Nyhavn is known in Copenhagen for its open-air restaurants where traditional Danish food is served accompanied by beer. But just round the corner, at no. 10 Lille Strandstræde, we encounter a new bar oozing with Spanish ambience.
The sign at the door says Nyhavns Bodega, which evokes what has been known as a bodega in Denmark until now: a dark place, full of smoke, slot machines and the stench of beer. But in Spanish the word bodega means “a house of wine”, and lower down on the same sign it says: Bar Andaluz de Vino de Jerez.
Morten Wulff, proprietor of Wulff & Vin, a specialist wine merchant, is the joint proprietor along with partner Jesper Kemp in this project: the first specialist Sherry Bar in Denmark.
A full range of Sherries
Morten Wulff has been importing wines from Andalucía for five years and passed the Sherry Educators Course in Jerez. He is keen to be able to educate his customers at the bar as to the wide range of Sherries available: from the driest like Manzanilla, Fino and Oloroso to the sweetest like Pedro Ximénez.
It is precisely this wide spectrum of styles which makes Sherry so interesting compared to other drinks. We offer a wide range of these wines and sell them in half bottles as well as by the glass. We can offer our customers both inexpensive wines and Sherries with up to sixty years of solera age. I haven’t bought wine from the big bodegas; rather I have selected it from small traditional bodegas, a job which has taken a couple of years.
The bar’s wine list is not yet fully stocked, but should be complete in a couple of weeks. Aperitifs, both sweet and savoury, are also available to match the wines.
Growing interest in the wines of Jerez
The first “Sherry Bar” opened its doors in Britain in 2010 and since then many more have opened. A glass of Sherry has become fashionable in Britain at the end of a day’s work.
Morten Wulff, who also organises Sherry tastings for companies, is certain that this situation augurs well for the opening of a Sherry Bar in Denmark.
Just a few years ago there was no great interest in Sherry in Denmark, but in the last five or six months he has seen an increase. Also tickets for Sherry tastings have sold out.
