"With the economy, nobody's drinking wine in Spain," said Kerin Auth, an owner of Tinto Fino, a shop in the East Village that specializes in Spanish wines.
I like sherry in a white wine glass, moderately chilled for manzanilla and fino, a little less so for amontillado and just cool for dry oloroso.
"We can't keep it in the store," said Kerin Auth, an owner of Tinto Fino, a Spanish wine shop in the East Village.
You can order a fragrant, dry fino, a nutty amontillado (named after Montilla), a voluptuous palo cortado or a figgy oloroso in Cordoba, but they're rare further afield.
They passed Fino, a clothing store that offered three suits for $200, and Rehoboth Fish Market, which displayed plastic bins full of shrimp on ice.
Dogs were frequent passengers: toy dogs in front baskets, larger dogs poking out between the knees of their human chauffeurs — a husky on an old yellow Fino, a golden retriever on a teal-tinted model.
Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Kerin Auth, an owner of Tinto Fino, an East Village shop specializing in Spanish wines, and my friend Rafael Mateo, proprietor of Pata Negra, a ham-and-tapas bar also in the East Village.
"He must have trained about 200 chefs," said Ramy Hoti, the manager of Fino, an Italian restaurant on East 36th Street in Manhattan, which Mr. Vulevic had owned with his brother Paul since 1985.
For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Kerin Auth, an owner of Tinto Fino, an East Village shop specializing in Spanish wines, and my friend Rafael Mateo, the proprietor of Pata Negra, a ham-and-tapas bar, also in the East Village.
"He was not an outgoing man, and didn't have time for many people," said Ramy Hoti, the manager of Fino, an Italian restaurant at 4 East 36th Street in Manhattan, which Mr. Vulevic has owned with his brother, Paul, since 1985.
At Fernando de Castilla, a warehouse, or bodega, on a winding side street here, the managing director, Jan Pettersen, almost bristled with enthusiasm as he offered a barrel sample of what will be a Fino Antique, a special bottling of fino sherry made in the traditional manner.
