It is only five months ago in October last year that I dropped into Territorio Era for the first time and wrote this quick post. Back then I thought it was awesome but even in the short time since then it has become clear that awesome doesn’t cover it.

The bare facts are remarkable enough: 102 wines by the glass, 72 of them generosos, top class (even show) cooking and friendly/cheeky service in a space smaller than some of those bizarre show apartments in Ikea and in a location even more bizarre. To say this is a diamond in the rough is to understate the situation considerably (although the market is gentrifying rapidly).

But the bare facts aren’t even half of it, because we are not talking about any wines here. The half dozen folk that follow this blog will have seen the name Territorio Era in a hundred posts or more, and next to some stuff that you would struggle to find in restaurants of far greater fame. Notable names would include Fino La Barajuela (by the glass!), la Panesa, Encrucijado, Precede, Las Machuqueras, Socaire, and Monopole, but for me the greatest thing is the variety. You can rock up and try stuff you might never have thought about – jura, arbois, coteaux du layon, madeira, macvin, you name it – and if you fancy a champagne by the glass or a bottle of a small grower producer you are also in luck: David, the jefe de sala and executive sommelier, has a terrific range of champagnes.

Neither are we talking about just any food, because this is absolutely top quality. The huevos rotos con atun, las papas rellenas, los boquerones, el salpicon de gambas, el atun, el pargo con salmoretto, el cordero a la pekinesa, los callos a la tailandesa … the list could go on and on. All of them are prepared from top quality ingredients with fantastic imagination and considerable skill by Diego (pictured above). Just this week I had the pargo twice and the second time noticed an additional smokey tang: they had used sarmiento (wood from the vine), which burns very fiercely and creates a pungent smokey taste.

And as if all that were not enough these guys are the absolute salt of the earth. In the five months I have known them they have always been willing to help out, whether with finding a hard to get wine, arranging a special menu or hosting a cata or dinner. On one unforgettable occasion they opened the entire market for dinner on a Sunday night. They are great lads.

So get down to Territorio Era while you still can. I will see you at the bar.

A day in Valencia is never a bad thing, escape from the big smoke to a gentler climate and a slightly different pace in what is a really pretty city. Today the sun shone and was added to enormously by the prospect of lunch at El Celler del Tossal, a restaurant recommended to me by Sabas Joosten, sommelier at De Librije,  a fella who knows his onions.

And it was a really cracking lunch. A beautiful oyster, sardines on some kind of toast, roast pork belly and turnips, rice with black pudding and ribs, rhubarb and turron. Really excellent – am going to have to walk back to Madrid – and that was just the solids.

Luca, the sommelier, is a top man and a bit of a sherry hero. Anyone who gives you El Tresillo to start is someone to be reckoned with. He followed with Precede Miraflores 2013, and also has wines by Callejuela, Juan Piñero and others. In fact he didn’t even have a full list of his sherries on the massive carta de vinos – which he descibes as the tip of the iceberg – because he prefers to work with small production wines (the Precede is 700 bottles after all). I convinced him to go off the sherry track and tried some fascinating natural wines from Austria (Weisser Schieffer 2011) and Italy (Lammidia Anfora), a ripe Douro from Portugal (Abandonado 2009), not to mention a beautifully balanced Jurancon and even a tingly-bitter moscatel based vermouth. All really interesting small production wines that worked perfectly. Whatever you need, Luca can almost certainly pair it.

No doubt about it – absolutely top drawer.

My first opportunity for lunch out in a little while and I made a beeline for Angelita Madrid. For the last couple of weeks they have been tweeting about their new “Formula Barra” and a fella was intrigued.

And I have to say it looks like a winner. For the measly sum of €18 you get: a starter, which in this case was half of one of their legendary tomato salads, no less;  a main course which will vary but on this occasion was some absolutely cracking mushrooms and egg (not a food blog, don’t ask me the variety); and two cheeses (a Brillat Savarin and some shavings of manchego); together with, and this is the important part, two glasses of matching wines, in my case a fruity Arbois red and a very nice albillo. With this being Angelita Madrid, the emphasis is on harmonies and you will almost get something new and interesting to try.

It being Friday and the end of a long week I chose to bolt on some extras – half a manzanilla pasada at the top and half a palo cortado at the bottom. In my defense, however, any time you see an Equipo Navazos that ends in “0” you should jump on it (in fact any Equipo Navazos, but especially the “noughtie” manzanilla pasadas), and after the tasting I did with Tradicion on Monday night I was intrigued to try their VORS Palo Cortado again.

More importantly, on any other day the formula barra would have been perfection. Frankly I nevery thought Angelita was expensive – to be honest it is hard to put a price on what you get when you go there – but this really is inexpensive and I would and will recommend it to absolutely everyone (in fact I am doing).

At lunch at Dabbawala in Calle Españoleto and one of those sherry lists that, while too short, actually delivers just about everything you need. Five really nice wines:  I wouldn’t mind having any of those – and more importantly a good mix covering the bases (there was also a PX, but on a different page). Prices exclusively by the glass. (The wine list in general is pretty good  in this sense – a bit of evertything and every base covered in general, including a really good list of craft beers.)

Would be nice to see a few more sherries, some prices by the bottle and if possible some prices by the half glass, but I feel a slight curmudgeon for criticising – until the boom of the last couple of years this would have been considered a relatively long sherry list!