I adore the wines of Jerez so much that I became an accredited Sherry Educator! From bone-dry Manzanilla to treacly PX, I love the complexity and diversity of Sherry styles. Learn how Sherry is made and discover the different types of Sherry wines and how to serve Sherry at the below links and FAQ.
Sherry comes from Andalusia in southern Spain. It’s made in an area referred to as ‘the Sherry Triangle’ with the towns of Jerez de la Frontera (inland), Sanlúcar de Barrameda (coastal), and El Puerto de Santa María (southern) at its points.
Sherry is an Anglicisation of Jerez, referring to the town of Jerez de la Frontera.
Sherry is made in five main styles: Fino, Amontillado, Palo Cortado, Oloroso and sweet (PX, Moscatel and Cream).
Most Sherry is dry. The three sweet styles of Sherry are: Pedro Ximenez (PX), Moscatel, and Cream Sherry (a blend of a dry Sherry and a little PX or Moscatel).
Sherry is best enjoyed from a wine glass.
Yes Sherry is best served chilled. Serve the lighter styles (Manzanilla and Fino) colder, around 4–5°C (around 40°F) and richer (Oloroso) or aged (pasada) a little warmer 7–9°C (around 46°F).
Sherry is made by a process called ‘fractional blending’ where wines of different ages are blended through a series of barrels called a solera system.
A solera system is a series of barrels where only wine from the oldest barrel is bottled. Each barrel is then topped up with wine from the next oldest barrel until new wine is added to the youngest barrel. This is called fractional blending. Technically the ‘solera’ is the row of barrels containing the oldest wine and the other rows, with younger wines, are called criaderas (Spanish for ‘nurseries’).
Due to the fractional blending of a solera system, every bottle of Sherry contains wines from many different vintages blended together. The age statement refers to the youngest wine in that blend.
Flor (from the Spanish word for flower) refers to a layer of yeast that grows on the surface of some wines. The barrels for Sherry aged under flor are only partially filled to encourage the flor to grow. The flor protects the wine from oxygen in the barrel and adds it’s own unique flavour to the wine.
Sherry can be aged biologically, under flor, or oxidatively, without flor. Biological ageing is used to make pale Sherry such as Fino and Manzanilla, while oxidative ageing creates dark Sherries like Oloroso. Some Sherries (Amontillado and Palo Cortado) undergo first biological ageing then oxidative ageing.
