Jerez Wine

Bar Pepito bills itself as London’s only Sherry Bar. I hope that is not the case for very long because this tiny little bar, in a courtyard near King’s Cross station, is genius and should be printed out all over London – especially near the big railway termini.

Can anyone think of a more civilised way to start the commute home? A quick copa of bracing Fino and a sliver of jamon. Some people say Fino does not travel well, but travel after a Fino is always better, so why on earth not? There are other sherries to be had at Bar Pepito, that’s if you don’t like Fino – a nice full range. The bar seems to be sponsored in some way by Gonzalez Byass: See the bright “Tio Pepe” sherry butts outside and much of the bar’s decoration. However that has not stopped them offering top quality sherries from other producers, like Fernando de Castilla, Lustau, Hidalgo-La Gitana and even a wine from the cultish Equipo Navazos. The bar is all the better for it. There’s an Enomatic machine in the corner, which contained amongst other things a rare 1968 añada sherry.

Bar Pepito opens to the great British public on Friday, 19th March 2009 and it’s worth a visit.

Bar Pepito
3 Varnishers Yard
The Regent Quarter
King’s Cross
London N1 9DF

Here’s an interesting post by Fiona Beckett about some food pairings with Emilio Hidalgo Sherries.
My post about Hidalgo on Catavino is here.

Shots from inside the Bodega. Some of the butts are on stone rests rather than the more usual wooden ones – stone rests are common in Sanlucar.

Some of the Hidalgo wines mentioned in Fiona’s post.

Photo by Daquella manera











Serrano ham definitely has terroir, there’s no doubt about that, and there is a skill to slicing it, so if you want to learn your Bellotas from your Pata Negras and your Guijuelos from your Jabugos first read Niamh’s post on her blog Eat Like a Girl and then, like Niamh, get yourself booked onto a lesson with Brindisa at the Borough Market.

Apparently Niamh’s class were allowed to sip on Manzanilla while tasting the different hams. That alone would be enough to get me out of the house…

There’s been a strong reaction to the doom and gloom just-drinks.com story I mentioned in my last post.

There’s a story on the just-drinks website about sherry sales. 

There’s a piece in the local rag today about bastard Anglo-Saxon Sherry.

Apparently the EU has signed an agreement with Australia banning “Sherry”, “Port”, “Chablis” and “Champagne” down under. I think the article might have left out Burgundy, or is that “Burgundy”. I’m not terribly up to speed with the process, as I was under the impression Australia had already been done, and not just for “Sherry” purposes. The article says a start was made on this in the UK in the 1960s, which is true. A suit was brought in England, in 1967, by four Jerez bodegas. The court accepted “Sherry” was an English corruption of the Arab name for Jerez, ie Sherish. Even so, the target of this case, “British Sherry”, lived on happily until 1996, when finally (and rightly) only wines produced in the Jerez-Xérès-Sherry DO could be called “Sherry” (but only within the European Union). The piece also says the UK was brought to its senses in 1971, when it joined the EEC (actually it joined in January 1973), but I’m not sure that had any effect at all. Spain joining the EU in 1986 probably had more of a bearing on things.

This process is a complicated business for some: Take the “bastard” Sedgwick’s “Old Brown Sherry” for example (it even has its own Facebook page, which is more than any real sherry can claim). Fondly known as “Obs”, this South African winter-warmer and sharpener for Rugby spectators has been around since 1916. Does this heritage not count for something, can an exception not be made? Another thing which stands out in the article is the large volume (relatively speaking) of “false” sherries sold in the affected countries vs the amount of real stuff imported from Spain; implying the banning of the word “sherry” will lead to some kind of turnaround. I’m pretty sure Sedgwick will simply call their wine “O.B.S” or something like that and flog it just as easily. I doubt much will change. It’s all just a marketing thing and in that respect many of the Jerez bodegas have been asleep at the wheel for years.

Finally, I do slightly regret the writer’s use of words like “bastardo” and “falso” in the article. Don’t forget, Jerez brandies were once sold as Coñac or even Cognac. And afterall, is imitation not the sincerest form of flattery?

Old: Books from the past often have something interesting lurking in their pages, so I enjoy looking through them, trying to discover these little gems. An English friend, who has lived in Jerez since 1968 and deals in antiques, recently gave me a copy of “Wines of the World” edited by André Simon to have a look at. This particular copy was printed in 1967 and priced at £5/5/-.

Mr Simon was a legend in the wine world a generation back; writer, critic, wine merchant, gourmet. There is a food and drink writing prize in his name and he also founded the “Wine and Food Society“, which continues to this day.

Naturally I delved straight into the section on Sherry, contributed by George Rainbird in this edition. He describes sherry as the greatest jewel in the crown of Spanish wine, but considering my earlier post it was fascinating to read these words:

“At least two of the Jerez bodegas do not fortify their wines at all for the domestic market, and do it for the English market only to enable the wines to travel. The resulting finos are extremely delicate and fine, and while it might be a degree or so below standard alcoholic strength, it is certainly a delicious wine. The odd thing about it is that I find this practice of making unfortified sherry universally denied throughout Spain; yet I know it to exist, and I personally like the natural wine very much indeed.”

And now for something new: This piece today shows South Africa is certainly taking bloggers seriously. I wouldn’t mind doing some of the things they will be getting up to, least of all hanging out with the guys from Stormhoek.