplies mosto for Tio Pepe) and La Rabia. Huerta de Albalá owns 160 hectares in Balbaina Baja at Viña Laffitte and Viña Pineda and Santa Cruz (ex Osborne). Peter Sisseck (Pingus) owns 8 hectares and Bodegas Alonso own a few as well.

Wonderful tile at Viña Santa Cruz (foto:entornoajerez)

The city council of El Puerto de Santa María offers a walking route round some of the historic casas de viña of the Balbaina which can be found at: www.turismoelpuerto.com