Visit to the Cinco Jotas cellar in Jabugo, with ham tasting

What it is

Jabugo, about 20 minutes from Aracena, is the sierra's ham village. The Cinco Jotas cellar opens its drying sheds and cellars on the San Juan del Puerto road with a one-hour guided visit, Esencia Cinco Jotas, which ends with a tasting of 100% Iberian acorn-fed ham with wine.

Price, times and booking

€28 per person and €15 for ages 3 to 12. You can add an extended tasting of loin, presa and salchichón with an oloroso for €18 more (80 minutes in all). Sessions at 10:30, 12:00, 13:30, 16:00 and 17:00. The visitor centre opens Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 18:00 and Sunday from 10:00 to 14:00, so on a Sunday you have the morning sessions. Book beforehand by email ([email protected]) or by phone (603 599 061).

Other experiences

The cellar also offers personalised day visits with one of its master cutters, with ham-carving workshops or courses (price on request), and a pairing of organic caviar with acorn-fed ham and champagne for €120 per person. All activities require prior booking and confirmation. In the visitor centre is the shop, with ham, shoulder, loin, presa, salchichón, chorizo and morcón. As well as 603 599 061, they take bookings on 600 955 703. The website does not say in which languages the visits are given: ask when you book. Before going, the Aracena Ham Museum helps you understand what you will see.

The house and the ham

Cinco Jotas places its origin in 1879, when, according to the brand, the family's great-grandparents obtained their first 100% Iberian acorn-fed ham. Today it belongs to the Osborne group. It cures its pieces in centuries-old natural cellars in Jabugo, where the sierra's microclimate does the rest, and speaks of five years of production per piece. Several trades are involved in the process that the visit helps you understand: the trimmer, who shapes the piece; the salter, who buries each ham by hand in Atlantic salt; the ham hanger, who places it in the cellar; the cellarman, who probes it at four points to know whether it is ready; and the cutter, who serves it. The pigs are raised free-range in the dehesa of the Sierra de Aracena.

Getting there

The cellar is on the San Juan del Puerto road, s/n, in Jabugo. If you sleep in Aracena, it fits well in mid-morning or early afternoon, and leaves time for a stroll around the village square.