News

Wine List of the Week: Legado

22 December 2025 By Douglas Blyde

Douglas Blyde heads to Legado in Shoreditch, and finds an inquisitive wine list, with the cellar assembled by Emily Jago, head of wine for JKS Restaurants.

Legado reads like a billet-doux from Nieves Barragán Mohacho to the country she left yet carries within her. After two decades shaping how London eats Spain, from the narrow corridors of Barrafina to the one-Michelin-starred Sabor, she opens a second venture in Shoreditch. It is, she says, a room where she can lay out the pantry of her upbringing without restraint. “Spain’s food heritage is incredible… many dishes I love, I have never seen outside the country and want to bring them and even more to London.”

Early notices have been vivid. Local Google guide, Armin H, called it “hands down one of the best Spanish”. Hot-Dinners judged it “a different beast” to Sabor, then doubled down with “an absolute beast of a menu.” The Standard described Barragán as “a chef’s chef who doesn’t bore the public.” The Telegraph praised her dark pasta, singling out the interplay of batter, shellfish and mayo as “a strong contender for dish of the year”. Only the location and interior has faced reproach, with The B-Side spotting “a clashing mix of bathroom-esque tiles, exposed brick with wooden counter tops and Japandi chairs.”’

Drinks

Roughly twice the scale of its sibling Sabor, the cellar was assembled by Emily Jago, head of wine for JKS Restaurants, who comes from drinks industry royalty as granddaughter of Tom Jago, co-founder of The Last Drop Distillers and creator of Blue Label, the Classic Malts, Bailey’s and Malibu, and niece of Dan Jago of Berry Bros. & Rudd. Day-to-day it is steered by Marcos Rapado Segurado, whose path from Zamora to Shoreditch has included Annabel’s Club, Sushisamba, Mews of Mayfair, Sparrow and Merchants Tavern. Here he channels that experience into a 150- bin survey of Spain.

Bottle prices begin at £48 for Frontonio’s Garnacha Blanca, Parajes del Valle’s Bobal and Flaco Tempranillo, and rise to £1,800 for Pingus 2018. Between those points, Galicia shows both lift and depth, from Attis Albariño to Dominio do Bibei’s Lapola. Rioja runs the full ladder of López de Heredia from Gravonia 2016 to Tondonia Gran Reserva 2004. Priorat appears in several registers, the Canaries in both colours, and Txakoli shows up no fewer than four times. Skin contact shows via MontRubí’s La Peona and Attis Sitta Maceración.

Indeed, there is plentiful space for bottles which bend the frame, with Fedellos do Couto’s Bastarda set beside Comando G across a clutch of altitudes, Ramiro Ibáñez’s UBE marking the Andalusian vanguard, the joint Muchada-Leclapart wines adding coastal tension, Colet Navazos linking Penedès and Jerez, Támeran showing the strength of Gran Canaria, and Lobban’s La Pamelita bringing a rare red sparkler into view. The £48-£70 tier remains the surest zone for value, where Castro Ventosa’s Mencía, Pegaso Zeta, Attis Albariño and Casa Castillo’s Monastrell give strong footing. From £100-£210, Remelluri, Rafael Palacios and the island growers take over, before the list moves into collector territory with Prado Enea across several vintages, Tondonia Gran Reserva, Vega Sicilia Único and that highest reach of Pingus.

Cocktails mostly sit at £11-£14, with Gin Tonicas climbing to £18 and drawing on expressions from Cataluña, Cantabria, Galicia and Menorca. The Romesco Martini balances almond Gin Mare, roasted pepper vermouth, Manzanilla and brine, while the coconut-led Rebujito offers energy. Sangría, both red and – based on Cava – white, appears at £10, the former from a vat behind the bar – perhaps a resourceful way to use-up the last dregs of bottles. Sherry brings things together: Fino del Puerto, Manzanilla Fina, Amontillado, Oloroso, PX and Moscatel, mostly from Lustau, César Florido, Maestro Sierra and De La Riva.

Dishes

Producers sit at the core of Barragán Mohacho’s cooking. Even plates we did not order show fastidious sourcing: Zamora lamb, whole Segovia suckling pig from Tabladillo el Cochinillo, and Extremadura ham from Señorío de Montanera point to a larder shaped by relationships. Two hand-built ovens from Madrid’s Hornos Jumaco Maestro anchor the workshop – Steinways of a kind – one for lamb, one for pork.

Partner Content

Amarone: ‘we don’t talk enough about appassimento’

Why rosé under the tree may be the ideal gifting solution

hors Bordeaux: a tasting tour through the platform’s top international expressions

Readying Robert Mondavi Winery for a new generation

We began with a beetroot and rum “three-sip” alcoholic amuse, a neat jolt of earth and warmth. Its pomegranate-based non-alcoholic pair costs the same, a gesture towards flavour over fortification. Neither came from Marcos Rapado Segurado’s hands, though set the tone before he took the reins. Segurado opened with Recaredo’s Terrers Brut Nature 2019, from one of Cataluña’s most uncompromising houses. Aged under natural cork and farmed biodynamically, this Corpinnat showed its familiar tension: saline edges, citrus, a mineral rasp. It carried cleanly across early dishes: pan con tomate rubbed with measured garlic, topped with curls of Cecina beef; Carlingford Lough oysters brightened with bergamot ice, though with small shards remaining; a salad of almond pesto, pomelo, orange and tuna heart arranged like a shifting mosaic; and Basque morcilla steadied by silken piquillo pepper.

For squid stuffed with prawn and girolles in its black mirror of ink, and octopus arms touched with smoked paprika, Segurado turned to De La Riva’s Manzanilla Fina from Miraflores Baja. Averaging seven years, it showed softened corners of extended flor ageing while keeping its coastal spine. He spoke of “huge complexity”, though what stood out was the way the wine coaxed agreement from the plates. Lapola from Dominio do Bibei followed. With a trace of age, this near tropical Godello brought breadth to the black fideuà, seemingly scissored, with rock shrimps in crisp cocoons beside a discreet aioli.

One of the most absorbing dishes proved one of the gentlest: chopped suckling pig’s ear, slow-cooked until near the tenderness of monkfish cheek. Segurado chose La Peona, MontRubí’s skin- contact Xarel.lo, its Roman-like herbs, light grip and seasoned wood meeting the dish without pressing it. The same wine worked with the Legado sandwich, Nieves’ salute to her grandmother: Swiss chard in place of bread, cecina and smoked cheese bound with fried breadcrumbs, carrying the faintest whisper of kimchi-like fermentation.

Red came from Cebreros: Pegaso Zeta, a mountain Garnacha from Sierra de Gredos. Not unlike the best people, “you think it’s light, then it has a kick,” said Segurado, and indeed its breezy opening hides a firmer core. It coped with vinegar-bright tomatoes flecked with dried tuna heart, and marinated quail, chargrilled and traced with tarragon. Segurado’s take of the latter: “French in style, yet so Spanish.” Dessert appeared with Alto Landon’s Dulce Enero, a Petit Manseng picked in January after being “forgotten” on the vine. Its nectarine lift suited the sumptuous saffron ice cream, white chocolate mousse and Arbequina olive oil. A Spanish relation of Chartreuse, gentler in degree, closed the meal.

Segurado stayed within the by-the-glass list throughout. A careful approach, though it exposed a gap: the absence of pours nudging into the £20-plus tier. Given Legado’s nearness to the City, and the appetite of those who drift in from, or in the name of, work, such additions could help the bottom line.

Last Sip

Opened mid-summer beneath a monstrous railway viaduct – a circumstance shared with parts of Borough Market – Legado has already grown into its unlikely corner of Shoreditch. The bar, dining room and butchery run at a steady clip, helped by open counters and so much craft on open display. The wider neighbourhood has shifted too, including Singburi, Casa do Frango, Shoreditch Wine House and Bar Lina. Across the meal, seasoning occasionally wobbled, though never enough to weaken the arc. What endured was the breadth of Nieves Barragán Mohacho’s expressive cooking, the clear judgement of Segurado, and a cellar built with care and curiosity. Ignoring the cabrón of a location, Legado stands as one of the most compelling Spanish-leaning rooms outside Spain.