Every year when carnival time rolls around, it's the Rio samba parade that hogs the limelight, along with Mardi Gras in New Orleans and similar festivities all around the Caribbean. But they still know how to celebrate the start of the Lenten season over there in Old Europe too. After all, that's where the idea came from in the first place -- and nowhere do they party with more intensity than in southern Spain.

This week the plazas and mazelike medieval streets of Cadiz will have been echoing to the revelry of musicians, acrobats and decorated floats from each of the city's barrios, watched by throngs of onlookers dressed in masks and colorful costumes. Generally this is good-natured family fun, but that doesn't mean it's not also an excuse for widespread inebriation. Copious volumes of wine are knocked back over the holiday, much of it the incomparable local specialty vinos de Jerez, better known to the Anglophone world under the catchall term "sherry."

Overlooked and underrated, even by many wine enthusiasts, this is one of Spain's finest gifts to the civilized world. In Cadiz, Jerez de la Frontera and the surrounding area, sherry is not merely an occasional aperitif, it is the drink of choice throughout the meal at countless tapas bars and restaurants. A light, dry fino is the perfect accompaniment with the hors d'oeuvres; fragrant olorosos make an excellent counterpoint for heavier dishes; and at the end of the evening, nothing rounds off a meal better than a glass or two of smooth, nut-sweet Pedro Ximenez.