Sherry tasting at The Highball

Back in 1995, while I was going to UT, I got a job at a new downtown Austin movie theater called the Alamo Drafthouse.  Back then, owners Tim and Karrie League were working non-stop, 80 hour weeks doing everything from painting to sandblasting, to installing kitchen equipment.  I was one of the original servers, when our entire crew consisted of 10 employees and we all pitched in to help finish the theater, installing theater seats, light fixtures, and tile. We all knew it was a great and fun concept and that it would be very successful, but I don’t think any of us thought Tim would eventually hold the title of CEO. So cool.

Alamo Drafthouse co-founder and CEO, my pal Tim League.

I have collaborated with the Alamo on many events, from judging their Iron Chef style movie battles to helping with their wine lists and selecting wine pairings for special events. Most recently I was the guest “sommelier” for a new series, Sommelier Cinema, in which I had the honor of selecting a flight of wines from Cataluña to pair with Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

A food and drink aficionado, Tim started writing about booze recently on the Alamo’s blog, Badass Digest, with entertaining and informative rants on Whiskey and Prohibition and Port wines.  “When I started the third one, the Sherry article, I thought it would be a cool addition to add a tasting at the Highball to compliment the article,” says Tim. So he is hosting a fantastic Sherry tasting this Sunday at 6:30 pm, with 8 different styles of Sherries, many of them very old and rare, selected by Tracy Parzen of Glazer’s Distributors.

Here are the wines she has in store for us:

Tio Pepe Fino Muy Seco (dry)
Hidalgo La Gitana Manzanilla (dry)
Bodegas Tradicion VORS 40 year old Amontillado (dry)
Fernando de Castilla VORS Antique Oloroso (dry)
Gonzalez Byass VORS 30 year old Matusalem Oloroso (sweet)
Lustau East India Cream Sherry (this is an interesting style – it is aged in hot, humid cellars that are meant to replicate the aging that Sherries would have experienced on ancient East Indian sea voyages) (sweet)
Lustau Deluxe Cream (sweet)
Gonzalez Byass VORS 30 year old Noe Pedro Ximenez (sweet)

Tickets are $54 and include paired snacks, olives and cheeses. Get yours here. I have mine and am very much looking forward to this!

“We’ll be doing more of [these events] soon,” says Tim. ” Sake and Belgian Wild Yeast Beers are definitely coming soon, and we’ve got a rare whiskey tasting on deck too.” Salud!