Yep, you heard right: sherry is big news. It’s been a mainstay in Sydney bars and restaurants for some time now, and now we have an entire bar and restaurant dedicated to the stuff. Step off the main drag into Bulletin Place and you’ll spot Tapavino. The room is lit with an orange-red glow and the vibrant colours are echoed in the cocktails, most of which are sherry-based. The Jerez Sour with its sugar-rimmed glass has been kicked up a notch with the addition of Amontillado jerez with an incredible hazelnut aroma. It’s perfectly poised between sour and sweet. An eye-catching tower of wine, stretching over two walls of the ground floor (upstairs there are more tables but not much atmosphere) display bottles of Spain and Argentina’s finest, including the only white tempranillo imported to Australia. A ripe apple-flavoured Martin Codax albariño from Rias Baixas in Spain is the only thing to drink with the crab tostado, a must-order snack of citrusy and sweet picked crab meat, small cubes of avocado, a hit of finely chopped chilli and herbs atop a crunchy square of toasted bread. Jamon comes in a variety of guises, from serrano to pata negra; order it with balls of sweet melon and sticky balsamic, or burrata and red onion, but save room for a slice of simple dulce de leche pastry tart. You’d better have another sherry to go with it, and the syrupy and fragrant Solera 1847 Oloroso sweet sherry is the pick of the bunch. Bueno.
