Tag Archives: wine

las pilares

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in food & drink, friends, health & happiness, sherry, tapas

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las_pilares
I’ve mentioned Pilar & Pilar here before. Pilar (daughter) has been a dear friend for many years, and I’ve also had the pleasure of getting to know Pilar (mother). Usually over a delicious lunch that inevitably includes sherry, as both of these fabulous ladies are from Jerez. In fact, their family was in the sherry biz years ago. Well, this time was no exception. Fab food, wonderful wines, lots of great conversation (and lots of laughs). We even went up to the top of the Setas, which Pilar (daughter) had never seen before (!!). It was great spending an afternoon off in such splendid company. Gracias chicas! xx

birthday eve

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by in christmas, friends, holidays, Malaga, malaga getaway

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malaga christmas lunch friends (1)the usual suspects: Fred, Victor, Andrew & Arpy

It’s Birthday Eve! Plans have been made for fun stuff to do with Sevilla friends mañana. But today I thought I’d feature some of my Málaga friends, who also happen to be some of my favourite people in the whole world: Fred @fredshively, Victor @welovemalaga, Andrew @andrewaforbes and Arpy @andalucinda. This is a photo taken at our “official” Christmas Lunch.

Most of you probably know that a couple of weeks ago I arranged a last-minute Málaga Getaway, specifically so I could see the amazing “cathedral” Christmas lights in calle Larios with my own eyes. And of course to see my Málaga friends. I met up with Fred & Arpy, and Victor, on different occasions, and also met David @irlandesnmalaga for lunch one day with his lovely wife Kasha and baby Kira (officially the prettiest baby in the world!), which led to us meeting some new friends thanks to the fabulous Annie @anniebennett. After lunch we stopped by brand new Cafe Estraperlo @cafeestraperlo for “coffee” (really more drinks) and even ended up in one of José’s infamous Instagram selfies…

estraperloJosé, Mark, me, Kasha, baby Kira, David

But back to the Christmas Lunch. This took place my last afternoon in Málaga and came together all very last minute (for a change!) with Andrew, bless him, being able to make it after all (wouldn’t have been the same without him). The venue was Bar Nerva (that post needs updating!), a favourite family-run bar with delicious homestyle Andalucian cooking at its best. Here’s what we had for lunch. Nice touch was getting a frozen grape in each glass of wine to keep it chilled.

malaga christmas lunch food
Anyhow, during that lunch I sat back and watched these guys, all of them so smart and witty and charming and fun and lovely, and suddenly I had tears in my eyes thinking how lucky I was, especially as they had all come together that afternoon on my account. It was definitely a “George Baily moment” and I totally felt like the richest girl in town.

malaga christmas lunch friends (2)

Thanks guys. This was my best Christmas in a very long time.

Also… the next time anyone disses Twitter. I’ve included everyone’s Twitter handle here because that is where I met all these lovely lovely people.  xx

a sherry dream come true

08 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by in birthdays, friends, wine

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sled's sherryphotos by Sledpress

They say it’s better to give than to receive, and all I can say about that is that I had so much fun putting this together, frustrating glitches notwithstanding, especially as several people ended up ensuring a very happy ending. Some background…

Ever since my Sherry Epiphany on the first World Sherry Day I’ve become intent (obsessed?) about sharing the sherry love in the way I discovered that day was really the best way to learn about sherry… poco á poco, with friends and with a few tapas. And I know that my friend Kate (sledpress) has been intrigued by my now popular Introduction to Sherry tours and also by my many tweets and blog posts about sherry events I end up at and the bodegas that I visit. So when I realised it was going to be Kate’s big 6-Oh birthday in November I decided to send her a selection of my favourites, one bottle for each decade, to begin her sherry education. Which turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.

I contacted some of my favourite bodegas, finally settling on the one (which shall remain nameless) that promised me the full range I wanted with no problem of the delivery being made in time for the big day. Well, the big day came and went. I had been constantly checking up on this and each time was told that the order was being processed and there was nothing to worry about. Until the umpteenth email informed me that the order hadn’t actually been placed in the States and instead I would have to send the six bottles from Spain with a shipping cost of 120 euros. WTF?  Meanwhile, I had been back in touch with other bodegas and two of them came through big time, giving me the names of their distributors near Kate. BUT, then it turned out that neither had the full range I wanted to send, and one was actually a wholesaler so it didn’t seem like this was going to work out after all as I obviously wasn’t going to buy a case of each sherry. And then a wonderful thing happened. The wholesaler and retail outlet got together and, with their help, this is what Kate received just two days later…

sherry for sledBodegas Lustau: Manzanilla Papirusa, Palo Cortado Península, Pedro Ximénez San Emilio
Bodegas Gutiérrez Colosia: Fino, Amontillado and Oloroso

These two bodegas couldn’t be more different. Lustau is one of the largest wineries in the sherry triangle, comprising several bodegas in Jerez and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Gutiérrez Colosia is family run – and I mean run by the four family members and a couple of employees – in El Puerto de Santa María (remember the video?). But when I got in touch with the people I know at both bodegas they were quick to respond and help me out, as were their fabulous distributors, Elite Wines and UnwinedVA. Special thanks goes to Vanessa at Unwined who – countless emails later – patiently put all this together is that cute green bottle carrier and got it over to Kate’s in time for the weekend. Mil gracias a todos! And now it’s time for me to start educating Kate. This is going to be fun!  🙂

If you want to know more about the wonderful world of sherry, follow me on Twitter @SevillaTapas and also on my AzaharTravels and AzaharSevilla blogs. You know you want to…

sherry tasting marathon

24 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by in andalucia, azahartravels, food & drink, spain, travel, trips, wine, work

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sherry marathon
Thursday was sherry tasting madness with three bodega tours booked starting at 9.30 am and finishing around 3.30 pm. But unlike the regular tourist tour I did at Gonzalez Byass on Wednesday, these were all private visits, and I felt both honoured and privileged that these very special wineries made me feel so welcome. And talk about educational! I had previously found out that I wasn’t able to get into this September’s Sherry Educator course (though I was promised a place for next year). But this sherry tasting marathon was almost like doing a mini course in a few hours. I just let each person take me through the sherry making process from the beginning, in their own way, and it was very interesting how I learned different things at each place. Each bodega was unique and everyone I spoke to was incredibly passionate about their work. And the wines! Stunning. I will be doing a more indepth report on all this a bit later on Azahar Travels, but I have to say that the more I learn about sherry, the more I realise what a wonderfully complex wine it is. As my friend (and sherry educator) Annie Manson says, you never stop learning about sherry.

Anyhow, I thoroughly enjoyed the day, being treated like a VIP and getting caught up in all the stories and discussions. After the final tasting Peter and I popped over to Bar Arturo, renowned for its no-nonsense décor and fabulous fish and seafood. Absolute fishy heaven. And crazy good tomatoes too.

bar arturo

The three bodegas we visited were: Bodegas Lustau, Bodegas Tradición and Bodegas Urium.