Camino Puerto del Canario

It's a chilly late September evening and I'm at London Bridge City Pier about to board the Thames Clipper to Canary Wharf. Only this is no ordinary ship - it's a Sherry ferry.

To celebrate the launch of Camino Puerto del Canario, sister restaurant to Camino King's Cross, showman owner Richard Bigg has rounded up a troop of willing guinea pigs to be transported to the venue by boat.

We're given the signal to board, and our uproarious group, made up of wine hacks, food bloggers and the odd chancer or two besieges the boat, scrambling excitedly for window seats. As I pace to the front, I'm handed a large glass, which is promptly filled with a generous slug of Tio Pepe Fino.

Having secured a window seat, the Sherry ferry chugs into action and I'm treated to epic views of the Thames by night. As I sip my Sherry and nibble on a slither of Manchego, Tower Bridge comes into view. I would never typically consider taking the boat to work in the morning, but it's a magnificent way to see the city. And drinking Sherry on public transport feels deliciously decadent - one in the eye for Boris.

My glass is topped up and I soon spy the flashing lights of One Canada Square, where I once did work experience at the Daily Telegraph. Barely have we set sail and we're already at our destination. I'm slightly disappointed at the Sherry ferry's efficiency, as I was hoping for a longer voyage, but there's no time to think as we're ushered off and told to leave our glasses on deck. Most are empty. Back on dry land the Tio Pepe has gone to my head. I'm blaming the boat.

Before we even make it inside we're served Cava in old-fashioned flat Champagne glasses. It seems like Mr Bigg is on a mission to get us intoxicated. The venue is seconds from the boat stop, on the water's edge. Looking across the river, bright lights flicker against the black backdrop. The city seems pregnant with promise, and I get the feeling that I'm part of something big, as if stepping back from the city allows you to see it properly for the first time. This could be the Cava talking.

Soon I'm inside and being given a tour of the kitchens. Plates of pata negra ham do the rounds, and I grab a handful to munch on. The Sherry ferry has whetted my appetite and we're not sitting down to eat until the very Spanish hour of 9. The restaurant has an industrial feel– set in a large square space with open brickwork and wooden floors, the bar and restaurant are divided by cage-like barriers. It doesn't feel as cosy as Camino King's Cross, but I don't think it's supposed to.

I have a quick sip of Ferran Adria's home brew: Inedit, which tastes like honey and lemon Lockets, then it's time to sit down to eat. And boy did we eat: a 16-course Spanish banquet including stuffed figs, octopus tentacle, black rice with cuttlefish, Ibérico black pig shoulder blade, and the apogee: Scottish rib-eye steak cooked on a charcoal grill from Bilbao then rubbed with rock salt. Rare, tender and ridiculously juicy, it was a seriously sexy slice of meat.

The wines on the night also delighted, from the Valdeorras based Bodegas Valdesil Godello 2007 - fresh, crisp, textured, complex and elegant; a Godello worth waiting for, to the Viñas del Vero Pinot Noir 2008, with Burgundian notes of cherry, raspberry and violet. Matched with the meat was a wine from Bigg's Big Guns list: Cillar de Silos Torre Sillo 2007 from Ribera del Duero. Opulent, rich, ripe and sweet, it's as close as you can get to drinking velvet. Other highlights of the Cañones Grandes list include Lopez de Heredia Viña Tondonia 1982, Vega Sicilia Unico 1999 and Alvaro Palacios Finca Dofi 2006.

From the quirky voyage on the Sherry ferry to the cracking open of the big guns, Richard Bigg certainly knows how to put on a show, and I'm sure his sister venue across the river will pull in hoards of hispanophile punters. The Big Guns list should certainly prove a draw for high rolling city boys out to impress big cheese clients. With new outposts of Roka, Canteen and Wahaca also recently opened in Canary Wharf, the financial district is now firmly on the culinary map.

Camino Canary Wharf launch night

Wine and the City caught up with Richard Bigg, owner of Camino, at the launch of Camino Puerto del Canario in Canary Wharf on Tuesday night to get the scoop on the new riverside restaurant - blog to follow...

Bar Pepito: London's first Sherry bar

It’s a drizzly Thursday night, but inside Bar Pepito it’s as hot as pimiento. Opening the door of the tiny bodega in King’s Cross, I’m whacked with the intoxicating smell of jamón.

The bar sweats Andalusian charm – a slice of Jerez squeezed into 30 square feet, from the floor covered with azulejos (traditional Spanish tiles), to the flamenco posters and esparto-grass mats lining the walls, it’s easy to feel transported to Southern Spain; it even comes complete with an authentic Spanish racket.

I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with friends around a Tio Pepe barrel table dotted with brightly-coloured bowls of kikos (fried corn) and habas fritas (fried broad beans). Plates of pan con tomate, jamón ibérico and sheep’s cheese emerge from the miniscule kitchen and four small glasses of Tio Pepe Fino are brought over to our barrel.

It’s the launch night of Bar Peptio; London’s first Sherry bar. The tiny bar, a converted storage shed, lies a few Spanish steps away from sister restaurant Camino in Varnisher’s Yard.

Keen to shake off Sherry’s grandma image is Pepito’s hispanophile owner Richard Bigg. He’s on a mission to convert London into a city of Sherry sippers and give Sherry the makeover it desperately deserves. Once described as the grand druid of hip hangouts, Bigg has a bloodhound nose for the next big bar, having started up Cantaloupe in Shoreditch years before the cool kids invaded.

‘Sherry is druggingly deliciously and the public are ready for it’, Bigg begins with brio. ‘Wine knowledge is going through the roof – people are becoming more confident and want to experiment with new styles. It’s a risk’, Bigg concedes, ‘but I like taking risks. It would have been riskier if I’d opened a stand-alone bar, but I think it would still work.’

Bigg has collaborated with Gonzáles Byass, whose wines make up nine of the 15 Sherries on offer, along with one beer and a seasonal Sherry-based cocktail. The list is deliberately short, so as not to intimidate novices, but Bigg already plans to edit the offering and include a different 'wild card' wine each month.

Team GB are out in full force – managing director Martin Skelton and marketing director Jeremy Rockett flock to our barrel, armed with a bottle of Gonzáles Byass 1968 Oloroso. It’s outstanding, with a nose of varnish, walnut skins and mahogany. On the palate is sweet spice, orange peel, dried figs and hazelnuts. It’s deliciously long and amazingly vibrant for its years.

Accompanying the wines is a well thought out tapas menu including venison carpaccio and devon crab salad. Each dish comes with a Sherry recommendation. ‘Sherry has to be drunk with food – it’s the best food matching wine there is’, says Bigg. ‘It’s all about serving fresh styles at the right temperature in the right glasses’, he adds.

Written on mini blackboards is a selection of six wine flights (three 50ml measures), including the Oloroso-based ‘Glorioso’ and the PX-fuelled ‘Decadencia’. A cage-like cellar lines the back wall, and next to it, a single Enomatic machine. Bigg is offering Bar Pepito cards, which you can load up with credit to buy 25, 50 and 75ml Sherry shots starting at 95p and going up to £4.50 for the ‘68 Oloroso.

Sherry has always been the wine world’s best kept secret, but it looks like the secret is out. I woke up with a head thicker than peasant bread, but it was worth it. Pepito looks set to change London’s wine drinking landscape – make the detour while you still can.

Caballeros dinner at The Dorchester

Being a huge fan of Spanish wine, I was delighted to get a phone call last week from a winemaker friend, Amelia Aragon, inviting me to the annual dinner of the loftily-titled Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino at the Dorchester.

Accepting her offer without hesitation, I set about trying to find a suitable dress for the occasion. I mentioned the dinner to a colleague and she looked and me pitifully. 'Poor you', she said, rolling her eyes. 'All I remember are the interminable speeches. Make sure you're sat near the back so you can talk.'

Undeterred, I was determined to have a good night. Donning my hot pink ruffle dress in the office after work, I hotfooted it over to Park Lane, and tried my best to glide swan-like into the ballroom, passing a smiling, tuxedo-clad Steven Spurrier en route.

The Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino was set up 26 years ago as a way of promoting and developing knowledge of Spanish wines in the UK. Each year two new members join the likes of Oz Clarke and Tim Atkin and are invested into the order for their exceptional contribution to the promotion of quality Spanish wines in the UK.

Tonight we were to witness the knighting of the order's two newest recruits. Grabbing a glass of Cava, I made my way over to my menagerie of a table. It was full of familiar faces: a radiant Amelia, her cheeky-looking brother Oscar, head chef of Brindisa José Pizarro, M&S winemaker Jo Ahearne and Richard Bigg, the charismatic owner of Spanish restaurant Camino and soon-to-open Sherry bodega Bar Pepito. I was sat next to a tall, jazz-loving Fin called William, a Cambridge undergraduate, who got me talking on subjects as diverse as the merits of atheism and the orgasmic potential of Mozart.

We got to enjoy some sensational wines, my favourite being the Bodegas Naia Naiades 2006 from Rueda. Recommended recently by José Peñin in Decanter as one of the Spanish whites to watch and winner of the best white over £10 in the New Wave Spanish Wine Awards '09, I was blown away by its complexity and depth. Made from Verdejo from pre-phylloxera vines then fermented and aged in new French oak for 8 months, the result is a vibrant mix of ripe, honeyed fruit, structure and richness.

The food was outstanding too, from the seafood 'guisito' with Jerusalem artichoke and blood orange foam to start, and the perfectly pink loin of salt marsh lamb with wild mushrooms for main, to the divine desert: pear poached in Moscatel with shavings of dark chocolate.

Other wines in the line up included a delicious golden Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana from Javier Hidalgo and the Chivite Colección 125 Vendemia Tardía 2007 from Navarra. The sweet wine from 40-year-old vines had hints of ginger that lingered in the long, luscious finish.

While I was busy enjoying all this liquid pleasure, the new Caballeros were announced: Decanter's own Sarah Jane Evans MW and Pablo Alvarez, head of iconic Ribera del Duero producer Vega Sicilia. Before the new recruits were knighted, the current Caballeros paraded into the ballroom in their fire engine red robes and gold-rimmed mortarboards. Cue graduation flashbacks.

The evening was rounded off with Spanish cheese and a speech from Allan Cheesman about time, energy and money, and how you never have them all at once. As the Brandy de Jerez made its way round I made a dash for the exit, swapping my Cinderella shoes for a practical pair of ballet pumps for the tube ride home. Leaving the ballroom behind, I fished my i-pod from my bag and stepped out into the chilly spring night, aware of what a wonderfully paradoxical life I lead.