Popped into Cambridge Wine Merchants (Kings Parade) this week and I have to say I thought it was top class.

For a start they had a cracking range of sherries. The above photo doesn’t really do it full justice – they had a few (five or six) shelves worth – maybe eight to a hundred references – and very nicely chosen stuff, a really full selection of Barbadillo, Hidalgo-La Gitana, Williams & Humbert, Gonzalez Byass and Equipo Navazos and a few really top end bottles dotted around. Really cracking selection – different to the wines we usually see in Madrid too.

And you could also sense a lot of enthusiasm from the guys in the store. Helpful notes on the wines, when they saw me lurking in the corner they were over and full of advice and when I came to pay there were appreciative comments – you literally cannot do more to sell wine than these lads do.

And all this was just one of their stores – and not even the mothership. Really great stuff – I strongly advise UK based sherry fans to check out their website or even better, go and have a nosey at one of the stores. Cheers fellas!

Have made it my goal this year to break out of my usual loop and discover new places and it is already paying dividends. Strictly speaking Vino & Compañía (Plaza del Olavide 5) isn’t a new place or even new to me, because I remember buying a few bottles here a while ago, but since then they have made a massive, quantum leap in their offering of wines from el marco, and it felt like a different reality this time.

The above pictures give you an idea – the shelves are stuffed to the rafters with almost everything you could wish for. Andrés, the owner, was kind enough to ask me what was missing – I came up with a few suggestions but it wasn’t easy and there were not many.

And that was before he explained that they were still trying to find an arrangement so they could have all the wines from the region on display. For instance, they have all three UBEs and all the Tres Miradas, but just didn’t have a big enough space for all the unfortified white wines from Andalucía (and who would have imagined that a couple of years ago?) and were working on a solution. Moreover, the reason space is limited in general is that the rest of the wide world of wine is amply represented – a really fantastic range of wines from every corner of Spain and key regions abroad (including Champagne).

It is a quality offering, and Andrés was telling me that a reason for the growing weight of the traditional wines of Andalucia was that they have seen an increase in demand and, in particular, a lot of interest in tastings to introduce wines of the region.

On that front these guys take tastings seriously – they have a dedicated space, have tastings for beginners every Friday and tastings with cheeses every Saturday and will set up a private tasting for groups of six or more. It is a fantastic effort with visible results – in the short while that I was in the shop on a rainy Friday afternoon they knew almost everyone who came in by name.

There’s no doubt about it, if you are a winelover in Madrid, and in particular a fan of the wines of Andalucia, this store should be on your radar – although they are busy making their own crop of winelovers just in case.

If like me, you have enjoyed the wines of the chaps at Forlong, and you live in Madrid, you may have been wondering where you can get your hands on them. Well wonder no longer, because I have the answer for you: get down to Despacio Arte y Vino. Or get on their on-line store, Bodegabierta.

Behold the magnificent cover of the Vila Viniteca catalogue for 2017 – fantastic stuff.

The contents are even more heartening for devotees of the traditional wines of Andalucia  – 200 top end wines from Jerez and Sanlucar and another 55 from Montilla Moriles. It is a superb and growing selection (in 2015 I count a total of 183) and there are some unique and expensive wines there (and here I refer to the three pages of sherries, not the rest of the tome).

Kudos to Vila Viniteca, which although based in Barcelona has a fantastic tasting room here in Madrid and has played a nice little role in the sherry “revolution”. Their blog has been a forum for some really top class posts (this one by Armando Guerra and this one by Alvaro Giron stand out), they have organized some first class tastings down the years and sherry also gets a look in at their Cata por parejas and La Musica del Vi – two of the standout events on the Spanish wine-tasting scene. Most importantly they have this cracking selection of wines – some interesting stuff and, as I mentioned, a really strong selection at the top end.

Great to see and I look forward to going through this catalogue in detail.

Happy news for fans of the wines of Jerez in the UK – as of today you can get the wines of Bodegas Urium and Cruz Vieja from sherryboutique.com

It is the project of Helen Highley, aka Criadera, a certified sherry educator and one of the friendliest, most enthusiastic members of the worldwide sherry blogging fraternity. There is no doubt whatsoever about her passion for and knowledge of these wines and the wines and the bodegas involved, both relatively small, family run and high quality,are a testament to that.

Bodegas Urium is run by the Ruiz family, Alonso and his daughter Rocio, who fulfilled a lifelong dream by acquiring an old bodega with some old, old wines, where they produce a cracking, well priced range with everything from Fino En Rama and Manzanilla Pasada to an extra special 100 year old Palo Cortado. I had the chance to try the wines and meet Rocio back in June and it was a great night – these are fun wines and I can recommend them without exception.

Bodegas Faustino Gonzalez was founded in 1971, when a local doctor bought soleras dating back to 1758 and moved them to his wife’s bodega in the part of Jerez known as Cruz Vieja – the old cross, but have only been on the market since 2014. The wines are en rama and very small production – runs of 1000 bottles each year – but they have already achieved quite a following. The wines I have tried are full of character and the owner seems a good bloke too – he runs la Casa del Jerez, a brilliant store in Jerez itself, and really knows his stuff.

So there you go. No need to worry further about Black Friday, Christmas shopping or whatever, just get on sherryboutique.com and get clicking.

Absolutely top spot here in the greater Detroit area with a range of over 20 sherries that covers every necessary base and even has some stuff I haven’t tried. In fact a brilliant range of Spanish wine in general, and champagnes, and frankly of just about any wine you feel like. And that is only one corner of this sprawling store full of tasty stuff. Really top class.