The Don of a new age

SHERRY is back. The newly opened Don Restaurant and Bistro in London's St Swithin's Lane reports healthy sales, much to the satisfaction of its owners, Robert and Robyn Wilson. But then, so it should, with its location in an old sherry warehouse.

The Don opened in December, and is the Wilsons' second establishment. Their first was the Bleeding Heart Restaurant, Bistro and Tavern, also in the City, which is more like a group of eating establishments.

There's the busy pub on the corner of Greville Street, which the Wilsons opened two years ago (from 1746 to 1946, it was a pub called the Bleeding Heart Tavern, says Robert). Around the corner is the Bleeding Heart Bistro, where it all started, back in 1983 - all cosy wood and chunky chairs and tables. Take a steep flight of stairs down and you're in the Bleeding Heart Restaurant, a maze of rooms with low-beamed ceilings, crisp white linen and nooks galore. Back on ground level, you pass through a sturdy wooden gate to the City's only private street, beadle and all, and the 700-year-old St Etheldreda's Church. Down uneven stone steps is The Crypt underneath, and this is the Bleeding Heart's 150-capacity function room, which the Wilsons co-lease with a priest.

Wilson was a wine merchant once. He imports many of the wines for Bleeding Heart directly from the producer. He was a journalist once, too, and it was his old Fleet Street buddies who persuaded him to open the Bleeding Heart in the first place.

Black sombrero

The Don is a short cab ride away in the City proper. Wilson was going to call it Heart in the City, before port and sherry producer George Sandeman offered Wilson the old sign that used to hang there in its early days: the black-caped figure of The Don with his flat black sombrero - Sandeman's trademark.

The Don is on the former site of the Sandeman Port Company. Sandeman bottled its ports, sherries and Madeiras here from 1798 to 1969, and some of the fittings are still there. Sandeman also let Wilson have some of the company's older vintages of port that were bottled right there, to sell in the restaurant - among them bottles dating from 1911 (£230), 1927 (£790), 1935 (£620) and 1943 (£365). Wilson has added another 22 ports to the list, some from corresponding vintages - he has '27 Taylor's (£585) and '27 Cockburn's (£470), for those who fancy comparing house styles.

But it's sherry that has been selling particularly well at The Don - "especially PX [Pedro Ximenez], amontillado and oloroso. Sherry is the new cocktail," Wilson says. Heading the list is Lustau Puerto Fino (£2.50 per glass), with Juan Garcia Jarana's Oloroso Pata de Gillina (£4.50 per glass) completing the line-up.

Sommelier Richard Ferge is also having success in selling sherry with dessert. "It knocks them out," says Ferge, whose current favourite match is Sandeman PX with chef Matt Burns's steamed ginger and orange pudding with treacle sauce.

Compared with that of the Bleeding Heart, the wine list at The Don is on the smallish side, at just 70 bins. "It's relatively easy to write a long wine list," says Wilson, "so it was fun to write this shorter list. If customers see a short list they won't feel so restricted by all that choice." France, California and New Zealand feature largely, especially the last. In 1993, the Wilsons bought a vineyard in New Zealand with wine-maker John Hancock and its wines, under the Trinity Hill label, are doing very nicely over here, listed as Vin du Patron. n