Tapas is the new culinary wave cresting in Cape Town at the minute. Last week international celebrity chef Liam Gallagher was chowing down on Asian tapas made by countryman Liam Tomlin at Chef’s Warehouse while across the road at La Parada, patrons eagerly await the arrival of Andrea, the former #2 hombre at El Bulli, to take the tapas to the Next Level.

When tossing tapas down the old cakehole with my chiskop homies (below), one’s thoughts turn naturally to Sherry. So invited by KWV to sample its jewels of fortified wines at Societi Bistro last week, I confidently expected to be greeted with a Gin and Sherry cocktail.

Perhaps a Tuxedo Cocktail

2 parts gin
1 part dry sherry
1 dash Amer Picon [orange bitters will do in a pinch]
Shake w/ ice and strain into a cocktail glass. No garnish required.

Or maybe an Alaska #2 Cocktail

4 parts gin
1 part green chartreuse
1 part dry sherry [such as a Manzanilla or the like]
Shake w/ ice and Strain into a cocktail glass. Serve with no garnish.

Or with the new management at KWV busy turning the supertanker around, perhaps a Renaissance Cocktail

3 parts gin
1 part dry sherry
2 tsbp. half and half [a lighter cream]
Shake w/ ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Sprinkle the top w/ a dash of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg and a dash of powdered allspice. Basically you want a total of one shake of mixed baking spice.

For KWV distils one of the grooviest gins in the bar: Roman Rock. Certainly cocktails are a better way to market mother’s ruin than this feeble attempt from Old Buck Gin in a Butterworth supermarket that is currently rocking FaceBook down to its Estée Lauder foundations

Guess we’ll have to wait for Sherry September at the Table Bay Hotel to explore sinful Sherry cocktails. No animals were harmed in the posting of this blog.