Category Archives: wine

wall street journal az

26 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by in sevilla, tapas, wine, work

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So do you remember the fabulous Gourmet Tapas Tour I did last week? Well, I was sworn to secrecy until now but the article came out this morning so I’m free to blab it to the world. The tour was actually part of an interview I was asked to give to the Wall Street Journal Europe about my tapas tours. London-based food columnist Bruce Palling was down in Málaga province for a few days and he wanted to come up to Sevilla for the day to check out the “new tapas scene” and see how tapas have been evolving recently.

I met Bruce and his wife Lucinda for a lunchtime tapas tour and we went to four tapas bars where I knew they were doing tapas with a twist, still using traditional local ingredients but creating new and exciting dishes. And well, I had a great time. Bruce and Lucinda are true foodies and were great company and, as always, I felt proud to show off some of the places that I really love.

When I asked Bruce how he found out about me he said that when he was asking around London about who to contact in Sevilla about tapas my name kept coming up, so he decided to get in touch. Although he didn’t name names I knew it had to be some of the London twitter connections I’ve made over the past few years. Anyhow, we shall see if this helps bring in some more business, but I’m actually just so thrilled to see “my name in lights” and to read about how much Bruce enjoyed the tapas tour. You can read the article here:

Small Plates of Seville

botani vendimia tour

14 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by in Malaga, photos, wine, work

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The main reason for going to Málaga last week was to be able to get some face-to-face work done with Victoria, as we have a few projects on the go and I thought it would be easier for me to meet her on her home turf. And well, okay… I also love going to Málaga! Then I thought that, as one of the projects was to take photos of the vendimia (grape harvest) and make a few videos, it would be a lot more natural if I could catch Victoria “in action” talking to people, rather than just speaking into the camera. And so I organised the Botani vendimia tour.

I invited a few journalists and one amazing photographer. It was great to see Michelle and Chris Chaplow again, and to finally meet Ben Cooper and his wife Philippa. And although it was a shame that Annie Bennett and Eduardo Blanco couldn’t make it, we still ended up making a nice group of five, including me.

Then *almost disaster* struck when Victoria was suddenly called away to a very important meeting out of town, which meant my “face time” with her just wasn’t going to happen. But luckily she only postponed the vendimia tour to the next day, something I know was very generous on her part as this is the busiest time of year for her and losing time going out of town meant she was going to be backed up when she returned. But she still spent all of last Friday with us, taking us to a a couple of the vineyards, then to see some sites in Almáchar and, after a quick trip to the bodega to talk to the winemaker there and see the grapes being pressed for Botani 2011, she invited us all to an amazing lunch at a beachside seafood restaurant in Málaga.

It was a fabulous day – hope you enjoy the pics.

palomas

26 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by in food & drink, friends, restaurants, sevilla, spain, summer, wine

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Remember my evening strolls? Well, yesterday evening I went out and see if I could find a place that would clean my camera lens (yes, I know, but the lens cleaning pack thing costs 20 euros) and, after that was accomplished, it seemed like a very good idea to stop off somewhere for a Cold Beer before heading home. I decided it would be nice to go to Casa Morales, which has become one of my favourite starting points on the Sevilla Tapas Tours. So Nog & I bellied up to the bar to order drinks and – as I wasn’t working – thought it would be better to just hang out there instead of getting a table. I’m so glad we did because it ended up being a wonderful evening.

I’ve known Diego (on the left) for years, as he used to work at the Horno San Buenaventura, and back in the day I would stop in there almost every morning for coffee and toast. So we got to chatting and one tapita led to another… they are so simple, so good and so cheap it was hard to resist. Then Diego started topping up our drinks on the house, and also brought us a couple of other snacks (not shown – a bit of chicharrones and some tuna mojama). At one point an elderly couple who had been sitting behind us – you can just about make them out in the photo – came up to pay and they gave the guys a little puzzle that they said could be made into both a square and a cross. Well, doing the square was no problem, but nobody could make the cross, so we said we’d have a go. At which point Diego said he’d bet us double or nothing on our bar tab that we couldn’t do it. Too bad we didn’t take him up on that as Nog eventually worked it out while Diego showed me an origami “flying” dove, which he said he’d made. When I looked sceptical he took a piece of paper and made one in front of me. I’d grabbed my iPhone to make a video of it but when he was finished I saw that I hadn’t turned the video on properly, so asked him to do it again. Only I stupidly held the iPhone the wrong way, which ended up with a rather odd looking video, but I didn’t think I could ask for a third performance. Anyhow, below you can watch Diego making palomas.

So what was just going to be a quick beer stop on the way home turned out to be a couple of very pleasant hours spent at this totally charming bar with great people. I love it when stuff like that happens.