On Monday evening, my friend Anna invited Tom and I to join her and her boyfriend, Nick, at a free Sherry tasting at Iberica, a tapas restuarant in Marylebone, London. I hadn’t really tried much Sherry before, but I love wine tastings and love free ones even more! A very knowledgable guy from Tio Pepe introduced us to Fino Sherry and talked about it’s production, ageing and pairings.

We tried four different Fino sherries, ranging in age from 6-48 years! The sherries we tasted were made from grapes grown in Jerez, Spain. They all smelt very alcohol-y, and were definitely quite punchy. We were given tapas canapes to enjoy with our sherry, and we were surprised at how well they complemented each other. (No photos of the food, I inhaled it too quickly but they were delicious!)

My favourite sherry was the third one that we tried, it was aged for 10 years and cost about £50 a bottle. I obviously have expensive taste.

Sherry is obviously having a come-back, as we heard that a couple of Sherry Bars have popped up in London recently. It was not as sweet as I thought it would be, and gave a similar warming feeling in your throat as brandy. It isn’t something I would normally order, but served cold with tapas, I can imagine it would be very enjoyable on a summer’s evening. Definitely one to go easy on as its about 18%!

We stayed on at Iberica for some more tapas and another bottle of sherry to round out the night. It was a great evening, and amazing value. You can sign up for any Iberica tastings on their website, and they’re free with no obligation (that we found) to stay for dinner afterwards.

All photos taken with instagram as the lighting was quite poor. @charliedwatson