Adventure #147: Sherry Tasting

Received an email from Amorosso Wines for a Finest Sherry and Tapas Experience at "Fofo Privat".  Not really sherry drinkers (usually drink port) but we have eaten at Fofo before and like the food there. So, for something different, I signed us up.

The invite said 6pm aperitivo, 7pm tasting.  We arrived at around 6.30pm and were told to go up to the roof.  Assuming this to be a normal tasting session, I didn't bring my camera with me and so no picture at the roof of a tiny building right in the middle of Central.  While at the roof, we were given each a class of very dry sherry from Tio Pepe (A brand we came across while in Madrid many many years ago, see below).  We only ever had sweet sherry, so a dry sherry came as a shock to our pallet! But with food the dry sherry tasted better.

An assortment of hams and tapas were served with the dry sherry.  Thinking this was all the food we were going to get before tasting, we lined our tummy as much as we could, not a difficult task as the hams were very tasty.  7pm came and we were invited downstairs to Fofo Privat which was a private dinning room for a sit down tasting!

 

Private dining room which sits about 20 people

Before the tasting, Maurico Gonzalez Gordon, the owner of Gonzalez Byass gave us an interesting history of the brand which also owns Tio Pepe (means Uncle Joe in Spanish).

 

The 5 sherry we tasted that night

The 3 sherry on the left were dry sherry (from left): Vina AB Amontillado Sherry, Leonor Palo Cortado Sherry and Alfonso Oloroso Seco Sherry.  And the 2 on right were sweet sherry (from left): Cristina Oloroso Abocado Sherry and Nectar Pedro Ximenez.

And the food to go with the sherry! Now we wished we didn't have so much ham.....

Instead of specific pairing, we were asked to try the different sherry with each course.  We decided to try the food with the dry sherry and kept the sweet ones for dessert.  And interestingly, each tasted very different with each course.

 

Confit bonito, White asparagus, Green peas and Piguillos. Very good and refreshing dish. A mixture of sweet and sour. Even the pea puree was wonderful.

Sardine fillets "A la plancha", Turnip cream and Cous Cous. The best dish of the night. The combination of the sardine and the fruits in the cous cous and the cream was excellent. Wonder if this in on their usual menu...

Once again, we were too eager to eat.  Iberico pork and chorizo paella.  This was a rich dish.  Not bad but we were told by some restaurateurs at the tasting that this is not the way paella is made. In Spain, they don't use iberico pork like this. 

Finally, churros for dessert.  I enjoyed this dish very much as well as the sweet sherry that went with it. In particular, the one called Nectar.  If you like extremely sweet stuff, this is it!

All in all, a wonderful experience. Interesting company, many of the participants who sat near us are restaurateurs.  Great food. And totally value for money at $280pp!