Roger Kugler, Sommelier, Bocqueria, NYC and Tazers the Cat

Q: What is your favorite Sherry food pairing?

A: I like sherry with everything.
The classic pairing for me is Amontillado with fried artichokes. The most
unusual, perhaps, would be Oloroso with a great hamburger. The one my
friends laugh at is when I drink Amontillado with pizza.

Q: What is your favorite piece of Sherry trivia?

A: That the Gutiérrez-Colosía bodega is built on the ruins of the chapel that
all the great sea explorers, including Columbus, prayed in before setting
sail from El Puerto de Santa Maria on their voyages of discovery. The chapel
was destroyed during the Napoleonic wars and the bodega built in the 1830s
incorporating some of the remaining walls.

Q: What is your best memory involving Sherry?

A: Winning the 3rd Copa de Jerez, January Œ09.

Q: Who introduced you to Sherry?

A: Sherry was a girl in my 3rd grade class at Cross Timbers Elementary School. But that’s not what you meant. I first drank sherry at a rather unfortunate college party when we ran out of beer and it was the only alcohol we could find in the house that hadn’t already been consumed. It was a sweet cream. It did not pair well with the beer. The results were dramatic.