Fortified Wine

Sherry

Sherry is wine from the Palomino grape (and, for the sweetest, Pedro Ximénez grapes left to shrivel in the sun) made in the triangle of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda, usually with wine alcohol added after fermentation. The Consejo Regulador's 2026 specifications set strengths from 14% for fino and manzanilla to 22% at the top of the oxidative styles. The pale dry ones are aged under a skin of yeast; the dark ones are aged in contact with air.

Quick Facts

ABV15% ABVThe Consejo Regulador's 2026 specifications set 14 to 17% for fino and for manzanilla and up to 22% for amontillado, oloroso, palo cortado and PX.

Legal categoryFortified wineMostly a liqueur wine (15 to 22%) under Regulation (EU) 1308/2013; the Consejo Regulador's 2026 specification also lets the dry styles be plain wine. Jerez-Xérès-Sherry is a protected designation of origin on Defra's register

OriginJerez, Andalusia, Spain

Our keeping timeFino and manzanilla a few days to a week in the fridge once opened; amontillado, oloroso and palo cortado up to two months, corked, in the fridge.

Storage

Unopened: upright, cool and out of the light. Once opened, cork it tightly; the Consejo Regulador says fino and manzanilla always go in the fridge, and gives its open-bottle times for a tightly corked bottle in the fridge.

Allergens

Contains: sulphites.

The ingredient

About Sherry

Sherry is wine, usually fortified after fermentation

The grapes, almost all Palomino, grow on the white albariza soils around Jerez, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. They ferment to a dry white wine, and usually only then does the bodega add wine alcohol. The Consejo Regulador's 2026 specification also allows fino, amontillado, palo cortado and oloroso as plain wine, with no alcohol added, and sets each style's strength and sugar. How strong the wine is decides what it becomes.

Yeast or air decides the style

After fermentation the cellar tastes each wine and marks it. Pale, fine wines get a single stroke and are fortified to 15%, where a film of yeast called flor can grow over them. Fuller wines get a circle and go to at least 17%, which kills flor, so they age with air reaching them and darken to amber. Amontillado and palo cortado begin one way and finish the other.

Sherry styles (Consejo Regulador, 2026 specifications)

Fino

How it ages: Under flor throughout
Strength: 14 to 17%
Sugar per litre: 4g or less
Once opened: A few days to a week, in the fridge

Manzanilla

How it ages: Under flor, in Sanlúcar only
Strength: 14 to 17%
Sugar per litre: Under 4g
Once opened: A few days to a week, in the fridge

Amontillado

How it ages: Flor, then air
Strength: 16 to 22%
Sugar per litre: 4g or less
Once opened: Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)

Palo cortado

How it ages: Flor, then air, chosen by the tasters
Strength: 17 to 22%
Sugar per litre: 4g or less
Once opened: Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)

Oloroso

How it ages: Air from the start
Strength: 17 to 22%
Sugar per litre: 4g or less
Once opened: Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)

Pedro Ximénez

How it ages: Air; sun-dried grapes
Strength: 15 to 22%
Sugar per litre: 212g or more
Once opened: Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)

Cream

How it ages: Oloroso sweetened with PX
Strength: 15 to 22%
Sugar per litre: 115 to 140g
Once opened: Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)

Style	How it ages	Strength	Sugar per litre	Once opened
Fino	Under flor throughout	14 to 17%	4g or less	A few days to a week, in the fridge
Manzanilla	Under flor, in Sanlúcar only	14 to 17%	Under 4g	A few days to a week, in the fridge
Amontillado	Flor, then air	16 to 22%	4g or less	Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)
Palo cortado	Flor, then air, chosen by the tasters	17 to 22%	4g or less	Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)
Oloroso	Air from the start	17 to 22%	4g or less	Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)
Pedro Ximénez	Air; sun-dried grapes	15 to 22%	212g or more	Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)
Cream	Oloroso sweetened with PX	15 to 22%	115 to 140g	Up to two months, corked, in the fridge (Consejo Regulador)

The solera keeps every bottle the same

Sherry ages in tiers of butts. The bodega draws wine for bottling from the most mature tier and refills it from the next youngest, a step at a time, so young wine slowly takes on the character of the old. Two years is the legal minimum, and the system means a bottle tastes like the one before it rather than like a particular harvest.

Which page to read for which bottle

Our recipes name the style, never plain sherry. Fino carries the pale stirred drinks, and manzanilla is its coastal twin. Amontillado and palo cortado share the cobbler. Oloroso is the dry, dark one, and Pedro Ximénez the sweet one.

Using it

Using Sherry

Usage

Choose the style before the measure. Fino and manzanilla go into pale stirred drinks with vermouth or gin; amontillado and palo cortado give a cobbler its body; PX adds sweetness by the barspoon. A recipe that says only "sherry" usually means a dry one.

Pro Tip

If a sherry drink tastes flat and faintly of stewed apple, the bottle has oxidised. With fino and manzanilla that happens within days of opening; open a fresh half bottle before blaming the recipe.

Top Tips

Read the style on the label before the producer's name. Fino and oloroso differ more than two brands of fino do.
Store unopened bottles upright, which keeps the wine's surface small, and out of light and heat.
A bottle labelled cream or medium has been sweetened by blending; the dry styles carry almost none.
Buy fino and manzanilla in half bottles unless you will finish a full one within the week.

Possible Substitutions

Dry Vermouth: For fino in a stirred drink: more herbal, less saline, and we keep it three or four weeks once opened

Production Method

Palomino wine usually fortified with wine alcohol after fermentation, then aged in a criaderas and solera system. The Consejo Regulador's own pages give 15% for wines aged under flor, at least 17% for wines aged in contact with air, two years as the minimum age, and the American oak butt as the preferred cask. Pedro Ximénez is pressed from sun-dried grapes and fortified during fermentation, which leaves the sugar in.

History & Context

The Consejo Regulador’s history says the word sherry derives from Sherish, the Moors’ name for the city of Jerez, which Al-Idrisi’s map of 1154 shows, and that sherry wines were being exported to England by the twelfth century under that name. Dictionary.com dates the English word to between 1590 and 1600, a back formation from sherris, construed as a plural. The Consejo Regulador's history of sherry says Spain's first wine law, of 1933, recognised the Denomination of Origin Jerez and its Consejo Regulador. The name is a protected designation of origin on Defra's register, so only wine from the Jerez area may use it.

Go further

More to explore

Common Questions

What is sherry?

Wine from around Jerez de la Frontera, mostly Palomino. Wine alcohol usually goes in once fermentation is over, though the Consejo Regulador's 2026 specification lets the dry styles go without, and the wine then ages for at least two years in oak. Only wine from that area, made under the Consejo Regulador's rules, may be sold as sherry.

Is sherry sweet or dry?

Most styles are dry: the rules cap fino, manzanilla, amontillado, oloroso and palo cortado at 4g of sugar per litre. Pedro Ximénez is the sweet one, at 212g or more, and cream sherry is a dry oloroso with PX mixed in. If the label names one of the dry styles, expect no sweetness at all.

How strong is sherry?

Between 14 and 22% ABV under the Consejo Regulador's 2026 specifications. Fino and manzanilla usually sit at 15%, because wines meant to age under flor are fortified only that far. Oloroso, palo cortado and the older amontillados run higher, up to 22%. That is well short of any spirit and a little over a table wine.

Does sherry go off once opened?

Yes, at a rate that depends on the style. Fino and manzanilla behave like white wine: the Consejo Regulador says to keep them in the fridge and finish an open bottle within a week. The Consejo Regulador says amontillado, oloroso and palo cortado keep for up to two months once opened, because years of oxidation in the butt have already happened.

What is flor in sherry?

A skin of living yeast that forms on the wine in the butt. It keeps air off the wine and feeds on alcohol and glycerine, which is why fino and manzanilla stay pale and taste sharp, bready and saline. Fortify the wine to 17% or more and the flor cannot survive.

What is a solera?

The rows of butts sherry ages in. Wine for bottling is drawn from the most mature row, the solera, and the gap is filled from the row before it, called a criadera, and so on back to the youngest. Every bottle is a mix of years, so most sherry carries no vintage.

Is Pedro Ximénez a sherry?

Yes, when it comes from the Jerez area: the Consejo Regulador lists it as a naturally sweet sherry. Its grapes shrivel in the sun before they are pressed, and the wine alcohol goes in almost at once, so the sweetness stays: the Consejo Regulador's specification requires 212g per litre or more. Montilla-Moriles, a separate region inland, makes PX too, under its own name.

What glass should you serve sherry in?

The traditional sherry glass is the copita, a small tulip shape. The Consejo Regulador says the traditional tasting glass suits sherry if it is large enough, but recommends a good white wine glass with a generous bowl and a long stem, so the wine can breathe and stays cool.

Sources.

Checked between 16 October and 19 October 2026.

Consejo Regulador Jerez-Xérès-Sherry / Junta de Andalucía, “Pliego de condiciones de la DOP «Jerez-Xérès-Sherry» (consolidated to the Order of 13 May 2026)”.
Consejo Regulador (sherry.wine), “Fortification”.
Consejo Regulador (sherry.wine), “Ageing”.
Consejo Regulador (sherry.wine), “History of Sherry”.
Consejo Regulador (sherry.wine), “Conservation & Serving”.
Defra, Protected geographical food and drink names (GOV.UK), “Jerez-Xérès-Sherry / Jerez / Xérès / Sherry”.
legislation.gov.uk, “Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, Annex VII, Part II (retained)”.
Dictionary.com, “sherry” (dictionary: origin 1590–1600, a back formation from sherris, construed as a plural).
Consejo Regulador (sherry.wine), “History of Sherry” (regulator’s own history: the word sherry from Sherish (Jerez), Al-Idrisi’s map of 1154; exported to England by the twelfth century).

From the Guides

Sherry styles explained: fino to Pedro Ximénez, the glass and the food

Styles of sherry

Make something

Made with Sherry

Often Used With

Guide by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 2 November 2026

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