Sherry Is Back. Which One Should You Buy?

Sherry is back on wine lists, and most of it is bone dry. The style word on the label, fino or manzanilla or amontillado or oloroso or Pedro Ximénez, tells you the sweetness, the weight and how to serve it. Learn those five words and the category stops being confusing.

Why sherry keeps turning up again

Jerez was named Spain’s Capital of Gastronomy for 2026 and has spent the year on tastings and tours that run through to Sherry Week in November. In April the UK trade body launched a campaign called A Splash of Andalusia, aimed squarely at younger drinkers. Bars had already moved. The sherry spritz and the Sherry Cobbler are back on cocktail lists, and in North America sherry has grown alongside the spread of tapas bars.

Price is the other half of it. The category spent forty years unfashionable and the wines never repriced, so a bottle carrying a decade of barrel age still lands under thirty dollars. Very little else in wine is priced like that.

The word on the label decides everything

Most people who think they hate sherry have met exactly one bottle: cream sherry, a sweetened blend built for export. It is not representative. Nearly everything else from Jerez is bone dry.

Label word	Sweetness	ABV	Tastes like
Manzanilla	Bone dry	15-17%	Saline, green apple, almond
Fino	Bone dry	15-17%	Almond, bread dough, citrus peel
Amontillado	Dry	16-18%	Hazelnut, tobacco, dried orange
Palo Cortado	Dry	17-20%	Nutty nose, richer body
Oloroso	Usually dry	17-20%	Walnut, leather, dried fig
Pedro Ximénez	Very sweet	15-22%	Raisin, molasses, coffee

One thing explains that spread. Flor is a living yeast that grows across the surface of the wine in barrel. Fino and manzanilla age underneath it, sealed off from air, which keeps them pale and tangy. Oloroso never grows flor and ages in contact with oxygen instead, so it goes dark and nutty. Amontillado starts as a fino and loses its flor partway through, so it ends up with a bit of both.

Where to start

• If you drink dry whites, get manzanilla or fino. Cold, with olives, salted almonds or potato chips. Under twenty dollars in most US shops.
• If you drink reds, get a dry oloroso. Similar weight and savoury pull to an aged red, with no tannin. Twenty to thirty-five dollars.
• If you want the one in between, amontillado is the bottle for mushrooms, soup and roast chicken.
• For dessert, Pedro Ximénez over vanilla ice cream. Buy the half bottle, since a little goes a long way.

Buy from a shop with turnover. A fino that sat warm on a shelf for two years is the reason plenty of first sherries taste tired.

Serve it like white wine, not port

The usual mistake is treating a dry sherry as a dessert wine and pouring it warm into a tiny glass after dinner. Fino and manzanilla want fridge temperature, a normal white wine glass and something to eat. Amontillado and oloroso are better slightly cool.

Then there is the clock. Fino and manzanilla are still alive, and once opened they fade in three or four days in the fridge. Treat them like white wine rather than spirits. Amontillado and oloroso spent their lives in oxygen already, so they hold for a few weeks, and Pedro Ximénez is close to indestructible.

That is the whole category. Five words on a label, and each one settles the sweetness and the serving temperature before anybody scores anything.

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Frequently asked questions

Is sherry sweet?

Most of it is not. Fino, manzanilla, amontillado, palo cortado and most oloroso are fermented completely dry. Only Pedro Ximénez, moscatel and blended cream sherries are sweet, and those are the ones that got exported for decades, which is why the dry styles still surprise people.

How long does sherry keep after opening?

It depends on the style. Fino and manzanilla fade within three or four days in the fridge, so buy half bottles if you drink slowly. Amontillado and oloroso already aged in contact with oxygen and hold for a few weeks. Pedro Ximénez keeps for months.

What food goes with dry sherry?

Salty things. Manzanilla and fino work with olives, salted almonds, cured ham and fried fish, because the saline edge and 15 to 17 percent alcohol cut through salt and fat. Amontillado suits mushrooms and roast chicken, and dry oloroso handles beef and hard cheese.