Food & Drink - RAISE YOUR GLASS FOR THE GRAPE HARVEST!

September is a month filled with good cheer for the majority of wine-growing districts in Spain, as they cordially celebrate the grape harvest. The “Fiestas de la Vendimia” generally coincides with the Feast of Saint Matthew on 21st September; whilst the nation’s sherry capital, Jerez, gets the party started earlier on 8th September, which also marks the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady.

Jerez

Jerez is one of three of Spain’s sherry producing regions, and is ideally placed in the Albarriza zone, renowned for its chalk-rich and sandy sun-baked earth, which provides the perfect conditions for the “Palomino” grape to thrive. The official harvest festival has been held around the same date since 1948, although sometimes the first grapes might be picked a week earlier if the weather has been particularly hot and dry, and lasts for about a month in total. Here the fiesta is always dedicated to a significant figure or country where sherry is popular, and in 1956 it was dedicated to England and to Shakespeare. The activity programme retains similar themes each year, usually commencing with a Grand Procession. A festival Queen is elected to reign over the parade and hoisted on a throne of honour decorated with grapes and foliage. She is carried through the streets on a float, surrounded by her entourage of ladies who are selected from those considered to be the most beautiful in the city, and usually ascend from the wealthiest families! The party wears flowing white dresses and blue silk scarves, which are meant to represent the white chalky soil and blue sky that give life and body to the abundant vines. Children swarm around the moving procession scooping up sweets thrown down by the ladies and their “servants”, whilst a group of men follow on behind wearing festive masks. The parade is often accompanied by several local bands which keep the beat, encouraging the crowds to dance and sing along.
The procession reaches its destination at the Plaza de Arenal, where the local people pay homage to the carnival queens and the bodegas invite them to sample their latest products. A massive firework display takes place later, and party goers get lost in the celebrations as they get a taste for the wines and potent sherry that are flowing freely from the oak casks. Both public and private celebrations continue during the days and nights which follow, with the atmosphere reported to be warm and welcoming to visitors travelling from outside of the city to join in. The fiesta programme usually includes bullfights which are meant to honour the ladies of Jerez. These typically feature some of the finest bullfighters in the area, as well as younger toreros and even some comical fights to gee up the crowd. Other activities might include a horse show, motorcycle race, art exhibition, concert and of course flamenco dancing, as well as the usual joviality and merriment led by the locals in the streets. There is certainly little room for sleep and the best advice to anyone who wishes to join the fiesta is just to go with the flow!

The official and most important
part of the fiesta is the Blessing of the Grapes which takes place on the Sunday of fiesta week, following a solemn mass in the Collegiate Church. The Priest delivers his blessing and the choir sings a selection of hymns, before the Sherry Queen casts a basket of grapes in to the “lagar,” a rectangular wooden wine press, to thunderous cheering and applause. Work men wearing short trousers and boots, which are specially designed to crush the grapes but not the stalks or pips, then set about pressing the fruits and thus the first phase of wine production is underway. From here the celebrations continue in the same vein as the previous evening, and it is really a case of “the last man standing” as to when they wind down and get back to business as usual.