The Ramones have been on my mind this week. Not the band – what little I know about them doesn’t give me reason to believe they were big sherry lovers, but rather two chaps called Ramon that I met this week.

The first was Ramon Coalla, of Coalla Gourmet, a fantastic delicatessen in the heart of old Gijon. A lovely spot (as the picture below shows) and a true gent who invited a thirsty traveller to a glass of Marc Hebrart blanc de blancs champagne. 

He has a fantastic selection of wines of every stripe, but in particular some top notch sherries – the limits of my photographic skill do not do it justice.

 
The second Ramon boasted an even bigger range of sherries in an even more remote location: an alleged 200 varieties at his sherry bar Viña y Mar (some problems with the web but this is the one he gave me so bear with it), which can be found in Vejer de la Frontera – probably as far from Gijon as you can get in Spain (while keeping your feet dry). I met him in Madrid and was immediately impressed by his ability to combine wine drinking and roll-up assembly – a pilgrimage is clearly called for.