Whatever the style, sherry is worth getting a taste for as it offers some of the best quality to price ratio in the wine world.
For more, visit our reviews section and find over 400 practical buyer’s guides, taste tests of gin, vodka and more. For regular wine deliveries direct to your door, sign up to the Good Food Wine Club.
Best sherry to buy at a glance
- Best sherry for a sweet yet balanced sip: Gonzalez-Byass Cristina, £17.99
- Best sherry for seafood pairings: Barbadillo Solear Manzanilla, £12.99
- Best sherry for bold, savoury sips: Williams & Humbert 12 Year Old Amontillado, £24.99
- Best sherry for rare, complex flavour: Morrisons Palo Cortado, £7
- Best refreshing sherry: Hidalgo PX Triana, £19.99
- Best nutty sherry: Morrisons The Best Oloroso sherry, £6.50
- Best dry sherry: Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana manzanilla sherry, £7.99
- Best PX Sherry: Best Gonzalez Byass Matusalem oloroso sherry, £25.49
- Best sweet sherry: El Maestro Sierra PX sherry, £22
- Best aged sherry: Bodegas Tradición fino sherry, £41.92
- Best extra dry sherry: Tio Diego amontillado (Valdespino) sherry, £25.50
Jump to section:
Best sherry 2024
Gonzalez-Byass Cristina
Best sherry for a sweet yet balanced sip
Available from Laithwaites (£17.99)
This is a blend of oloroso with some PX. On the nose you’ll find figs, dried fruit and molasses, while on the palate the sweetness is balanced by a lively acidity with some dried apricot notes and a lingering flavour of walnuts.
Available from:
Barbadillo Solear Manzanilla
Best sherry for seafood pairings
Available from Waitrose (£12.99)
Oh wow, lovely nose! This is sheer essence of manzanilla with apple, salty seaside notes, almonds and herbs – there’s even a little fennel in there. This is huge fun and best enjoyed with seafood.
Available from:
Williams & Humbert 12 Year Old Amontillado
Best sherry for bold, savoury sips
Available from Waitrose Cellar (£24.99)
A little of this intensely flavoured amontillado goes a long way. It’s very dry and salty with notes of orange peel, toffee and toasted almonds. Try it with cured ham for a taste sensation.
Available from:
Morrisons Palo Cortado
Best sherry for rare, complex flavour
Available from Morrisons (£7)
A palo cortado is a rare dry style that has the body of an oloroso but the flavours of an amontillado. This example comes from Lustau and has rich flavours of hazelnut, butterscotch and dates.
Available from:
Hidalgo PX Triana
Best refreshing sherry
Available from Majestic Wine (£19.99), Amazon (£22.95)
Some PX can be a bit cloying but not this one from Hidalgo in Sanlúcar. While it is incredibly sweet and crammed with dried fruit, there’s also an orange blossom freshness that makes it surprisingly sippable.
Available from:
Morrisons The Best Oloroso sherry
Best nutty sherry
Available from Morrisons (£6.50)
What a treat to find a supermarket own label of such quality. Made by Lustau, one of the great names of sherry, this award-winning sherry is fresh, tangy and outrageously nutty. There’s Brazil nuts, walnuts and almonds all wrapped in muscovado sugar, with a bone dry finish. Read our full review of Morrisons The Best Oloroso
Available from:
Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana manzanilla sherry
Best dry sherry
Available from Laithwaites (£7.99), Majestic (£11.99)
Made by the sea in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, manzanilla is the freshest, driest and most irresistible style of sherry, and this is the world’s bestselling example of the style. One sip and you’ll see why, it’s loaded up with fresh Cox’s apples and salted almonds. Read our full review of Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana manzanilla sherry
Available from:
Gonzalez Byass Matusalem oloroso sherry
Best PX sherry
Available from Waitrose Cellar (£25.49), Majestic (£29.99)
This 30 year old blend of 75% oloroso with 25% PX is a symphony in sherry. Stick your nose in and it smells like an old navy rum; take a sip and it explodes with raisins, molasses, salted caramel and a finish of walnuts that goes on for a good half an hour. Read our full review of Gonzalez Byass Matusalem oloroso sherry.
Available from:
El Maestro Sierra PX sherry
Best sweet sherry
Available from Forest Wines (£22)
Pedro Ximinez (PX) contains around 400g per litre of sugar and is usually used for blending. Some examples can be a bit much on their own but this one has a freshness that makes it extremely drinkable. Try poured on ice cream, as a sweetener in cocktails or on its own as a pudding in a glass. Read our full review of El Maestro Sierra PX sherry.
Available from:
Bodegas Tradición fino sherry
Best aged sherry
Available from Master of Malt (£41.92)
Tradición is a relatively new name in sherry but the firm has illustrious antecedents. Aged for around 12 years, this is about as old as a fino can get. It’s massively rich with a texture of an old white burgundy or vintage champagne. Read our full review of Bodegas Tradición fino sherry.
Available from:
Tio Diego amontillado (Valdespino) sherry
Best extra dry sherry
Available from The Whisky Exchange (£25.50), Fortnum & Mason (£27.95)
A single vineyard amontillado from one of the most traditional producers in the region. This smells a little like a malt whisky or old cognac with a touch of smokiness; in the mouth it’s bone dry with salted almonds but with a refreshing lift to it. Read our full review of Tio Diego amontillado (Valdespino) sherry.
Available from:
How long does sherry last once opened?
Broadly speaking sherry falls into two categories: those that are aged with oxygen contact and those that aren’t. In the latter category are fino and manzanilla wines. These are best kept in the fridge and drunk within four days of opening or they start to lose freshness. Other styles of sherry like cream, amontillado and oloroso can be kept open for weeks. After a while, however, they will lose some intensity and start to taste tired, so don’t keep them for much longer than a month. Any sherry that isn’t quite up to snuff can be used for cooking, so never chuck an old bottle away.
How is sherry made?
Almost all sherry is made from the palomino fino, a white grape, grown in a region known as the ‘sherry triangle’ in southern Spain. The lightest style called fino is made from a gentle pressing of the grapes. The wine is usually fortified with brandy up to 15% and aged under a layer of yeast called flor which protects the wine from oxygen. A manzanilla is a fino that comes from the seaside town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
A fino that is aged longer until the flor dies and it starts to gently oxidise is called an amontillado. Oloroso sherries don’t develop the flor so they age entirely with oxygen contact. They are fortified to around 18% ABV.
Sherry in its natural state is dry but there are wines labelled as cream, amoroso, medium or sweet oloroso which are sweetened using an intense type of sherry called PX (pedro ximénez) which you sometimes see bottled on its own. Almost all sherries are blended in a series of barrels called a solera system so they contain multiple vintages.
What does sherry taste like?
Dry styles like fino and manzanilla have a taste of fresh apples combined with almond, yeasty Marmite and bready notes. Not unlike a champagne of white burgundy. Amontillados take those flavours and add walnuts, orange peel and often a salty tang. Olorosos, in contrast, taste of Brazil nuts, dates and molasses, while palo cortado sits somewhere between oloroso and amontillado in flavour. Sweeter styles of sherry have flavours of dried fruit with a distinct nuttiness, while PX bottled on its own is like liquid Christmas pudding. It is marvellous sipped very slowly or poured on vanilla ice cream.
Best port
Best champagne
Best prosecco
Best cava
Best rosé wine
Best gin to buy as gifts
Best bourbon
Best craft whiskies
Best Pinot Noir
If you have any questions or suggestions for future reviews, or spot anything that has changed in price or availability, please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk. For information on alcohol guidelines, read our guide to drinking responsibly.