In April I returned to the sherry town of Jerez for the first time in more than 20 years, the gap itself a reflection of how this unique and often stunning style of wine has, regrettably, slipped down the wine world's agenda. In the late 1970s and early 1980s I must have been to Jerez four or five times – once to film for one of our Channel 4 series The Wine Programme.
The big international brands belong to a handful of bigger and bigger companies who seem to have been trading the well-known names like shuffling cards in...