Sherry Tasting with Beltran Domecq... and a little bit of Harry Potter

What a weekend!

Not a bad setting!

If you haven't visited Oxford Literary Festival yet - get it in the diary for 2015! Not only a chance to attend some brilliant lectures but also sneak in some wine tasting... and of course, I booked the tickets way in advance of setting my dates for a dry two weeks, so tasting was absolutely allowed!

Set in the Great Hall at Christ Church in Oxford University ('The' Hall from Harry Potter - eeek!), the tasting was led by Beltran Domecq - a man who truly has sherry running through his veins; true Jerez royalty and President of The Consejo Regulador, regulatory body of sherry in Spain.  His introduction:

'Domecq comes from a long line of sherry and Jerez brandy producers on both his mother’s and his father’s side. He is a professionally trained oenologist and has worked for Williams Humbert Bodgeas and for the Domecq Bodegas. Domecq is the grantee – person responsible for ensuring the Royal Warrant is used correctly – for Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Warrant for Domecq and Harvey’s sherries.' Not bad!

#selfie

Beltran guided us through the tasting of seven wines; the base wine for sherry (neutral and light, from the palomino grape) then five different styles from this base wine; Manzanilla (from Sanlucar de Barrameda, cooler coastal region), Tio Pepe (bone-dry Fino), Amontillado (a Fino that has had some ageing exposed to oxygen) and an Olorso (aged under oxygen, nutty sweet goodness via evaporation and concentration). In addition, a cream sherry and a PX, my favourite.

An excellent presentation that I had seen previously on the Consejo Regulador website, a bargain at £20.

Oxford Literary Festival, see you in 2015 (I hear there is also a Port tasting....)!