11 Tuesday Feb 2020
Spotted on my WALK… renovations for a new gastrobar in the Alameda area reveal tiles from Marqués del Mérito, an important sherry producer in Jerez that was founded in the mid 1800s. In 1979 Díez Hermanos bought Marqués de Mérito and formed the Díez Mérito group, taking over the emblematic bodegas Bertemati, where it still resides today. I guess this was either a bar or a wine shop (or possibly an abacería – a combination of both).
04 Tuesday Feb 2020
Posted in events, food & drink, gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla, sherry
chef Jorge Manfredi with Pedro Sánchez-Cuerda, director of Grupo La Raza
Enamórate de Sevilla (Fall In Love with Sevilla) is the name of the latest tasting menu being offered at Ispal (Grupo La Raza) created by their new chef Jorge Manfredi. I had been invited to try the original tasting menu when Ispal first opened in 2018 and while they have kept about 30% of the previous chef’s menu, the rest is new by Manfredi. Also new is a much expanded wine list, which now boasts over 400 Andalusian wines.
It’s a “kilometre 0” menu, with locally sourced products and reinterpreted dishes that are based on traditional Sevilliano recipes, and is divided into four parts: Vamos de Tapeo!, Vámanos a la Feria, Paseo por Sevilla and Desserts. We started off with a vermouth cocktail and had some wonderful wine pairings throughout.
The tasting menu is 59€ per person, 89€ with wine pairing and 109€ with the premium wine pairing. For more information have a look at their website. Photos of the meal below…
06 Monday Jan 2020
Posted in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla, sherry, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours
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I can’t remember the last time I did two tapas tours in one day, but it’s been a few years. In fact, these days I won’t even go out for lunch if I have a tour in the evening… getting too old! But then the other day my friend Tomoko got in touch and asked if I could take out a visiting Japanese chef on Saturday. I already had a private tour booked for the evening but decided to take Yoshi out at lunchtime. I just couldn’t turn down the opportunity of taking out a Japanese chef who runs a tapas bar in Tokyo. And it was great fun. Yoshi’s English is a bit better than his Spanish and so we got by speaking Spanglish and using lots of gestures. Also the wine helped. We managed five tapas bars and god knows how much food (for the record, he was eating most of it!) and we finished off having vermouth at Esteban’s fabulous Vermutería. Then I had to go home and sober up for my evening tour!
I had provided Yoshi with a couple of other tapas bar options for Sunday afternoon (he was leaving town at 5 pm for Madrid) and as it happened I was passing by one of the bars after my midday WALK, so I stopped in and we got to visit a bit more. Finally I dropped him off at the bus stop to get back to his hotel. Honestly, he was lovely and everybody who met him was charmed. He’s in Madrid now with my MADRID LIST so I hope he fares well. When he first arrived in Sevilla he told Tomoko he wasn’t impressed and probably wouldn’t be back, but after his time out with me he says he LOVES Sevilla and is already planning to come back next year. Yay!
19 Tuesday Nov 2019
Posted in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla, sherry, tapas, tapas bars
So there I was yesterday morning, settling in for a morning of writing with plans to take my WALK after lunch, when I got a message from my friend Gabriella (AKA Shawn of the North) that she and some friends were coming to town. That day. For lunch. In fact, she was texting me from the runway at Bilbao airport and wanted to know if I could recommend somewhere nice where they could eat before heading to Jerez. Tricky as they would be arriving when most (good) bars and restaurants close for the afternoon, and on top of that it was a Monday, but I knew La Antigua Abacería de San Lorenzo would be the perfect choice. And it was.
I was also invited to join them! Gabriella’s friends were a group of six, winemakers and tour operators from Rioja, so we hit it off right away. We opted for Lo Que Diga Ramón (What Ramón Says), a set menu that Ramón makes up as he goes along, and I paired our dishes with different sherry wines, giving the group a bit of sherry education before they hit Jerez. I also recommended that they eat at Mantúa while there, so they will be doing that tonight.
Needless to say I didn’t get any more work done that day. Nor did I take my walk. By the time we said our goodbyes (7-ish?) I knew I had a serious date with my comfy chair, Netflix and the cats. What a great day though! 🙂
Ramón & Carmen with son Ignacio
15 Friday Nov 2019
It’s always such a pleasure to taste these wines. Finos Palmas is an annual limited selection of a small number of the very best casks of Tio Pepe Fino sherries from Bodega González Byass in Jerez de la Frontera.
This year’s selection was made mid-October by Antonio Flores, Gonzalez Byass’ master winemaker, and master of wine Peter Liem and, as always, bottled “en rama”, without filtration or clarification.
The tasting took place at Lalola Taberna Gourmet inside the Hotel One Shot Palacio Conde de Torrejón and was led by Silvia Flores, sommelier, assistant winemaker at González Byass, and Antonio’s daughter. It was different this year as it was the first time Finos Palmas has been presented to the public (rather than just press) before hitting the shelves. Really hard to pick a favourite, though of course the 53 year old Cuatro Palmas is in a league of its own. But all the wines, including a taste of Tío Pepe en Rama to begin, show the development of the finos and each one is delicious in its own way.
