Delicious Sherry, Whisky finished in that Sherry, plus Tasty Tapas?

If all the above tickle your fancy, then hopefully you were lucky enough to be at our second team-up with one of the finest Spanish restaurants this side of Madrid – Tabanco by Ambiente in York.

The first course saw a Barbadillo En Rama Amontillado – described as “Bright and Saline with citrus, hay and sea breeze on the nose.” – combine with Argentinian prawns in brown shrimp butter. Our pairing was a sweet-tasting GlenAllachie 9-year-old Amontillado (48%) which was a popular dram, part of GlenAllachie’s “Wood Collection – Sherry Series” that showcased various different 9 year old whiskies finished in different sherries (a Fino, Amontillado, and Oloroso). We got a bit technical discussing maturing sherries under a flor (yeast layer) before everyone got stuck in to our opening dish and pairings.

BIG THANKS 🙏🏻 to Tabanco for the course cards so attendees could easily follow the drams and sherries.

When we get excited about a release from an independent bottler, we get EXCITED. ‘Thunderstruck’ was a 7 year old Auchroisk Sherry Bomb from Uncharted Whisky which we tried last year, the impact of which meant we invited Jack and Dana to exhibit in our Summer Festival in July. They poured their latest drams to great reception, but it would have been unfair to hoard all the niceness then, and we had luckily squirreled away two bottles of the now sold-out release to pair with a Don Gonzalo Oloroso.

The “dark and nutty with toasted oak” sherry accompanied the “sticky toffee, Nutella and leather” whisky with some actual nuts and Spanish pork. Auchroisk (Mulben, Speyside) doesn’t often get bottled as it goes into J&B Blend (Diageo) and we’re delighted we’ve now had 3 of the 585 bottles Jack and Dana put out at cask strength: 59.1% ABV

Regular attendees of our tastings know that we’ve enjoyed some fantastic whisky from Woodrow’s of Edinburgh, an independent bottler with a warehouse full of treats. One of the most popular drams at our table at the 2023 Whisky Lounge York Whisky Festival, we were surprised to find a couple of bottles left at TopWhiskies and arrived at Tabanco for the planning with an idea for chef Johnny: if we brought fine, smoky, whisky, could we get some fine smoke in the kitchen?

The answer was of course yes, and a Flame Gilled Txuleton Steak was devoured with an Apostoles Palo Cortado alongside the 10yr Caol Ila Palo Cortado.

We love to champion our local distilleries and were delighted when Morgan the UK Sales Manager for Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery agreed to present a Filey Bay Moscatel paired with a Moscatel Emilín. He may have been lured in by the accompanying ensemble of Cabrales Blue Cheese, Quince Marmalade, Melted Iberico Lardon on Rye bread but, whatever the reason, it was great to offer diners the opportunity to find out about their field-to-bottle whisky which has been blazing the trail for English (Yorkshire) whisky!

Because Rob. Johnny, Jim, Mihail, and all of the front of house and the kitchen team are amazing hosts, there was of course a little something extra with a Jerez Lepanto Brandy to make sure all attendees left with extra smiles – same time next year!? Let’s leave the last word to some of our attendees:

“Really great pairings with some delicious food. Brilliant evening and some really lovely drams I will be trying again” – Marianne

“Fantastic evening with excellent food and well-looked after by the Restaurant. Whisky-Sherry combinations were expertly crafted and really interesting to also be given the background information on these too” – Rob