Jerez de la Frontera: sherry, horses and flamenco

The English word 'sherry' derives from the name of this Andalusian city: here, fortified wines have been produced for centuries, making Jerez famous far beyond Spain's borders.

The center can be explored on foot, but for the more peripheral bodegas a taxi is advisable.

Dominating the old town, the Alcázar of Jerez is an eleventh-century Almohad fortress that preserves one of the few surviving mosques in Andalusia, today flanked by gardens and a nineteenth-century camera obscura.

Just steps away, one of the historic bodegas of the city can be visited, where sherry continues to age today in the same oak barrels arranged according to the traditional system of 'soleras'.

In the early afternoon, when the calendar permits, the Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre stages exhibitions of its Andalusian horses to the rhythm of live music.

Toward evening, the Barrio de Santiago, a gypsy quarter where the flamenco style of bulería was born, hosts some of the city's most authentic peñas.

The barrels in a Jerez bodega are never completely emptied: with each bottling, only a portion is drawn off, topped with younger wine, in a system that may blend different vintages for decades.

In the Barrio de Santiago, flamenco is not a show staged for tourists: you still occasionally hear it spring up by chance, from a courtyard or a bar, without any stage.