SHERRY: Raising the bar

A new generation of specialist venues has sparked a resurgence in the fortunes of Sherry – especially in London. By Lucy Shaw.

Rewind the clock eight years and London only had a handful of decent Spanish restaurants – namely Fino on Charlotte Street, opened by half-Spanish brothers Sam and Eddie Hart in 2003, and Cambio de Tercio on Old Brompton Road, whose founder is about to open his fourth venture – a Sherry and ham bar.

Consumer understanding of Sherry at the time was minimal. Sherry was still very much associated with the dusty bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream your grandma brought out from the back of her cupboard at Christmas. And while old prejudices die hard, Sherry is having something of a moment in London.

The beginning of the boom can be traced back to last March, when London got its first Sherry bar – Bar Pepito, a 30 sq m homage to Andalusia in King’s Cross backed by González Byass. First the wine industry came in their droves, but soon the general public, having heard the hearsay, arrived in search of a new drinking experience. With Sherry sales per square metre higher than at the adjoining Camino restaurant, pioneering Pepito was the litmus test, and its success seems to have spurred others to follow.

Predating Pepito is La Venencia in Madrid, named after the cup on a rod used to extract Sherry from the barrel. The shabby, unassuming bar, complete with peeling Sherry posters, serves only Sherry, and bills are totted up on the wooden bar in chalk. Across the world in the Ginza district of Tokyo is the Sherry Club which, with 200 different Sherries on offer, earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest collection of Sherries in the world. A sharpened pencil and a Sherry list grace every place setting. Flights of three different styles: dry, medium and sweet, are served to the uninitiated.

Outside of La Venencia and the Sherry Club, however, London is very much leading the way in terms of the Sherry bar boom, with two new bars set to open in the capital by the end of April. The recent boom is inextricably linked with London’s exploding tapas scene, which makes sense, as connoisseurs have been championing Sherry’s food matching credentials for years.

“The improvement in quality of Spanish food in London and increased interest in Sherry has gone hand-in-hand,” says Fino founder Eddie Hart. “Ten years ago you’d be lucky to find one or two Sherries on a restaurant list. Now a lot of my friends keep a bottle of Fino in their fridges – we’ve come a long way.

“It’s good to see Sherry enjoying a higher profile. The bodegas have been working tirelessly for years, trying to reinvent and promote their wines, and it’s finally paying off,” Hart adds.

Read on for our pick of bars leading London’s Sherry revolution.

Bar Pepito

3 Varnishers Yard, London N1 9DF; +44 (0)20 7841 7331

Bar Pepito got the Sherry bar ball rolling when it opened in March last year. Set in a converted storage shed inches away from sister restaurant Camino in King’s Cross, the bar sweats Andalusian charm, from the floor covered with azulejos (traditional Spanish tiles), to the flamenco posters and esparto-grass mats lining the walls.

Pepito is the brainchild of hispanophile owner Richard Bigg. A self-confessed Sherry nut, Bigg hoped that with the opening of Pepito would come a shaking off of Sherry’s grandma image.

“Sherry is druggingly delicious and the public were ready for it”, Bigg begins. “The Bristol Cream-quaffing grannies are not going to be around for much longer, so Sherry’s clichéd image is soon going to be out of date. Wine knowledge is going through the roof – people are becoming more confident and clued-up, and want to experiment with new styles. It was a risk, but I like taking risks.”

Bigg’s confidence in the project came from a collaboration with González Byass, whose wines make up nine of the 15 Sherries on offer – a deliberately short list so as not to intimidate novices. Pepito is proving so popular the bar extended its opening hours at the end of February to include Monday evenings.

“I would only have done it as a stand-alone bar if it was in the middle of Soho, or it would have been too risky. The idea of a Cava bar crossed my mind, but I’m a Sherry addict, so went with my gut instinct. It’s such a fantastic wine – the sheer quality of it is phenomenal; you just don’t get bad Sherry. The key is to store it well, pour it well, train up your staff and encourage customers to try it with food.”

Tio Pepe Fino is Pepito’s best seller. It’s also the cheapest Sherry on the list. Finos and Manzanillas are the best-selling styles, but González Byass Apostoles Palo Cortado is proving surprisingly popular.

Sherry flights at Pepito have proved a successful way of introducing people to styles they wouldn’t usually try. The bar offers six different flights of three 50ml measures, including the Oloroso-based “Glorioso” and the PX-fuelled “Decadencia”. Accompanying the wines is a tapas menu, and each dish comes with a Sherry recommendation. Bigg is big on Sherry and food matching: “Sherry has to be drunk with food – it’s the best food matching wine there is,” he says. “It’s all about serving fresh styles at the right temperature in the right glasses”.

Does Bigg think Pepito is responsible for inspiring the recent spin-off bars? “Maybe they had the idea at the same time as me and I jumped the gun. Opening a bar dedicated to the most unfashionable drinks category was a bold move, but it was low-cost as I already had the space, so I was able to test the water.”

Bigg is already planning a second Pepito and is currently scouring London for a suitable site, which will most likely be next to a new Camino restaurant.

“I’d really like to open a Bar Pepito in the City. It’s extremely likely this will happen,” asserts Bigg. And with the recent success of natural wine bar Bar Battu in the Square Mile, London’s City slickers certainly seem willing to experiment with their midweek wines.

Morito

32 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QL; +44 (0)20 7278 7007

One of the new kids on the block is Morito, a sister Sherry and tapas restaurant to Moro in Exmouth Market, run by husband-and-wife chef duo Sam and Sam Clark. Having sublet the site beside Moro to Brindisa, when it became available last autumn, the Clarks seized the opportunity to open the tapas bar they’d been planning since Moro’s inception.

The Clarks take Sherry very seriously, and plan to expand their modest range: “Sherry is a great wine, and improves with food”, Sam(uel) Clark tells me. “Take a chilled Fino and slice of Serrano ham; people have been having the same flavour experience for hundreds of years. I love the continuity, and respecting Sherry’s heritage. I’m going to encourage Sherry and food matching with a Sherry and tapas tasting menu.”

Interestingly, all wine at Morito is served in rustic tumblers, while Sherry gets special treatment, served
in traditional Sherry copas. “It’s a visual sign,” says Clark. “I want people to be seen to be drinking Sherry, to make other customers aware of it. I’m putting it on a pedestal.”

Clark is keen to get people excited about Sherry, and has included a “Rebujito” cocktail – a mixture of Manzanilla and lemonade traditionally drunk at the Easter ferias across Andalusia – on his Sherry list. “It’s fun, refreshing and accessible – a great way to get newcomers into Sherry,” says Clark. “Sherry has got a long way to go, but it’s an exciting challenge. We just need to educate people in the right environment.”

Capote y Toros

157 Old Brompton Road, London SW5 0LJ; +44 (0)20 7244 8970

Hot on the heels of Pepito and Morito is Capote y Toros, a Sherry and ham bar three doors down on Old Brompton Road from sister restaurant Cambio de Tercio and tapas bar Tendido Cero.

Due to open at the end of March, this 20-seat venue is the fourth venture for owner Abel Lusa. Like Pepito’s tie-in with González Byass, Capote y Toros – meaning “Cape and Bulls”, will be decked out with Osborne branding, from the barrels to the Osborne-owned Cinco Jotas pata negra ham hanging from the ceiling, which will be the only ham served at the bar. “We buy six hams a week at £500 each from Osborne, so we have a good relationship with them,” says Lusa.

“We’re going for the dramatic Andalusian effect,” he adds ebulliently. “We want to be the most Spanish of the Sherry bars in London. The walls will be plastered with bullfighting posters.” Equally ambitious is Lusa’s enormous Sherry list, which will be no fewer than 100-strong, somewhat dwarfing Pepito’s 15. “We already have the largest Spanish wine list in London at Cambio de Tercio, so why not have the largest Sherry list too? It’s a bold move, but I really want to get behind Sherry and promote it.”

Lusa will offer a simple tapas menu to run alongside the extensive Sherry offering. The Sherry menu will be divided up by bodegas, with flights of five different styles from a single bodega on offer by the 50ml glass at a fair price as a way of introducing novices to the entire Sherry spectrum.  

Behind the bar, the Sherries will be divided by brand, with separate spaces dedicated to Osborne, Lustau, Bodegas Hidalgo, and even über-trendy (and expensive) Equipo Navazos. “There will be Sherries on the list at £300 a bottle and £40 a shot,” Lusa boasts. Capote y Toros will also offer a selection of fine and rare Sherries bottled exclusively for the bar from specially selected butts through a collaboration with Ehrmanns owner Peter Dauthieu.

According to Lusa, outside of Jerez, London is the Sherry capital of the world. “Outside Andalusia, there are hardly any Sherry bars in the rest of Spain. You’d think Madrid and Barcelona would be buzzing with Sherry bars, but they’re not. London is at the centre of the change. Sherry has strong links with the UK due to all the British-owned bodegas. Ironically, we haven’t done much to promote Sherry in our own country.”

José

104 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3UB; +44 (0)20 7403 4902

Also opening this Spring will be José, José Pizarro’s first solo venture since stepping down as head chef of London’s three Brindisa restaurants last summer. Due to open this April, the 20-seat, 10-standing venue on Bermondsey Street will be “double the size of Bar Pepito”, according to Pizarro, and inspired by Barcelona’s Boqueria market.

A daily menu based on talks with suppliers the previous evening will focus on traditional tapas dishes, such as razor clams and tortilla, to complement the Sherries on offer: 25 by the glass, encompassing eight different styles from Pizarro’s three chosen producers: Fernando de Castilla, Lustau and González Byass.

“I want to include a cream Sherry on the list so customers can compare it with the other styles,” says Pizarro. “People need to understand that there is life beyond cream Sherry. Palo Cortado, for example, is heaven.

“Bar Pepito has paved the way for others to follow. People are starting to understand the complexities of Sherry, and all its different styles. Its popularity is about to explode in London, but we’re not quite there yet. We have to lead people to Sherry, and once they try it, they’ll love it.”

Pizarro plans to run Sherry masterclasses and Sherry and food matching events, which he hopes will lure in students from the neighbouring Wine and Spirit Education Trust. “Of course this bar is a risk, but if you don’t take risks, you’ll never win."

Lucy Shaw, March 2011