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Why a Tapas Crawl Around the Spanish City of Jerez Could Be The Best Experience You Ever Have

The food, flamenco and Sherry changed me — no joke

Charlie Brown
Rooted
8 min readDec 30, 2024

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Image courtesy of author

If I ever lived in Spain, I would live in Jerez.

This small city nestled deep in Andalusia is also the epicentre of flamenco. And flamenco does things to me. Weird things like making me cry my little eyes out more than a therapy session ever has.

Alas, Jerez will probably never be my home because it gets close to 50 degrees during the summer. I’m a pale, blond human whose perfect habitat is more Aberdeen than Andalusia.

Despite this, I still visit at least once a year (always in the cooler months). I once spent a month living above a bustling square in the centre of town. I can tell you, there’s nothing more life-affirming than falling asleep in the afternoon to the hubbub of a Spanish plaza.

And the food. This is the home of deep-fried pork belly and funky aged Manchego and more fish than is reasonable to eat in one sitting.

Not to mention the Sherry. Jerez’s namesake wine (the old Moorish name for Jerez is Sharish which became Xeres and was later anglicised to Sherry) is a wildly misunderstood wine — dry and salty and delicious as they come.

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Rooted
Rooted

Published in Rooted

Deep journeys through food and drink culture. A boostable publication

Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown

Written by Charlie Brown

Food, wine & culture writer. 12+ years in hospitality. Editor of Rooted, a Medium food & drink pub. thesaucemag.substack.com

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