Zambombas!

Saturday 8th December 2018 - Jerez.

We have had a nice couple of days in Jerez.  We found out on our arrival that there was a Zambombas festival taking place at various places and times throughout the city centre over the weekend.  We didn't exactly know what it involved but thought it would add some interest to our visit.  

The site was more of a commercial caravan dealers car park than a site but Antonio gave us an enthusiastic welcome and...

.......a free glass of sherry at 11am.  

The site does have a shower, toilets and electricity so it isn't so bad.

We went into the city centre but didn't find any Zambombas.  They were piping music over a loudspeaker system in the centre which sounded like a Tom cat being strangled.....nevertheless, we enjoyed the atmosphere and the public spaces.

This is a famous Domecq building of sherry production fame.  We had a browse around.

The main square.

The sherry cask is Tio Pepe but the man is Manuel Gonzales of the Gonzales-Byass sherry company. Not many people know that Byass was an English businessman.

This was our first of many sherries with the Cathedral behind us in the glorious sunshine.

We still didn't find any Zambombas but there was a large gathering in a particular square and sherry was 1 euro each.  We also had some chickpea stew.

On the way home we were tempted by Hornazo.  It was a bit of a sampling day.

From what knowledge I have gleaned of the different sherry types...

Manzanilla and Fino are dry sherries, Amontillado is a medium, Oloroso and Dulce are sweet and Muy Dulce is very sweet.  The colour of the sherry starts pale for the dry sherry and graduates to very dark for the Muy Dulce.  It is only made in three places in this area of Spain, Jerez, El Puerto de Santa Maria and Sanlucar de Barrameda.  There is also a 'Solera' system for barrelling the sherry.  Apparently the oldest barrels are on the bottom with the progressively younger sherry barrels placed on top and they take a maximum of one third from the oldest barrels and then replace it with the sherry from the barrel above.  Maybe it helps them keep some consistency of taste between the various years?

We carried on some tasting back at the van and compared it to the Pineau we bought in France.  The Pedro Ximenez is Muy Dulce and is like no sherry I have tasted.  It is thick and black and rich.  It is more of a desert wine but can be used on ice cream and is lovely with coffee or chocolate.

We went back in to Jerez on Saturday (Day of the Immaculate Conception) and eventually found some Zambombas....

People sit around in a circle, some men thrust their bamboo canes up and down in their garden urn and it makes a drumming kind of noise.  They repeatedly have to put extra water on their hands (I'm not sure if it is to stop the hands from rubbing or whether it is to lubricate the pole or the stretched cloth?  Anyway, they all have a good sing song and everyone joins in the singing and or clapping hands.  It is difficult for us to know exactly what they were singing but it sounded a bit like.....'One Man Went to Mow' or 'Old MacDonald had a Farm' or 'Uncle Tom Cobbly' or 'I am the Music Man' or 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'.  I think you probably get the idea.  I also guess that the Zambombas are the garden urns. Anyway, it was all very traditional and community spirited.  It did tend to be the older people involved in the singing.  We clapped along and I refrained from shouting "Ole" at the end!

I think I could get the hang of it with practice.

We have enjoyed Jerez.  We didn't see the famous equestrian school where they have the 'dancing' Andalucian horses but as you know we are not on holiday so we can't shell out for all these things.

On the Immaculate Conception front.....there is no news.....and in this case, no news is good news!