Category Archives: wine

fran & kaz

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, home, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, wine

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I kind of hit the ground running after getting back from my London Getaway. I had already planned to get together with Jane & John and Sue & Monty, but before those meet ups took place I had the pleasure of being introduced (via email by Annie Manson) to Fran & Kaz Kuzui. Fran & Kaz were travelling around Andalucía, doing some research on Japanese influence on southern Spanish cuisine, and would also be spending a couple of days in Sevilla, so we arranged to meet the evening after I got home from London. They had also tried to meet up with my friend Tomoko in Jerez, but there had been an email glitch, and so I invited Tomoko to come and stay over so we could all go out together.

It was a fabulous evening. Fran is a native New Yorker who now lives in Tokyo with her husband Kaz. Aside from being film producers and art lovers, they are both also food & wine lovers, and as usual Sevilla worked its magic on them. By the end of the evening we had all become fast friends and F & K were already talking about planning a return visit to Andalucía. Come back soon! xx

vinos de españa 2017

30 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by in sevilla, sherry, welcome, wine, work

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vinos espana

Last year I attended the first edition of Vinos de España – Una Pasión that was held in Sevilla and had a lovely time. I mean really, who can resist the prospect of being able to “visit” over 45 bodegas in one day? This time I did my best to branch out and try some new stuff, starting off with white wines (before hitting the reds), and was pleasantly surprised by wines from different regions that I wasn’t familiar with. THEN I bumped into Alex, another sherry educator, and after that we kind of gravitated to the sherry room and got stuck in there. Ah well… it was a wonderful afternoon. And as always great meeting up with sherry friends.

las bodegas de sanlúcar

16 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by in andalucia, azahartravels, cadiz, getaways, sherry, spain, wine

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So there I was – as usual – making last minute bodega visit plans via Twitter and WhatsApp the day before my trip… and mostly that worked out, except that two of the bodegas I wanted to visit weren’t available at such short notice. Really, it was probably enough seeing five bodegas in two and a half days, but I am always left wanting more. I think I might plan a longer stay in Jerez soon and make day trips to Sanlúcar and El Puerto while there, and keep it down to one bodega a day. Well, maybe two now and then…  😉

This time the bodegas were all very special in their own way, as bodegas tend to be, but there were also a couple of totally blow-me-away moments. I’ll write about this more over on my BRAND NEW Sherry Educator pages on Sevilla Tapas. But please be patient, because it may take awhile to get them set up properly. You can have a look now, but things are very much still “under construction”.

Meanwhile, a sneak peak of where I visited this time…

Bodegas José Piñedo

Bodegas Cota 45

Bodegas Alonso

Bodegas Yuste

Bodegas Las Cigarreras

practice makes perfect

27 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by in london, sevilla, sherry, wine

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sherry-practiceIt’s going to be a very sherry month while I prepare for the Big Event in London. And what better way to start my extra practice than with my friend Silvia, a sommelier, fellow sherry educator, and daughter of a master sherry blender? What’s going on here is simply helping me focus on what I am able to identify and giving that structure.

Aside from doing something similar to this on a daily basis (either at bars or at home) I will also be going to as many tastings as possible. That includes three sherry tastings (two in Sevilla, one in Jerez) over the weekend being given by different bodegas , and a getaway to Sanlúcar mid-month to visit bodegas there. At the moment it seems a bit daunting, but now with “extra added structure” thanks to Silvia, I can take things step by step.

alexis

15 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by in friends, wine

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alexisLove it when stuff like this happens. I went out late morning to run some errands, and a bit of shopping at the market for a dinner party with friends, and then I stopped off at Lama La Uva (my favourite new wine shop) to pick up some wine. There was a woman there talking with shop owner Ana Linares and so I politely waited my turn and perused the shelves… and then I realized this woman had a couple of olive oil bottles out on the counter, as well as the tell-tale dark blue olive tasting glasses… it could only be an OLIVE OIL TASTING.

So of course I butted in and joined the conversation, and I could tell that this other woman was NOT Spanish. And then the penny dropped and I said… YOU’RE ALEXIS!

This mystery olive oil woman, founder of The Olive Oil Workshop, has been on my radar for AGES, and I’d been meaning to get in touch and plan to meet up sometime. But now I’m glad that never happened. Because meeting Alexis exactly how we met was… well, perfect.

alexis-ana

What was supposed to be a quick wine purchase segued into an hour long chat including cheese, olive oil and wine… and meeting a new friend. Both Alexis and I are keen to work with the fabulous Ana, and maybe even with each other! The one true thing is… get three dynamic women together over a glass of wine, all talking about possibilities… I reckon only amazing things will come of this. Also, it was fun.