journal

Just a few months before opening the Legado team travelled to the heart of Andalusia and into the home of sherry – Jerez de la Frontera – and the birthplace of some of Spain’s most distinctive traditions. Although renowned for flamenco and their Andalusian ‘dancing horses’, we were there for the tabancos – sherry bars – informal, bustling, full of soul and thick with tradition.

Served straight from the barrel – a sense of ceremony that is both everyday and extraordinary – sherry here comes straight from the source, with perhaps just a few barrels joining from Sanlúcar, a town on the coast just 30 minutes away.

Small plates of tapas arrive in quick succession – jamón carved to order, hunks of chicharron, anchovies glistening in olive oil, paper cones of fried fish – all enjoyed to the backdrop of chatter, clinking glasses, and a flurry of flamenco. Even the way orders are kept is part of the charm, often scrawled in chalk directly on the wooden tables.

Much of this fino-fuelled atmosphere is shared in the Legado Taberna, but it’s the quality of the product – the sherries themselves – that we adore. Ask Nieves and she will tell you – implore you, even – that Sherry is a criminally underrated drink. In the UK, it’s much maligned, lumped in with ‘things your Grandma drinks at Christmas’, recalling only the sweetest ‘cream’ styles like Pedro Ximenez.

Although a beautiful thing in its own right, the versatility of sherry is what makes it such a perfect partner for a meal, ranging from the fresh, dry, saltier styles of Fino and Manzanilla to the more complex, rounded, fruity notes of the oxidatively-aged Amontillado and Oloroso. In Jerez, we visited our friends and famed producers Lustau, whose sherries we are proud to pour at Legado, and who produce the finest examples of each.

We can – and will – wax lyrical about Sherry for as long as you let us, but we recommend a visit to the Taberna for a proper immersion, or a languid lunch at Legado for a full tableside tour of the Lustau Bodegas.