The Sherry Regulatory Council was established in 1935 and is the oldest Denominación de Origen in Spain, though of course the wines have been produced for hundreds of years. At first manzanilla, the unique sherry that is only produced in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, was included in this denominación, but in 1964 it received its own D.O., recognising the special characteristics that set it apart from other sherry wines. This past Monday I went to a fabulous event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Manzanilla, held at the Alfonso XIII hotel in Sevilla. The fourteen bodegas represented included all the main players and well-known names from Sanlúcar de Barrameda: Álvaro Domecq, Barbadillo, Barón, Covisan, Elías González Guzmán, Delgado Zuleta, Francisco Yuste, Herederos de Argüeso, Hidalgo – La Gitana, Juan Piñero, La Guita, Lustau, Miguel Sánchez Ayala, and Williams & Humbert.
Nuria (Delgado Zuleta, Momoko (Bodegas Baron),
Antonio Barbadillo (Sacristia AB), Valeska & Fernando (Paladar y Tomar)
I missed the morning session, arriving after lunch, and immediately got into some serious sherry tasting. Visitors could wander around and meet the exhibitors, and the event included a formal tasting for invited guests. Along with the familiar hallmark brands we were able to sample a number of “en rama” and other special manzanillas “sacas”. It was great to see friends, and fellow sherry lovers, and chat again to some of the people I met when I visited a few bodegas last summer. Looking forward to another trip to Sanúcar soon.
Here are some nazarenos doing what nazarenos are supposed to do. Which is basically to don the robes of a penitent and, well, do penance. The number of nazarenos varies from brotherhood to brotherhood, sometimes they can be as many as 2000 or more, and a procession of that size, depending on where it starts from, can last up to 14 hours. That’s a lot of penance.
Last night I went out for the Madrugá to see my absolute favourite procession here, El Silencio. I’ve only seen it a few times in my 23 years in Sevilla, mostly because it runs from 1 to 6 am. A relatively short five hours, but also during the hours I am usually attempting to sleep. What I love about this procession is that, instead of a big marching band, the musical accompaniment for each paso is an oboe, clarinet and bassoon, which creates an eerily beautiful ambiance. The other thing I love is that the paso of the Virgin (Santa María de la Concepción) is all silver and white, and that her flowers are simple bouquets of orange blossom.
Seriously, I almost got run over by those guys leading the way, though I still managed a quick blurry pic before scrambling onto the pavement. So we decided to stick around and at least watch the Jesús de la Salud pass by, especially as we were standing on the edge of the pavement and got a really good close-up view.
While waiting for the Christ paso to arrive the temperature took a sudden nose-dive and so once it had passed we decided to make our way home, and as luck would have it, this meant we walked straight into the Los Gitano virgin, Santa María de las Angustias Coronada, passing below the Setas.
Now, I do understand the concept that while the penitent is still wearing the garb they should respect what it stands for and should probably not be seen in public swigging a cold one. As many pointed out on Twitter, what sort of penance is that? And well, okay. But, as I mentioned earlier, I wonder why some penitents get off easier than others, simply because of the numbers. While watching Los Gitanos (one of the biggies) I saw several nazarenos stagger over to a nearby bar, clearly exhausted, for a cold drink. Is it really such a big deal that they maintain their piety and anonymity to the point of possible dehydration? And what about bathroom breaks, especially for those processions that last for up to 14 hours? How much penance is enough for one night?
Waaayyyyy long ago, when I was about 17 years old, I heard about a brand new place called McDonald’s, which had just opened up in Winnipeg (my accidental place of birth). They were handing out coupons for a free burger and fries and so one day I cycled over to check it out. I went in, took a couple of bites, and never went back. Until today. Because my first response had been “this isn’t food!”. And for the record, I have never set foot in a Burger King, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut… as I had a pretty shrewd idea that it would just be the same non-food crap (though as a kid I did like going to A&W – do those still exist?).
the splendid Dani bulltail burger at Wendy Gamba in Málaga
When I first arrived here in 1993 it was a total novelty to me, as you can imagine, and I tried to get out to see as many processions as possible during the week-long festivities. But I also lived a stone’s throw from the Cathedral, so in effect, Semana Santa came to me every year. I soon learned that all my English classes would be cancelled (without pay! – I was a private tutor in those days), and that I had to get any errands and shopping done well before 2 pm. After about 5 pm I could either dodge the processions and crowds in order to get somewhere, or just stay at home – and as the years passed I more often chose the latter. Well, except when I went out to purposely see processions, usually one or two each year.
Slippery when waxy (from the procession candles)