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Bodegas de Jerez
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From November to spring

Mosto

The wine of the year, the one that is neither aged nor kept. It lasts as long as the season does and is almost always drunk where it was made: at the winery, at the village tasca, or at a roadside venta out in the countryside with a red flag at the door.

What mosto is

Here, mosto is not unfermented grape juice, which is what the word means almost everywhere else in Spain. In the Sherry Region it is the wine of the year: fermented already, but neither fortified nor aged. Eleven or twelve and a half degrees, cloudy, unfiltered and almost always Palomino — the same grape that, once fortified and set into criaderas and soleras, would end up as Fino or Manzanilla. Mosto is what that wine was before any of that.

That is why it is not kept: it is drunk young, within the year, and in a few months it is gone. The saying sets the opening date — «Por San Andrés, el mosto vino es», Saint Andrew's day, 30 November — though in Trebujena the tascas open as early as late October and in Jerez the season stretches into March. Come spring it is over, until the next harvest.

In the encyclopedia

The wine of the year: fermented already, but neither fortified nor aged. Eleven to twelve and a half degrees, cloudy, unfiltered and almost always Palomino. It is not kept — it is drunk from November to spring, straight from the cask — and in the Marco it has a season of its own, with bodegas and bars that open only for it.

See every winery with mosto in its range

The red flag

Out in the countryside and in the villages no sign is needed: when a place has this year's mosto, it hangs a red flag by the door. That has always been the signal and it still works, because many of these places have no website, no phone number on display and no fixed hours beyond «whenever there is some».

What is eaten with it is just as recognisable: berza stew, warm garlic with radishes, shrimp fritters, caldereta, and local cheese and cured meat. At some places you may bring your own tapa from home — an old custom, not an eccentricity.

From the directory

Wineries that pour mosto

Wineries with a listing in the directory that pour their own mosto in season, each with a shop open to the public.

Bodega Albarizas

Trebujena

See the listing

Bodega El Chocazo (Andrés Ahumada)

Lebrija

See the listing

Bodega Manuel Aragón

Chiclana de la Frontera

See the listing

Cooperativa Agrícola Virgen de Palomares

Trebujena

See the listing

The list is not closed: in Trebujena, for instance, the two wineries that bottle mosto are the two cooperatives, and the rest of the village pours it in the tascas listed further down. Know of a winery we are missing? Tell us.

Outside the directory

The mostos, the tascas and the tabancos

This is where most of the mosto is actually drunk, and these are not wineries: they are bars. A «mosto» is a place that opens only for the season; a tasca is the village tavern; a venta, the roadside eating house; a tabanco, the old Jerez wine tavern. That is why they have no listing in the directory — but they do have a place on this page.

Jerez de la Frontera

  • El Cerro del Arte

    Mosto Pago Carrascal, camino de la Morabita

    Corrugated iron and timber up on the Carrascal, Jerez on one side and the marshes on the other. Antonio has spent half a century serving nothing but mosto: you bring the food, and at most he lets you use the griddle.

  • Mosto Peña Chiricuti

    Mosto Mesas de Asta

    One of the most authentic still going, where the Jerez district meets Trebujena.

  • El Corregidor

    Mosto Cañada del Moro

    An old vineyard house, these days more restaurant than mosto.

  • Mosto Domi

    Mosto Carretera de Jerez a Trebujena

    One of the established places on that road, a touch more tablecloth than the classic mosto.

  • La Blanca Paloma

    Mosto Carretera de Jerez a Trebujena

    A rociero-style tavern out in the countryside, with country cooking.

  • Mosto Añina

    Mosto Campiña de Jerez

  • Sacristía de Santa Teresa

    Mosto Campiña de Jerez

  • Mosto Candelero

    Mosto Barriada de Las Tablas

    With a hundred-and-fifty-year-old vineyard behind it, and a berza stew with a reputation of its own.

  • Mosto Nicolás

    Mosto Estella del Marqués

    Known for its dressed olives.

  • Mosto Santa Teresa

    Mosto Campiña de Jerez

  • Tabanco El Pasaje

    Tabanco Calle Santa María, 8

    The oldest tabanco in the city, open since 1925, with flamenco every day.

  • Tabanco El Bujío

    Tabanco Casco urbano de Jerez

  • La Terraza del Mosto

    Mosto Casco urbano de Jerez

  • Bar La Teja

    Bar Casco urbano de Jerez

Trebujena

  • Mosto Juan de la Vara

    Mosto Trebujena

    The oldest in the village, poured out of a garage.

  • Tasca La Estancia (Juan Chica)

    Tasca Trebujena

    Famous for its shrimp fritters.

  • Tasca El Conde

    Tasca Trebujena

  • Ca Moña

    Mosto Trebujena

    With a gourmet shop and a tourist information point under the same roof.

  • Manegodor

    Tasca Trebujena

    A tavern with a terrace looking out over the Guadalquivir; Thursday to Sunday, and it stretches the season into May.

  • El Bollao

    Mosto Trebujena

Chiclana de la Frontera

  • El Llano de las Maravillas

    Venta N-340, km 12,2

    A mosto and grill house with a farmstead courtyard; Friday to Sunday, midday and evening.

This list has been put together from the local press and the tourist offices, and does not claim to be complete: mostos open and close with the season, change their hours, and some shut for good. Call before you set out, especially on a weekday or if it is a drive.

And the rest of the year?

Once the mosto runs out, that same wine — fortified and set into criaderas and soleras — is what ends up as Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado or Oloroso. That part of the story is told in the guide to the Sherry Region.

The Sherry Region