We had a fantastic dinner last night at Surtopia – the cooking and combinations just get better and better, the service is top class and super friendly and the wine available, well, it is a sherry lover’s dream. More particularly a manzanilla lover’s dream.

Last night I honoured my host by sticking to the Sanlucar wines, and three absolute belters they were too: the La Gitana en rama (the only place I know of in Madrid that has it, and in a fancy new bottle too), the Pastora Manzanilla Pasada (an absolute gem, with a lovely trace of apple upfront – whether green, golden or baked); and the Maruja Manzanilla Pasada, which was an absolute beast – so good I stuck with it for the rest of the meal.

I was struck once again by how fantastically well these wines accompanied the cooking: dry, saline, and structured. Probably not an accident in this case, but even so it was striking and made me wonder once again why you don’t see more of these kinds of wines being used as pairings.

In any event, this is not a problem at Surtopia – I tend to beat my own path but they have sherry pairings for their 6 or 9 course menus for a paltry sum. If you are curious about trying sherries there are still very few places better.