How sherry got chic again
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
It’s 2pm on a Friday in Bar Valette, The Clove Club’s new restaurant in east London, and lunch is in full swing. On the white-clothed tables are morsels inspired by chef Isaac McHale’s travels in Spain and France. A blackboard on the wall reads: “Martini Tuxedo, raw ceps, hazelnut, snails Madrid Style + LOTS OF SHERRY.”
I can’t remember the last time I was offered sherry in a London restaurant – that it should be proffered by the poster boys of Michelin-starred modern British cooking is even more of a surprise. But for McHale, sherry’s salty tang is synonymous with the kind of “simple cooking” he enjoys on family holidays. “It works so well with this menu, which is full of lovely crispy little snacks that demand a glass of something mouthwatering,” agrees Bar Valette’s sommelier and restaurant manager Wilem Powell.
Sherry sales have been in decline since 1979 – but you wouldn’t know it from this list, which encompasses almost a dozen producers, from esteemed producers like Valdespino through to secret handshake indie bottlers Equipo Navazos. The house pour is a 2016 Valdespino “Manzanilla La Especial” (£6.50 per glass), bottled en rama (unfiltered or, quite literally “raw”), that’s textural and tangy. There’s also a distinguished fino in magnum from the storied Bodegas Tradición. A sticky-sweet Pedro Ximénez from Bodegas Barón comes into its own with the chocolate mousse. Even the house Martini is made with zippy manzanilla in place of vermouth; a Rob Roy with a splash of PX is also on the way.
Sherry has long been used in cocktails – the sherry cobbler, a mix of sherry, liqueurs and fruit over “cobbles” of ice, was the height of fashion in the late 19th century. More recently, the trend for drinks with a savoury inflection has seen sherry make a return to cocktail lists. “I love using fino to apply a little bit of seasoning, dryness and balance to a cocktail,” says Chris Tanner of the newly opened London bar Câv. The house special is a twist on a Bamboo, a sherry classic, made with fino sherry, gin, dry vermouth, cucumber and celery.
Sam and Eddie Hart – the brothers behind Quo Vadis, Barrafina and the sherry-centric cocktail bar Bar Daskal – are also not afraid of mixing. “At El Caminito, our new bar in Palma, we use manzanilla instead of vermouth in a Martini – it is wonderfully savoury and slightly sea salty.”
On a hot day in Andalusia everyone drinks Rebujitos, highballs of sherry, lemon and lime soda, mint, citrus and lots of ice. And it’s in this more spritzy direction that sherry’s beleaguered bodegas are starting to innovate. New from Bodegas Hidalgo, maker of La Gitana, is the Triana Manzanilla Spritz, a 5.5 per cent abv sparkling mix of manzanilla and botanicals. It will be available in Spain this summer – so keep your eyes peeled for it on your hols.
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