For a fourth year International Sherry Week, organised under the auspices of El Consejo Regulador Jerez-Xérès-Xeres, will spread the word about Sherry wines to aficionados around the world.
Sherry Week, which takes place on 6-12 November, is an annual international fiesta celebrating this unique southern Spanish wine. Each year, Sherry Week goes from strength to strength, with hundreds of restaurants, bars, hotels and wine stores around the world holding an exciting variety of events - Sherry tastings, pairing menus, cocktail competitions and bodega visits. Gastronomy features strongly, as these versatile wines pair beautifully with so many types of cuisine.
This year, more than 500 events have been registered in 18 countries for the biggest global celebration to showcase wines from Jerez.
Organise a Sherry Week event - win 1,000€-worth of Sherry
If your Sherry-enthused business wants to participate in Sherry Week, you could win 1,000€-worth of Sherry just for organising a highly popular and innovative event. This competition is open to businesses in all countries and is sponsored by the Jerez Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services, and the Confederation of Businesses of Cadiz province. See sherryweek.wine for details.
Where is Sherry Week happening?
As always, the celebration is taking place across all five continents. The countries where events are being held are: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, UK, and USA. Both Ecuador and Norway are participating for the first time, showing the global reach of this week-long party.
In China, one event will consist of pairing menus in four different cities on the same day, to showcase how well Sherry pairs with all the various types of regional Chinese cuisine.
Two exciting foodie-Sherry competitions
This year, two new Sherry-and-gastronomy-themed competitions held in the run-up to Sherry Week have caught the imagination of food bloggers, Social Media influencers and professionals from all corners of the globe.
Blog for Sherry Week – win dinner at El Celler de Can Roca
Twenty bloggers chosen from around the world, including the US, Japan, Netherlands and Poland, are competing to win a superb prize: dinner at El Celler de Can Roca, three Michelin star-rated, twice ranked no 1 restaurant in the world. The challenge? Pairing their choice of dish with a Sherry allocated to them – the winner will be chosen by judges including Josep Roca himself, and the winners of this year’s Copa Jerez competition.
Create a pairing menu for Sherry Week – win a Sherry Educator course
For this competition, gastronomic event organisers – chefs, owners or managers – need to design a Sherry Week menu showcasing at least three Sherry Wines, sharing their activities on Social Media using #sherryweek
Highly selective, the Certified Sherry Educator course runs over 2.5 days as potential educators learn all about making and drinking Sherry, with visits to the bodegas & vineyards, tastings and finishing with an evaluation test.
Unsurprisingly considering the excellent prize, which also includes accommodation and return flights, this competition has had an overwhelming response, with 42% of gastronomy event organisers participating.
The closing deadline for entering this competition is 5 November – so there’s still time!
Multi-media events
Sherry Twitter Tasting
This year’s Sherry Twitter Tasting, on 7 November at 19h, will include a group of 15 bloggers from 11 countries, including Ireland, Canada and Sweden. Tasting and tweeting simultaneously, they’ll sample five rare wines suggested by host Sherry Notes and four esteemed sommeliers. Follow the tasting using the hashtag #SherryTT
Live Gonzalez Byass tasting
As every year, Gonzalez Byass Master Winemaker Antonio Flores, one of the industry’s most charismatic figures, will hold a live sherry tasting in Spain, broadcast to a global audience.
Sherryweek.wine – register and find events
You can still register your event on sherryweek.wine now, and Sherry wine aficionados can find events in their local area on the interactive map, using the search facility by country, day, and type of event. Share your event planning and ideas with other sherry-lovers using #sherryweek
Register your event on sherryweek.wine now.
