Chocolate brownies and Lustau Moscatel Emilín

The picture says it all really: chocolate brownies and luscious sweet sherry. I've often sipped treacly sweet PX with chocolate which works well, but can be too much of a good thing (and dangerously calorific). Lustau's Moscatel Emilín is a little less sweet with 195g sugar per litre (Pedro Ximénez contains as much as 500g per litre) and worked fabulously with the brownies. The wine's complex caramelised orange and dried fig aromas, rich, yet fresh and tangy, melded seamlessly with the brownies with their bitter dark chocolate and touch of salt. They truly flattered and enhanced each other. You don't need much – just a few mouthfuls to round off your evening. A decadent little treat.

Available from Berry Bros and Rudd for £9.75 (37.5cl) and Slurp for £16.35 (75cl).

Salty satisfaction

Today I'm having a dry day so, as I write this, I’m sipping some San Pellegrino just ahead of eating my dinner. Normally I’m happy to have a glass of filtered water from the Brita jug but, for me, the San Pell is a treat. I love its subtle salty tang – appetising, satisfying and a much better partner for food.

During the spell of sweltering hot weather earlier in the summer, what I craved more than anything at the end of a long sticky day was some chilled, saline dry sherry. Ideally Manzanilla, but fresh-as-a-daisy Fino was fine. It then struck me that it wasn’t just my love of salt that provoked this desire. I remembered how much I enjoyed drinking margaritas on holiday in Mexico several years ago – the combination of lime and salt is irresistible in the heat. Perhaps it’s a case of the body craving what it needs. Or perhaps it is just that weakness for salt.

In cooler weather I love sipping dry Amontillado sherry – nutty, mellow, but still with that instantly recognisable tangy, salty core. Of course, certain malt whiskies have a briny undercurrent. Talisker, with its peat smoke and iodine complexity, is a particular favourite.

Champagne can have a saline note, especially blanc de blancs; a recent treat was Ulysse Collin Extra Brut served as a seductively tingly apéritif. Safely tucked away for the future, we have some Chinon from Bernard Baudry with an enticing salty minerality that works deliciously with Cabernet Franc’s hard graphite edge. I cannot wait to see how it evolves. And I couldn’t possibly leave out Thalassitis (‘of the sea’) by Gaia, an arresting white wine from the volcanic island of Santorini. All profoundly and hauntingly satisfying.

More salty tales will follow, probably accompanied by something a little less virtuous in my glass...

(The image is of a driftwood tree on Harbour Island in the Bahamas where we spent some of our honeymoon.) 

Bar Pepito: a taste of Andalucía in the heart of King's Cross

Firstly, I must declare my unreserved love of Spanish food and wine. The Spanish really know how to enjoy themselves and do so with an infectious energy. I think this has a powerful effect on how they view food and wine. Why have a slow and static meal of two or three courses when you can have a whole series of contrasting little dishes, keeping your tastebuds and mind alert and receptive, moving from bar to bar? Here in the UK we have cottoned on to this and how it is so much more fun, relaxing and perfect for busy modern life.

Maybe with this in mind, Bar Pepito in King's Cross has opened. It's an offshoot of the already popular Spanish restaurant, Camino, but even more hardcore. I use the word 'hardcore' as Bar Pepito is all about sherry. Sadly, we Brits still tend to view sherry as something to politely sip with older female relatives at Christmas from bottles that have gathered dust since the previous year, not as an invigorating pick-me-up after a hard day at work.

Step into Bar Pepito and this all changes – it's as though you've suddenly been transported to Seville or Granada. With a glass of tangy, salty Fino or Manzanilla (from £3.50 for 100ml) and nibbling some sublime hand-sliced pata negra ham (£15.50) or large juicy 'Gordal' olives (£2.25), sherry suddenly seems quite different. There are 15 sherries available by the glass and a tempting range of stylishly served tapas. There's even a little dish of chocolate coated figs (£4.75) – perfect for treacly Pedro Ximenez (one of the few wines that can truly stand up to chocolate). The sherry and food menus work in nicely complimentary ways, with plenty of suggested partnerships.

A feature of Bar Pepito is that it offers themed flights of three 50ml measures (£7.25–12.50). It also has eight sherries available from an Enomatic dispensing machine, starting at less than £1.00. On a recent visit, these were a little too warm (particularly an issue for the drier styles), but that's a minor criticism of such a fun, unique and quality-driven place (although another criticism is the limited opening hours). Bar Pepito is a tiny gem of a place, thankfully with a large outdoor courtyard and you will almost certainly have to stand.

Open: Wednesday to Saturday 5pm until midnight.
Varnishers Yard, The Regent Quarter, King's Cross, London N1 9NL
http://www.camino.uk.com