How to drink sherry
There’s so much you can do with sherry. Lighter styles make great aperitifs and taste brilliant with tapas, while richer styles go with pudding and blue cheeses. But that’s not all, sherry is also an indispensable ingredient in cookery and cocktails.
Many wine drinkers who are used to the fruity flavours of sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio initially find sherry quite challenging. Sherry can be fruity, especially fino and manzanilla, but the flavours are influenced by long ageing, not unlike whisky or Cognac. In fact, spirits drinkers tend to be much more receptive to fortified wines in general than people who just consume wine. This is partly because whisky is often aged in old sherry casks so learning about whisky involves learning about sherry, but also because the two drinks share certain similarities. Darker sherries like amontillados and olorosos often have flavours of nuts, dried fruit, orange peel, brown sugar and toffee, just like a good whisky. The spirits comparison is useful for thinking about the time to drink sherry too. Yes, sherry is a great food wine, but it’s also an excellent aperitif, after dinner sipper (try an old oloroso with a cigar) and indeed cocktail ingredient.
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Master of Malt features editor and award-winning drinks author
Reading time: 8 minutes
What food goes with sherry?
Sherry should be served in a small wine glass called a copita which looks a lot like a whisky tasting glass. You could just use ordinary wine glasses for drier wines but be aware that they are stronger than most table wines.
Sherry is one of the world’s most versatile wines at the table. Dry crisp manzanillas and finos should be drunk chilled and go brilliantly with all kinds of food such as almonds, olives, prawns, ham and even fish & chips. In fact, listing the things that they don’t go with would be easier. This is what makes them such perfect tapas wines.
Richer drier styles like amontillados and olorosos suit richer savoury food like a mature Manchego or jamon Iberico. They should be served cool but not as cold as a fino.
Sweet sherry like cream or a sweetened oloroso go brilliantly with blue cheeses, as well as seed cake, tarts and the like.
Finally, PX, which tastes amazing trickled on ice cream. Or just sipped very slowly as a pudding in its own right.
Sherry in cocktails
As a fortified wine aged in wood, sherry shares certain similarities with vermouth. So in cocktails like a Dry Martini, try a crisp manzanilla or even a little amontillado in place of vermouth. Sweeter styles of sherry work brilliantly in place of sugar syrup in cocktails like an Old Fashioned especially if you’re using a sherry cask whisky. Double sherry - what could be more delicious.
A fino sherry like Tio Pepe makes a great cocktail ingredient.
Cooking with sherry
No keen cook should be without a bottle of sherry in the kitchen. Not only does it add flavour but unlike a table wine, it will keep for weeks open. Use a splash of fino or manzanilla as you would a white wine to deglaze pans. It will give you extra depth. If you want to take your gravy, stew or soup to the next level add a dash of oloroso or cream sherry right at the end. Then there’s specific dishes that require sherry like a trifle.
How long does sherry last once opened?
Dry light styles like fino and manzanilla should be kept in the fridge and drunk within four days. They will lose their freshness after that but still be quite palatable. Richer and sweeter styles will last for longer, staying delicious for around two weeks or so. After that they will start to taste a bit flat but as they are fortified won’t turn to vinegar so you can still use them for cooking.
More sherry guides
Sherry, the great Spanish fortified wine, runs the gamut from crisp, dry wines to drink with seafood, to rich, decadently sweet sippers.
