We caught a train for the 12 minute ride to Jerez de la Frontera today. We were very keen to visit as Jerez is home to some of the best sherry producers in the world.
We decided to go for a tour and tasting at Tio Pepe.
Unfortunately, my instructions to Darren were not very clear so only me and the sherry bottle posed correctly, while Darren did his own thing.
Tio Pepe actually means Uncle Pepe and was named after the founder's uncle, who gave him lots of advice when he was setting up the winery in 1835.
Uncle Pepe was also given his own private door and key to one of the cellars and a huge barrel with his name on it.
We weren't quite so lucky, but we enjoyed an interesting tour of the cellars and bodegas. One of the buildings was designed by Gustav Eiffel, of Tower fame, and there was a beautiful street that was completely shaded by vines.
There have been a lot of famous visitors over the years and dozens of them signed the bottom of the barrels. My favourites were Queen Victoria, Picasso and Bobby Charlton.
Finally, we reached the tasting area and we tried dry Tio Pepe, sweet sherry and an amazing super, duper sweet one that tasted like liquid sultanas - gorgeous!
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