GONZALEZ BYASS & CAFÉ SPICE NAMASTE

Who's not afraid to try new things
Who gets to spend her birthday in Spain

An excellent evening in the company of DH’s newest chum, Andrew Sinclair of Gonzalez Byass, who had very kindly invited us along to Café Spice Namaste where he had planned an evening of Indian food accompanied by Sherries. HS was enjoying the delights of the exotic East so I went along instead. It’s not easy being me.

I thought I had arrived too early but Charles Campion was already there (of course he was) but oddly no Jay “Slim Jim” Rayner who I expected to see engaged in a titantic struggle with Man Mountain for control of the canapé table.

After a little small talk and some snacks washed down with a few glasses of Tio Pepe Fino we sat down to the four courses devised by restaurant owner Cyrus Todiwala who had matched them with appropiate Sherries from the Gonzalez Byass range.

The starter combo worked brilliantly: a fillet of Pomfret which had been marinated in tamarind, chilli and pepper, then roasted and served with a little carrot salad. Tio Pepe Fino was served correctly chilled and in a proper sized pour* to accompany the fish. The chilled sherry counteracted the kick of the chilli and the pairing of Fino and seafood is a classic match as any visitor to Spain will know. The salad looked a bit prosaic but was in fact very sparky – I could have eaten a lot more.

I liked the pairing of Duck breast which had been smoked, imparting a subtle taste of cinnamon and cloves into the flesh, with a chilled Alfonso Oloroso although I’m not sure the accompanying cheesy toasts matched the other two components. Interesting dish, though.

The main course of Chicken curry showed that Cyrus is not afraid to give his dishes a bit of a chilli hit but the matching Vina AB, a single estate Amontillado, was served a little too chilled for my taste - things improved once it had warmed up a tad.

The last sherry we tried was the Gonzalez Byass Nectar made from PX (Pedro Ximenez) grapes. This is fantastic stuff: dark, rich and complex it actually stands alone as a pud in itself. I usually have it over good quality Vanilla ice cream. I thought it went well with the selection of Indian sweets.

All in all a pretty successful evening which shows that Sherry is a lot more versatile than people give it credit for – even I learned something.

All too soon it was time to toddle off but I thought it might be nice to have a nightcap in the newly opened East Room (fortuitously about a minute from Casa DH). We ended up staying far too late and drinking Armagnac from each of our birth dates in the engaging company of the manager Andrew Coles. A very good way to end a very good evening.

* So many places wrongly treat Fino as a spirit and sell it in miniscule servings at alarming high mark-ups

SHERRY O, SHERRY O BABY

Sherry is, arguably, the most misunderstood drink of all.

For many people, it conjours up images of Harvey’s Bristol Cream which their nan kept on the sideboard and only ever reached for at Christmas or if the vicar came around for tea.

Nowadays, on the rare occasions you do see it on a restaurant menu, it is served at the incorrect temperature and charged for as if it is a spirit not a wine.

For DH, however, sherry has become part of the fabric of our life. Not least because of our obsession with all things Spanish, but also because, within the range of wines that make up the sherry family, you can find something to compliment just about every food from fresh seafood to dark puddings. Sherry is one of those drinks that works all the year round from a crisp, dry Fino in Spring, to a salty Manzanilla in Summer and rich, dark PX’s in Winter. It is, to put it simply, fantastic stuff and, while perfect for Spanish food, it works well with just about anything else we cook too.

So, a few weeks ago, when I was having lunch with my new chum Andrew from Gonzalez Byass and he mentioned that he had never eaten at Hawksmoor, my eyes lit up and I suggested a deal. DH would help him pop his Hawksmoor cherry if he promised to bring along a few bottles from the range to let us try them with a food that many would consider as far to the other end of the spectrum as possible.

Sucker bought into it and, yesterday, turned up at London’s finest steak restaurant, laden down with bottles, to await DH’s arrival, which came a few minutes later as we spluttered in from the rain sodden streets.

Well, I am not going to say too much about the meal. It was of course, top notch with meaty ribs followed by three excellent cuts of rump, rib eye and sirloin joined by triple cooked chips. But, the sherries were a revelation.

Getting progressively darker, the wines we tried worked incredibly well with the food. Tio Pepe fino is probably the best known outside the “Bristol Cream” circles and there is a reason, it is a very well made wine. Bone dry and, surprisingly, perfect with the ribs.

Following that, Oloroso, Amontillado, and a gorgeous Apostoles which is made from Palo Cortado grapes rather than Palomino. Sweet, but not overly so, it is just a beautifully well balanced wine that would be interesting to sip with spicier food.

Finally, most interesting of all, one of the most rare dessert wines of the lot, A Noe PX which is given a tiny release every year. It is intense stuff as the taste of roasted almonds and cream comes through the initial sweetness. Andrew suggested it with Vanilla ice cream and recommends, as they do in Spain, pouring it over the top.

At the end of our meal we set the guys at Hawksmoor a challenge to come up with cocktails based on two of the sherries. Myles, one of the great mixers there, took away the Apostoles and the Noe and came back a few moments later with two Manhattans where the sherry had been used in place of sweet vermouth.

To our surprise, the worked incredibly well with the sherry taste coming through the hit of bourbon. I could get rather too used to these.

In his role of developing the image of Sherry, Andrew was heading off to Café Spice Namaste to help plan an Indian supper, where sherries would be the accompanying wines throughout the meal. Now, that’s one I would love to attend if I was not going to be on the road.

So, yes, this is a little ‘puff” piece about sherry but, I hope it makes anyone who reads it want to go out and buy and try some. Sherry is incredibly under priced right now and Sainsbury’s, Tesco and even M&S sell very decent examples for about £6 a bottle. It is a steal, particularly when you compare it to the anti freeze wine you could buy for the same price.

If you have never tried it, go and buy a bottle, warm through some almonds in the oven, sprinkle with a little salt and serve with a chilled glass of crisp, dry as a bone, Fino. You will never think of sherry in quite the same way again. I promise.