As we all know, there’s no better drink to get the gastronomic juices flowing than a chilled glass of manzanilla. But what if you combine the sherry with the sights and smells of cooking from some of London’s best chefs? Well, I could have eaten a horse after 10 minutes at the final of the Copa Jerez UK 2026. Imagine MasterChef with smell-o-vision and you have some idea of what it was like to be in the audience.
This is the bi-annual international culinary competition organised by Sherry Wines where some of the country’s best restaurants compete for a place in the final in Jerez. The entrants had been whittled down to three contenders by the panel of judges. The UK final took place at Pierre Minotti at the Orrery in Marylebone High Street and it was judged by Minotti himself, the restaurant’s wine director Julio Sierra, Zoé Donadio sommelier at Impala and chairing the panel, writer, consultant and sporter of extravagant shirts Douglas Blyde.
The judges at Copa Jerez UK 2026
On the day of the final, the competitors, Cord by Le Cordon Bleu, Labombe by Trivet and the Ritz, had three hours to produce a three-course meal (you can read the full menus here) with a sherry to accompany each course. Zoé Donadio who won the UK final in 2024 with chef Will Stoyle from Silo explained how nerve wracking the event was when she took part – actually far scarier than the event in Jerez. You could really feel the anxiety as the first team came out.
Team A: Cord by Le Cordon Bleu - chef Karl O'Dell and sommelier Jiachen Lu
Three hours clearly wasn’t quite enough for the Cord team and by the time the chef Karl O'Dell came on he was a little flustered, forgetting the word amontillado. In contrast, Lu was in her element, commanding the room and showing a thorough knowledge of sherry. No wonder, as she was a former winner of the UK finals of Copa Jerez in 2022 when she was at Dinings.
The first dish was called “Scottish langoustines” which she paired with an amontillado which might seem too much but the dish also contained chorizo, lemon and an amontillado bouillabaisse. Lu explained how she liked to start meals with amontillado while keeping the lighter styles for an aperitif. When you’ve got a sherry as good as the La Honda En Rama from Osborne then I can only agree.
The main course was a more conventional pairing – pigeon and black pudding with oloroso. The wine in this case was Cuco Oloroso VORS from Barbadillo. Lu praised its “freshness and balance.” It is indeed a superb wine, incredibly elegant like an oloroso for amontillado lovers.
Finally, the pudding: foie gras ice cream with cherry & PX Jam and pain d’epices, Piment d'Espelette. You might think a cream sherry might be too much with such richness but the wine in this case a VOS 20 Years Cream from Bodegas Tradición wasn’t as sweet as you might expect.
Team B: Labombe by Trivet - chef Higinio Machado and sommelier Ben Cardwell
The team from Trivet were next and they got off to a bold start by serving that same Tradición cream sherry alongside pici, a kind of pasta, with clams. Sweet sherry with seafood! Have they lost their minds? Cardwell explained how the richness of the sherry complements the richness of the dish. I asked Blyde what he thought of the pairing and he diplomatically replied that he liked the dish. Sadly, Minotti was not able to taste it because of a seafood allergy, though he did give it a good smell. “Do you want tomato pasta?” quipped Blyde.
For the main course the chef brought out sea bream with courgette & brown butter hollandaise alongside S. Roberto Amontillado Bota Única 2/2. Another bold choice as this wine is quite extraordinarily concentrated. Would it overwhelm the delicate fish? Cardwell explained how both basil which features in the dish and amontillado share a flavour compound called eugenol. So now you know.
They finished with an almond sablé with goat's dairy & smoked hojicha served with a 30 Year VORS Palo Cortado, Lustau. By this point the assembled press such as Andy Neather and Ben Colville were so hungry that I worried that they were about to storm the judging table. Thankfully some sandwiches were brought out from the deli downstairs and a crisis was averted.
Team C: The Ritz - chef Aaron Blais and sommelier Léonard Lievin
Then it was on to the final team, from the Ritz. You knew that the judges were in for a treat when Blais wheeled out a large metal duck press. They had also brought their own plates, glasses and cutlery. Clearly much thought had gone into the presentation.
They started off with a scallop dish dubbed “Flavours of Pintxos” paired with Manzanilla Gabriela from Bodegas Barrero. After all those intensely flavoured wines, the light, refreshing manzanilla must have been a balm.
It was followed by the Pigeon “À la Presse”. This consisted of pigeon breast, freshly caught that morning in Trafalgar Square. I am joking, the birds are fed on chestnuts in Brittany. Blais pressed the carcass, made a sauce with oloroso and PX and finished by flambéing it with brandy de jerez for some classic Ritz table theatre. Again, Lievin picked a comparatively simple wine, Lustau’s Oloroso Don Nuño.
The final dish was a peach, almond, lemon verbena Baron Bigod cheesecake served with Moscatel Dorado, César Florido. This wine which is only aged for a year has extraordinarily vivid fresh flavours. It’s more like a moscato than a traditional sweet sherry. Lievin explained that in this case they had tasted the sherry first and “reverse engineered” a dish to go with it. Fiendishly clever.
The verdict
'Bringing the restaurant to the table' - the Ritz team starts its dish
The judges went away to debate while we enjoyed an Adonis cocktail and tucked into some almonds and olives. For my fellow attendees who, like me, had not tasted the food, the Ritz team definitely got the popular vote. I thought it was interesting how they went for comparatively simple wines with their rich food when everyone else had gone for rich wines with rich food. Aaron Blais and sommelier Léonard Lievin also made a good double act, Lievin the extrovert and Blais, quieter but confident and witty.
Blyde and the judges then took to the stage. They praised Lu’s knowledge of sherry but noted that the food was late. For team B, the judges said that they would have liked to hear chef Higinio Machado speak instead of just the sommelier. And for team C, Blyde explained that showing the full diversity of sherry from light to sweet was “catnip to the judges” and liked that Lievin specified a serving temperature for the wines.
And the winner was…..
The Ritz! Gonzalo Garcia, chief counsellor of the commercial office at the Spanish Embassy, was on hand to present the duo with their award.
The winning team at Copa Jerez UK 2026
I spoke with Blyde afterwards and he elaborated on why they were the clear winner: “Pierre Minotti was practically purring beside me at the sheer amount of cheffy technique involved, particularly in the pigeon à la presse”. Blyde himself loved how the Ritz “brought the restaurant to the table.” He was particularly impressed with the final dish, “rather than finding a sherry to suit peach, almond, lemon verbena and Baron Bigod, they built the dish backwards from the wine. That, for me, is Copa Jerez at its best: the wine is not the accompaniment, but part of the recipe.”
Now Aaron Blais and sommelier Léonard Lievin will be packing their bags, duck press and all, for the final in Jerez in 2027. They follow in the footsteps of Giovanni Ferlito and Michael Nizzero, also from the Ritz, who won the UK final in 2016, went on to win Best Dessert Pairing in Jerez the following year. Could the young Ritz team go even further and win the whole thing?
