How Jerez & Sherry came to make wine the way it does: the eras, families and rules that shaped the glass.
How Jerez & Sherry came to make wine the way it does: the eras, families and rules that shaped the glass.
c. 1100 BC
Phoenician merchants from Tyre established Gadir (modern Cadiz) around 1100 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in western Europe.
The Sherry Wine Council and Consejo Regulador de Jerez-Xeres-Sherry document the Phoenician foundation of Gadir as the earliest documented viticultural presence in the region.
1st century AD
Under Roman rule the province of Hispania Baetica, centred on modern Andalucia, became one of the empire's principal wine exporting zones. The agronomist Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella was born at Gades (Cadiz) around 4 AD and wrote De Re Rustica, the most influential agricultural treatise of antiquity, which devotes three books to viticulture. Amphorae stamped with Baetican origins have been found at Hadrian's Wall and Rhine frontier forts.
Columella's Cadiz birth is recorded in his own texts and confirmed by the Oxford Classical Dictionary. The Wine Council of Jerez cites the Roman viticulture legacy on its history page.
711-1264
Arab rulers of Al-Andalus gave modern viticulture two lasting legacies: the word alcohol, derived from al-kuhul (a fine antimony powder, later applied to the essence of distilled spirit), and the alembic still, which underpins sherry's fortification practice. Despite Islamic restrictions on consumption, grape cultivation for raisins and vinegar continued, and historical evidence suggests flor yeast cultivation predates the Christian reconquest. The Moorish name for Jerez, Sherish, became the English Sherry.
The etymological derivation of alcohol from al-kuhul and alembic from al-anbiq is documented in the Oxford English Dictionary and confirmed by the Sherry Wine Council's historical narrative.
1264
Alfonso X of Castile reconquered Jerez de la Frontera from Moorish rule in 1264. The Christian crown redistributed vineyards to monastic orders and noble families, and wine trade with northern Europe expanded through the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda. The town's position on the frontier between Christian Castile and the Moorish kingdom of Granada gave it the Frontera epithet that remains in its name today.
The reconquest date and Alfonso X's role are confirmed by the municipality of Jerez and the Consejo Regulador historical record.
16th century
English merchants called the oxidatively-aged white wine from Jerez sack, probably from the Spanish sacar (to export). By the 1560s sack was the most fashionable drink in England, immortalised by Shakespeare in Henry IV Part II where Falstaff delivers his eulogy: a good sherris-sack hath a two-fold operation in it... it ascendeth me into the brain. The Bristol merchants John Stubbs and John Blake are among the earliest documented English shippers in the Jerez trade.
The Shakespeare quote from Henry IV Part II Act 4 Scene 3 is the earliest printed English reference to sherris-sack. The Consejo Regulador and multiple wine historians cite it as the origin of the English word sherry.
1587
In April and May 1587, Sir Francis Drake led an English naval expedition into Cadiz harbour, destroying 37 Spanish vessels in what he called singeing the King of Spain's beard.
Drake's raid and the 2,900 butts figure are documented by multiple historians including Hugh Johnson in The Story of Wine and are referenced by the Consejo Regulador's historical narrative.
17th-18th century
Following Drake's raid, British and Irish merchant families settled permanently in Jerez, El Puerto de Santa Maria and Sanlucar de Barrameda to manage the sherry trade directly.
Individual founding dates are confirmed by the houses' own histories. The Consejo Regulador history page describes the British merchant colony and its role in developing the solera system.
1772
Thomas Osborne Mann, an Englishman from Exeter, founded the Osborne bodega at El Puerto de Santa Maria in 1772, making it one of the oldest continuously operating wine companies in Spain.
The 1772 founding date is confirmed on Osborne's own history page. The Consejo Regulador lists Osborne among its founding-era member bodegas.
1835
Manuel Maria Gonzalez Angel founded Bodegas Gonzalez Byass in Jerez in 1835 and named the house's flagship fino after his uncle Jose Angel Gonzalez, known as Tio Pepe (Uncle Joe).
The 1835 founding and the Tio Pepe naming story are confirmed on the Gonzalez Byass official website and the Consejo Regulador member register.
1933
The Consejo Regulador de Jerez-Xeres-Sherry was formally established in 1933, making Jerez the first Denominacion de Origen in Spain and an early statutory wine appellation in Europe.
The 1933 founding date and the first-DO-in-Spain status are confirmed on the Consejo Regulador's official website and in multiple official historical accounts.
19th century
The solera system of fractional blending, in which older and younger wines are progressively blended through a stack of barrels, was formalised in Jerez during the 19th century.
The solera system and flor biology are described in detail by the Consejo Regulador and by the Oxford Companion to Wine (Jancis Robinson) as fundamental to Jerez's wine identity.
1964
Manzanilla, the biologically aged fino-style sherry produced exclusively in Sanlucar de Barrameda at the mouth of the Guadalquivir river, received its own Denominacion de Origen Manzanilla-Sanlucar de Barrameda in 1964. This formally recognized that the Atlantic humidity, lower temperatures and sea breezes in Sanlucar's bodegas produce a lighter, saltier, more delicate expression of the flor-aged style than inland fino produced in Jerez or El Puerto.
The Manzanilla DO distinction and 1964 origin are confirmed by the Consejo Regulador and documented on the Sherry Wine Council website.
1970s-1980s
After decades of volume-led bulk exports primarily to the United Kingdom, the sherry industry entered a severe crisis in the late 1970s caused by falling demand, oversupply from vineyard expansion to 22,000 hectares, and cheap bulk bottling that damaged the category's image. A structural restructuring plan, the Jerez Plan, reduced the DO's vineyard area from approximately 22,000 hectares to around 7,000 hectares by the late 1980s and shifted emphasis toward quality over volume. Several major British shipping houses exited the market or merged.
The vineyard contraction from 22,000 to approximately 7,000 hectares is documented by the Consejo Regulador and multiple trade historians. The Sherry Wine Council's own history page describes the restructuring.
1990s
The Consejo Regulador introduced the VOS (Vinum Optimum Signatum, 20 years average age) and VORS (Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum, 30 years average age) categories.
The VOS and VORS categories with carbon-dating methodology are confirmed by the Consejo Regulador Jerez and described on the Sherry Wine Council website.
2005-present
Sherry scholar Jesus Barquin and winemaker Eduardo Ojeda founded Equipo Navazos in 2005 as a negociant project dedicated to bottling exceptional single-cask sherries from bonded warehouses across the Triangle under the La Bota series. The project focused critical and wine-enthusiast attention back onto extraordinary old-solera stocks sitting undervalued in the great bodegas, and is widely credited as the catalyst for the modern sherry revival.
The 2005 founding of Equipo Navazos and Jesus Barquin and Eduardo Ojeda's roles are confirmed on the Equipo Navazos official website and widely covered in wine media.
mid-2000s to present
The en rama style, in which fino and manzanilla sherry is bottled with minimal fining and filtration directly from the solera, was championed in the mid-2000s principally by Lustau, whose first commercial en rama bottling appeared in 2000, and by Hidalgo La Gitana whose Manzanilla Pasada en Rama gained a wide following. En rama sherries show a richer, more complex profile compared to the standard filtered release, and seasonal bottling windows became events in the wine calendar.
Lustau's en rama releases and Hidalgo La Gitana's role are documented by multiple wine journalists and confirmed on the producers' own websites. The Sherry Wine Council describes en rama as a distinct style.
2010s-present
A new generation of Jerez producers led by Ramiro Ibanez (Bodegas Cota 45), Willy Perez (De la Riva), and Luis Perez began bottling single-pago wines from named albariza vineyard plots, a concept previously unknown in the sherry tradition. The movement drew on Champagne and Burgundy terroir models to celebrate the distinctions between Jerez's chalk-soil parcels: Balbainas, Carrascal, Macharnudo, Anina, Balbaina Alta. These pago wines transformed international perception of sherry's terroir potential.
The single-pago pioneers and named albariza plots are documented by Tim Atkin MW, Jancis Robinson MW, and the producers' own websites. Bodegas Cota 45 publishes vineyard-specific information.
18th century-present
Pedro Ximenez grapes are sun-dried on esparto grass mats in the asoleo process for 10-14 days after harvest to concentrate sugars to extraordinary levels before fermentation.
The asoleo process and Montilla-Moriles cross-DO supply are confirmed by the Consejo Regulador and by the Sherry Wine Council's style descriptions.
2015-present
Chef Angel Leon relocated Aponiente to a restored tidal mill in El Puerto de Santa Maria in 2015 and built the restaurant's wine programme entirely around sherry pairings.
Aponiente's three-star status and sherry-pairing programme are confirmed by the Michelin Guide. The El Puerto de Santa Maria location and Angel Leon's role are confirmed on the restaurant's own website.
Present
The white albariza chalk soils unique to the Jerez Superior zone are now recognized by the Consejo Regulador and a body of viticultural research as a distinctive Andalusian terroir.
Albariza soil composition and the UNESCO application are confirmed by the Consejo Regulador and by the Sherry Wine Council's terroir pages.
Discover one of the oldest wineries in the Marco de Jerez. Stroll through its historic corridors and enjoy a Manzanilla sherry tasting paired with delicious accompaniments.
Upgrade your experience by combining a historic center city tour with a visit to one of the most famous wineries in Jerez. Taste three excellent wines at the winery.
A guided tour of an 1850's winery, the tour includes an audio-visual, history of sherry wine and winemaking. Also wine tasting an exhibition with historical labels
Wine tastings and winery visits in Jerez and Cádiz (26) · Wine tours and day trips in Jerez and Cádiz (6)
Peak wine-travel season in Jerez & Sherry is spring through autumn, with harvest the standout window.
classified-growth and grand-cru estates require booking days to weeks ahead; smaller family domaines often take walk-ins midweek.
most estates open 10:00 to 17:00 by appointment, often closed Sunday and Monday.
tipping is not expected at tastings; buying a bottle from the cellar door is the customary thank-you.
Ask the next local you meet what they would order. Jerez & Sherry rewards trust.