I finally made it la Malaje today for lunch and you have to wonder why it took me so long – absolutely top class. It is in a really nice spot at the bottom of Calle Relatores and has a nice airy feel to it, with a little Andalucian patio included (was a good day for it today, October notwithstanding).

These dudes are from the other place, Montilla Moriles, and so it was a good opportunity to try a few of the other kind of finos from a longish list by the glass. Also, there were no fewer than three Andalucian red wines, two varieties of bread, and two different salts (but just one superb olive oil).

More importantly, the food was cracking – navajas en escabeche, a herring and orange salad (no photo taken) that was brilliantly light and fresh, a really light, juicy tortilla, brilliant garbanzos, again with fish and a touch of citrus, and a cracking cheesecake (these are the names I have imaginatively given the dishes – you would be advised to consult the menu to see what they really are). To be honest I didn’t expect any less since the man in charge is Manu Urbano, formerly of Sacha, and the food here was definitely on that kind of level.

So no excuses from me for not making it before – just regrets, and a determination to be back again soon (for Sherry Week).

It really is a great time to be a sherry fan in Madrid. One of the latest big openings here was of Bibo Madrid, a new Madrid outpost of Dani Garcia’s Costa del Sol empire, and just behold the magnificent list of sherries that my good friend and colleague Luis has just sent me.

No fewer than 38 sherries –  four manzanillas, nine finos, eight amontillados, eleven olorosos and six palo cortados –  including a number of wines that are hard to get (the Amontillado Olvidado I have never tried).  More importantly, they are all available in bottle or glass, making it easy to try these unique wines and pair them with Bibo’s brilliant Andalucian cooking.

Bienvenido, Mr Garcia.

This place is really top quality. Have wanted to go for a while but the opportunity hadn’t come up so seized my chance this week. We made it hard for them – we rocked up on a Monday at 22:30 without warning in a group of 16 – but they took it in stride with style and we just had a blast. 

The surroundings are trending to bizarre (the second floor of Mercado Barcelo, which at 22:30 was all absolutely closed and deserted) but there is no doubting the authenticity, the bar itself is comfortable and frankly it even felt pretty cosy once we got in there. 

The provisions on offer are top drawer – the masses were quite happy with the mejillones, queso, and mojama to be honest, but those were followed by some outstanding callos a la tailandesa and huevos rotos (we took all the huevos they had). Really good stuff – light but really tasty and some fun flavours – and loads more stuff to try if we had had time. 

Even better, the wines. We had some Socaire, Callejuela Manzanilla Madura, Barbiana, Sacristia AB (2a saca de 2015), Fino Santa Petronila, and an oloroso I can’t remember, in addition to some Trenzado, and some pretty nice albillo from Madrid – I am not going to attempt to remember the red wines but the group was pretty into them. 

A really fun night too – David behind the bar seems the kind of bloke you can have a few laughs with and the regulars were a friendly and knowledgeable crew. A really top top spot all round. 

Surtopia was until pretty recently the only place in Madrid with what you call a “sherrylist” (even if they were mostly manzanillas) and although now it has more competition in some respects it has no rival for lovers of all things Sanlucar.

The wine list has always been excellent and the food just seems to get better and better – the ensaladilla de langostinos and calamares sin tocar above were just superb, as were the huevos rotos that I forgot to take a picture of, and we washed them down with some manzanilla (the lovely atomatic 11540 from Sanchez Ayala), fino (La Panesa) and medium (again 11540, with a nice touch of manzanilla freshness). 

Throw in a few laughs with Jose and the top service of Ruth and the team and a fella can’t have any complaints – as good as it gets. 

Very sad news to share today because this Friday, September 30, will be the last day of Ana Losada at la Chula de Chamberi.

I found the Chula in May 2012 when my proper job moved into the neighbourhood and since then it has been top number one on my list of happy places (as the half dozen regular readers of this blog may have noticed). The food is really excellent, the atmosphere noisy and relaxed, the people are fun and they have a great, fun selection of wine of every kind. It is no exaggeration to say that I love the place: when I am asked by colleagues in London if I would ever consider moving back I simply describe the Chula to them.

Ana has been a big part of that. She is a brilliant sommelier and the wine list she built up, the rotation of wines by the glass  (La Panesa, El Tresillo, Fernando de Castilla, Gabriela), the pairings she suggested (oloroso and navajas, fino de montilla and steak tartare … trust me on this), the new things and special wines she brought me to try, the wine folk she introduced me to, not to mention the world class banter … without them the last three years would have been an altogether less happy time.

Nowadays I can generally be found minding my own business at the bar, writing a blog post on my iphone with a glass of something nice, but before I met Ana there was no blog and it was all too rare that there was anything nice in the glass. It was Ana that told me I ought to write a blog about sherries (at the time I thought it was a subtle hint that I should stop banging on about them at the bar) and I have learned more from her about the reality of wine (anyone can pair a Meursault, as she memorably pointed out once in more or less those words) than I would ever let on.

Since then she has been a primary enabler of my habit – all kinds of special bottles have been produced and entire ranges of sherries have been sampled, and most memorably the Chula was the scene of the Night of the Pitijopos  (Volume I). I was very touched that Ana saved me the last of those six bottles for further study, and am very grateful too.

I am sure Ana will be a success wherever she goes next, and provided it is within the M40 I will probably end up being a regular customer. It certainly isn’t the end of Ana, and neither, I should add, is it the end of La Chula. But it is the end of an era that I will look back on with great fondness and much gratitude. So please all join me in raising your glasses to Ana and her next adventure. See you all there!

 

 

 

 

 

I have been lucky enough to get a table (thanks to a tip from Reserva y Cata) at one of Madrid’s most exciting restaurant openings in a long time – Kappo, the new project of Mario Payan, at Breton de los Herreros 54. They are very much still in the rehearsal stage but early signs are it will be a new classic: small in dimensions but beautiful in appearance, and beautifully simple, high quality sushi with some unexpected twists and flavours. Mario himself presides, and although I am no expert I thought the dinner we had was superb.

When I visited for dinner just over a week ago there was an experimental feel to the winelist but nevertheless there were some very promising signs for sherry lovers.

• First, there were some cracking wines there: specifically, a full range of wines from Juan Piñero – Manzanilla Maruja, Fino Camborio, Manzanilla pasada Maruja and others.
• Second, to my delight I saw that the sherries were not walled off in a separate section but mixed in with the other quality wines on the list – a cracking range of bubbles and table wines of every colour.
• Third, they also have, of course, an outstanding selection of sake, allowing a side by side comparison of these two under appreciated, umami rich libations.

So welcome, Kappo, and kanpai!

Had a brilliant light lunch in Taberna Averias today and can’t believe I haven’t been here before. It is a neat little place – cosy – but absolutely chock-full of wine, and most of it by the glass.

A top spot for a sherry fan – according to the winelist on their web they have 21 by the glass, but I can’t help noticing that none of the sherries I saw today are on that list, so they could have more, or less, who knows? Embrace the uncertainty: they have plenty, which is certain.

They also have plenty of other wines – I kicked off with a Navazos Niepoort 2014 but after that the friendly chap behind the bar served me a couple of interesting wines I had never tried, which is always, always welcome. They were nice too, so no complaints.

As for the solids: I had a poached egg in a puree of some kind with truffle, together with half a tomato salad, but on the list they have the mandatory callos, steak tartare, smoked sardines, anchovies, cheeses, cheesecakes. Frankly, whatever your sherry pleasure you can probably pair it here too.

So welcome to the first of probably many posts from Taberna Averias. I am only sorry they were open eight months before I found them.

 

 

 

 

Brilliantly long lunch yesterday in Angelita Madrid – the headquarters for wine lovers in the capital.

The great attraction of Angelita is its ever changing selection of wines by the glass – including a list of a dozen or so wines from Jerez and Sanlucar (and a few more from Chiclana) – together with hard to find wines by the bottle (including UBE and the Manzanilla de Añada, to name just two) and classic wines from all over with a few years in their legs (yesterday we had a 26 year old Rioja, for example).

It makes it a great place to come and try new things and also to try out your blind tasting skills. Just look at the outstanding, original wines we tasted blind yesterday (the record shows that I got one of them dead right and got the regions and varieties right for two others, although I whiffed in humiliating fashion on the only manzanilla we tried). It is also a great place to run into fellow wine lovers – yesterday was no exception on that score either.

Finally, it is also tomato season and there may not be better tomatoes on sale anywhere in Madrid. Just look at these absolute beauties before and after, not to mention the delicious pez mantequilla and sirloin with migas. It is hard to believe they have only been open five months – what on earth did we do before Angelita opened?

Last night a fella was lucky enough to have a quite outstanding dinner in Kabuki Wellington, one of the very best restaurants in Madrid or indeed anywhere.

The cuisine is japanese with and mediterranean influences and is of superb quality. I really am not qualified to describe it in detail – all I can say is that if you have not been already you really have to go. I did not at any stage take any photographs of the dishes: I was too busy eating, drinking and generally making merry. Neither did I, and this is perhaps less forgiveable given the theme of this blog, have a very detailed look at the winelist and the list of sherries.

Fortunately, I have since been able to get my hands on a copy and I can confirm that they have everything a sherrylover could reasonably ask for. In fact there really is a lot to like about this outstanding sherrylist:

• I count a total of 54 bottles, including some very fine and rare wines, including vintages and limited releases, and although some are understandably expensive, there are also some absolute bargains.
• The sherries come first, and under the header “Our special wines”. No doubt about the importance they attach to sherries on this list at all.
• The wines are classified not just by style but also by centre – Jerez, Sanlucar, el Puerto and Montilla Moriles, a distinction I think is really helpful and which should be emphasized more.
• The coverage of styles and centres is first class. If you wanted to be hyper demanding you would ask for a couple of finos del puerto and a couple of amontillados de Sanlucar, but there is plenty to choose from as it is.

The wines of Jerez and Sanlucar are of course perfect matches for the cuisine, although they compete here with an equally superb selection of champagnes, rieslings, burgundies and other chardonnays and, well, wines of every colour and stripe, from vinho verde to pinot noir.

And maybe most importantly, in Silvia Garcia Guijarro they have a fantastic sommelier – a real star and the main reason I didn’t bother studying the wine list (which in retrospect, is a shame, since I would have been even more impressed). The first time I visited Kabuki I remember having a chat about pairings with her and was bowled over by how friendly, disarming but knowledgeable she was – a real pleasure to be advised and the pairings suggested were superb. Since then we simply put ourselves in her hands and the pairings this time were, as always, absolutely faultless, even brilliant.

Sugoi, as they say.