At the time  I thought it would take me a good while to write this one up and so it has proved. In fact it has taken even longer than expected since the quality of Pitijopo #6 set me off on a multi-day spree of wines from the same Finca Matalian (as you may have noticed).

I have already reported on, for me, the stars of the show – the Pitijopos themselves and the Callejuela Manzanilla de Añada, and by this stage my own direct memories of the other wines of the cata (which would always have been blurred) have faded away somewhat. To be honest, rather than “tastings” it would probably be more accurate to call these occasions “drinkings”, but then again I never claimed to be any good at this.

Nevertheless, there were some little beauties there. On the sherry side, there was :

• a bottle of Alba Sobre Tabla – again from 2013 but this time Lot II, which showed a nice cidery nose, champagne like yeasty notes and balanced acidity but to be quite honest struggled to live up to its billing (and the unenviable task of following the Pitijopos);
• (two bottles of) an excellent Sacristia AB Manzanilla en Rama – this time the first saca of 2015 – which can be irregular but this was still potent and full of life (alhough dusty next to the “Añada”);
• an even better bottle of the Maruja manzanilla pasada which I just think is superb – jammy, saline, herbal – a beautiful wine;
• a really interesting old bottle of “Jerez Oro” by Parra Guerrero , which seemed to be a fino or at most a fino amontillado that had had a long time in the bottle -had mellowed into a fluffy, slightly dusty nutty nougat; and, last of all
• a bottle of Piñero Cream, about which unsurprisingly I can remember almost nothing at all!

As you can also see from the picture above, the sherries didn’t have it their own way either. There was a fantastic old Vinho Verde – pure honey and cream in a bottle -, a spectacular old 1964 white Rioja, two excellent champagnes, of which one was a fascinating 100% petit meunier rosado, a terrific Rasteau syrah/grenache and a lovely, elegant Real de Asua.

And all of this with the absolutely top drawer cooking of the Chula de Chamberi (all of the above notwithstanding the foie with nisperos and apricot toast was memorable (and repeated)) as we took over the big table in the corner in a fashion that could best be described as a well mannered riot. A really excellent night all round and one I am really looking forward to repeating once Volume II is available.