Jerez celebrates the palomino harvest with a fortnight of tastings, flamenco and horse events, at the centre of which is the pisa de la uva: grapes trodden by men in traditional nailed boots on the steps of the cathedral, and the first must blessed and offered.
The sherry triangle's albariza soil, the solera system and the flor yeast make this one of the most distinctive wine regions anywhere, and the harvest is early — August into September — because the grapes need picking before the Andalusian heat finishes them.
No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.
The window is September. Jerez's great bodegas — the ones with cathedral-like cellars — run visits throughout, and the festival is the time they open most fully. Cádiz and Sanlúcar are both half an hour away.
PlanningA September window; the treading and blessing ceremony is the fixed point within it.