One of my favourite bars in the world is Tabanco El Pasaje, in Jerez, one of my favourite cities and the one I return to more often than most. Sandwiched between two whitewashed narrow streets and with a doorway leading in from each, Tabanco El Pasaje is Jerez’s oldest tabanco, a traditional Andalusian sherry tavern, and it looks as if little has changed since it opened in 1925. Rickety tables and chairs pushed close together, faded bullfighting posters on the walls, any number of local old men propping up the counter, and sherry, named after the city itself, poured from huge barrels behind the bar.
Three times a day there is a flamenco performance on a small, low stage at the back – a guitarist, a cantador (the singer at the heart of the show) and a dancer or two who mesmerise their audience just inches away. Sure, there are tourists there these days, for this is a quintessential, authentic Jerez experience, but they also mingle with Jerezanos for whom sherry and flamenco are intricately woven into the history and culture here. As the Andalusian saying goes: “The wines you listen to, the singing you taste,” and here that makes perfect sense.
Certainly sherry has lots to say, and it is well worth listening to. I’ve adored it since I first visited Jerez more than 30 years ago, and it’s a love that’s shared by many of my colleagues in the wine world – writers, merchants, restaurateurs, sommeliers – so much so that it’s known as something of a wine industry insiders’ secret.
We love the diversity of its styles, from piercingly dry to intensely sweet, like flamenco music itself, and each with its own distinctive characteristics that come from the unique way they’re made and aged. We marvel at its intriguing, layered aromas and flavours, its versatility in sitting so well with everything from nuts and olives to Christmas cake and chocolate, but also its ability to charm alone in its glass, unadorned and unaccompanied, with or without friends, and we all wonder why more people don’t drink it more often.
I nearly always have a bottle of sherry in my fridge – good fino is widely available, with a range of brands. It is the freshest, driest style of sherry, aged in casks (called botas) for at least two years. The botas are piled in tiers in the cathedral-like bodegas, dark and musty with the unique yeasts in the air that form a blanket, called the flor, on the surface of the wine that protects it from oxidation and imparts the appetising bready, nutty, savoury notes that makes it such a bullseye match with pre-dinner nibbles.
Amontillados are aged for longer, typically eight years, left in the botas after the flor dies off so they begin to oxidise and develop deeper, nuttier characteristics. Olorosos are made from the most robust wines, fortified to a strength so they never develop a flor but become mahogany-brown and full of the flavours of dried fruits, hazelnuts and autumn leaves.
Cream sherries can be lovely served simply over ice with a slice orange, or used in a negroni in place of the vermouth. I also really like them chilled with creamy puddings – they’re heavenly with creme brulee or a Basque cheesecake – and they make a versatile partner with a cheeseboard, especially one with a soft blue cheese.
All these sherries have a place in my heart, and in that of the Jerezanos. Jerez is a beautiful, elegant city, just an hour from Seville but with fewer tourists and a slower, more languid pace. Tabanco El Pasaje is just one of the countless bars where sherry is drunk at all hours, always with a tapa or two, sipped slowly and thoughtfully as the world goes by. It is the most civilised, and civilising, habit.
Anybody who likes good wine should make room for sherry on their shelves. It is a wine to contemplate, to listen to, but it needn’t be stuffy. In the heat of the summer, and as an easy introduction for the sherry-curious, it’s hard to beat a solera spritz – fino or manzanilla served over ice with tonic and a slice of grapefruit. Crisp, refreshing and effortlessly elegant, it’s the perfect gateway to one of the world’s most distinctive wines, a wine that still thrills me after all these years and still whispers the spirit of Jerez every time I have a glass.
Olé!
To start your sherry journey, visit here
