Sherry leads to dancing!

The base MWR(Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) offers many cool trips to get out and experience Spain and its rich culture. Brad and I signed up for a Friday night out on the town. The First part of the evening was spent touring one the Andalucia's oldest bodegas Marqués del Real Tesoro.

We started in the stables. Andalucia has very old traditions of breeding and raising horses. Most old families in the area maintain horse teams, and show them when ever they can. The months of May and September are both full of Horse shows and fiestas where large amounts of sherry are consumed, so being a sherry vintner and keeping a team of show horses kind of goes hand in hand here in Andalucia.

They have some antique carriages, all maintained in perfect condition. Some of these carriages are still used when they show their horsed today. They also have s special breed of dogs that look sort of like Jack Russel terriers that are bred and kept in most Spanish stables and sherry cellars, to keep down the rat population.



The cellars were very impressive. Towering row after row of oak casks stored in a what appears to be a very average wearhouse, but in fact this space is both temperature and humidity controlled to ensure that the sherry is produced with the exact same taste that people have come to know and love.

Besides the stables and the cellars, Real Tesoro of Jerez also has quite the art collection to boast about. We took a turn through their lovely gallery before the tasting, it really completed the experience. Art has a very central place in even the smallest of cities all over Europe, something that we will greatly miss upon our return to the states.

After our tour of the stables, the Cellars, and the art gallery, we got to sit down and taste the entire range of sherries that they produce, from the driest of dry to their sweet de resistance, a dark rich syrupy raisin flavored cream sherry. It was the most liberal tasting I have ever been to, they just set 6 unopened bottles of sherry on your tables of 5 or 6 people, and tell you to have at it! Needless to say everyone was feeling quite fine by the time we left the Real Tesoro tasting room.

Our final stop on this Spanish evening out was a quaint little restaurant owned by a gypsy family, who fed us a hardy meal complete with tapas, sangria, and a flamenco show. Every member of this group really let their emotions run through into their performance. Flamenco is a very powerful and emotional medium. The dancers, singers and musicians all meld together to tell a story and in the end it leaves you as breathless as they are.

It was a great night out, and a great look at some of the strong and colorful roots of our host country.