Sherry Week: 12 top award-winning wines to try

Sherry Week offers an ideal opportunity to explore the quality, versatility and value for money of Spain’s most celebrated fortified wine.

You could kick off the week by enjoying a chilled manzanilla with tapas, then move on to Sherry cocktails at a buzzing bar. By the weekend, a warming oloroso by the fire or a glass of Pedro Ximénez with chocolate cake will show just how much ground Sherry covers.

Why is Sherry Week held in November?

Early November plays to Sherry’s strengths. Producers in Andalucía have long finished their harvest, the nights are drawing in and the richer, nuttier styles come into their own.

Chelsea Anthon, an Australian-Spanish Sherry educator, created International Sherry Week in 2014 after falling for the fortified wines of Jerez while living in southern Spain. She aimed to introduce more people to Sherry’s manifold wonders, encouraging bars and restaurants around the world to pair it with their local dishes.

The Consejo Regulador, which oversees the Jerez-Xérès-Sherry and Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda denominations, backed the event from the start. International Sherry Week has grown into one of the biggest celebrations on the wine calendar, with thousands of tastings, dinners and masterclasses taking place in around 30 countries each year. If you’re joining in online, the hashtag is #SherryWeek.

One region, a dozen personalities

Sherry is made exclusively in the Marco de Jerez, a compact area of Andalucía centred on the ‘Sherry Triangle’ of Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. The Palomino grape thrives on its brilliant-white albariza chalk soils, and the region has been officially protected since 1933, making it one of Spain’s first denominations of origin.

Sherry’s secret weapon is variety. You’ll find everything from delicate, pale-gold wines to mahogany-hued powerhouses. Almost all the dry styles come from the same grape, so their colours and flavours are largely shaped by how each one is aged.

Fino and manzanilla mature under flor, a living layer of yeast that shields them from oxygen and keeps them light, fresh and tangy. Manzanilla can only be aged in the seaside town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where Atlantic breezes give it an extra salty edge. Oloroso goes the other way, ageing in contact with air to turn deep amber, rich and savoury.

Amontillado begins under flor before finishing its ageing exposed to oxygen, while the rare palo cortado pairs the elegance of an amontillado with the richness of an oloroso. At the sweet end, Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel are made from sun-dried grapes, and blends such as Cream and Medium combine dry and sweet wines.

Most of these wines share another quirk: they carry no vintage. Instead, they mature in a solera, Sherry’s famous system of fractional blending, in which producers gradually top up casks of older wines with younger ones. That means every bottle contains traces of wines laid down many years earlier, adding layers of depth and complexity while keeping each bodega’s style consistent from year to year. Some soleras have been topped up continuously for more than a century.

Why Britain fell for Sherry

Few drinks can match Sherry’s history. Wine has been made in the region for around 3,000 years, and the English developed a taste for it early. Francis Drake made off with 2,900 barrels when he raided Cádiz in 1587 – inadvertently one of the great marketing coups in wine history – and Shakespeare’s Falstaff was soon singing the praises of ‘sack’, as it was then known. Even the word ‘Sherry’ is an English take on Jerez.

British merchants turned that thirst into a thriving trade. Many of the region’s great bodegas were founded by British families, and by the turn of the 19^th century, around 90% of Sherry exports were bound for Britain. Much of it was shipped in cask for bottling on arrival, and the empty butts found a second life in Scotland, where distillers discovered that they gave whisky a rich, dried-fruit depth. More than 150 years on, Sherry casks are behind many of Scotland’s most celebrated single malts.

Sherry sales reached a peak of more than 150 million litres in the late 1970s, fuelled largely by the sweet, mass-market blends that dominated shelves in the UK and beyond. Volumes have since fallen to around 22 million litres, less than a sixth of that high. Even so, the UK remains Sherry’s biggest export market by a distance, taking almost half of all the Sherry sold abroad – roughly a quarter of global sales. Only Spain drinks more, while the Netherlands and the US are among its other key export markets.

However, the picture is brighter than those gloomy figures suggest. Most of the lost volume came from cheap, sweet blends, whereas dry and premium styles have proved far more resilient. The Consejo Regulador’s director general sums it up neatly: the region is selling less wine, but better wine.

Sherry’s new audience

That shift towards quality is reflected in a series of labelling changes introduced by the Consejo Regulador. Since 2000, the oldest Sherries can been certified as VOS or VORS, guaranteeing an average age of more than 20 or 30 years respectively. Fewer than 1% of Sherries qualify.

Rule changes in 2022 also allowed producers to name individual vineyard sites, or ‘pagos’, on their labels. Even at the top end, prices remain modest by fine-wine standards.

Sommeliers have long championed Sherry, and bartenders have caught on too. A splash of fino adds briny freshness, amontillado brings toasty complexity and Pedro Ximénez lends a rich sweetness, so one family of wines can play several roles in a carefully curated cocktail menu. Sherry is also far lighter than spirits like gin, rum and whisky, making it a natural fit for lower-alcohol cocktails.

Sherry Week has become a showcase for that creativity, with venues everywhere from Tokyo to São Paulo hosting tastings, pairing dinners and cocktail nights. Whether you’re a long-time fan or pouring your first glass, there’s plenty to explore during this seven-day celebration. Chill a bottle, gather some friends and raise a copita to Jerez.

Scroll down to discover 12 award-winning Sherry wines from DWWA 2026

Bodegas Tradición, VORS 30 Years, Amontillado, Sherry NV
Best in Show, 98 points
This is the sixth VORS sherry to win a place in our Best In Show selection – though in truth VORS wines are so striking, so complex and so powerfully evocative that, once such a wine is entered, opened, smelled and tasted, it's almost impossible to stop it going straight to the top of our quality pyramid. The term signifies Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum – or, as a plainer English alternative, Very Old Rare Sherry; the youngest wine in the solera must have an average age of 30 years, and many of the component elements will be much older than that. It is as much an apothecary essence as it is wine, with its scents of citrus perfume, wax, gentian and orris root, coriander and fenugreek; a tiny sip will detonate orange and lemon zest, coffee, more root spice, bitter almonds and dried sage (and no doubt much else: everyone will find different allusions) to the four corners of your mouth and on out into the universe beyond. After you've swallowed, those phosphorus bursts of flavour continue to glitter like illuminated jewels in the dark. Remarkable wine. Alcohol 21%

Lustau, Almacenista Antonio Caballero y Sobrinos, Amontillado, Sherry NV
Best in Show, 97 points
Every judge who tasted this arresting and ultra-pure Amontillado commented on its energy and intensity, its silky purity, its spotless and refreshing cleanliness and its astonishing length and persistence. After that, though, the notes and allusions each judge picked out differed significantly, underlining the resource and wealth which lies waiting inside this bottle. Prunes, chocolate and Darjeeling tea for one; seaweed, savoury notes and umami for another; orange peel and salted caramel for a third. The wine's ‘downy texture’ attracted attention – though so too did its ‘firm grip’. An ‘ever-unfolding journey’ concluded one of our panel judges, summarising the appeal of this long-aged, long-treasured and ceaselessly allusive sherry. Alc 21.5%

Valdespino, Inocente, Fino, Sherry NV
Best in Show, 97 points
This, only the second Fino to win its way through to our Best In Show selection, is (like the first laureate back in 2017) an older or Pasado style of Fino. You'll see this instantly in its deep golden colour, and smell it, too, in the broad, complex, savoury-coastal tang of its aromas. Yes, there is yeasty flor present, but there is much else too: seaweed and marsh plants, balsam, dried lemon peel, coffee and (according to one judge) ship's varnish. ‘The palate is big, bold and earthy,’ wrote that same judge, ‘with layers of beeswax, yogurt, galangal and nuts. Very very long and very satisfying.’ Don't look to this wine for the chilled crispness and freshness of classic young Fino with ample bready flor; instead prepare for a journey into the warm heartland of the style with this statuesque, resonant and gratifyingly challenging aged example. Alc 15%

Lustau, VORS 30 Years Old, Moscatel, Sherry NV
Platinum, 97 points
Unbridled flavour: prune, date, dried fig, carob and treacle sets the path through the unctuous sweetness and is curtailed by a vibrant citrus backbone and underlying saline purity. Radiant burnt orange peel dons the finish. Alc 17%

Lustau, VORS 30 Years Old, Palo Cortado En Rama, Sherry NV
Platinum, 97 points
A great reflection of the style and terroir; dark chocolate, espresso and fudge aromas mesh with a salty seaside freshness to layer and lengthen. Full-bodied and smooth with a toasty complexity and wonderfully infinite length. Alc 21%

Lustau, Vors 30 Years Old, Pedro Ximenez, Sherry NV
Platinum, 97 points
A wine of spell-binding aroma and depth, brandishing dark chocolate, black coffee and dried walnuts with an energising seam of lime peel and verbena poking through the syrupy lusciousness. Labyrinthine length of burnt caramel and vanilla. Alc 15.5%

Harveys, 30 Years V.O.R.S, Pedro Ximenez, Sherry NV
Gold, 96 points
Quivering with intensity: liquorice, raisin, clove and coffee wrapped a blanket of burnt caramel and dark chocolate, seamlessly carrying the richness through to the bitter-sweet finale. Alc 16%

Lustau, VORS 30 Years Old, Amontillado En Rama, Sherry NV
Gold, 96 points
Waves of oyster shell, nori seaweed and citrus intensity circulate among dried fruit and blossom honey redolence in a velvet coated package. Vital and endless. Alc 21.5%

Lustau, Vors 30 Years Old, Cream En Rama, Sherry NV
Gold, 96 points
Thrillingly expressive and unique, with sinuous notes of caramelised nuts, fig, dark chocolate and smoky bacon. Vivid, vibrant and outspoken with a long, saline-infused finish. Alc 20%

Lustau, VORS 30 Years Old, Oloroso, Sherry NV
Gold, 96 points
An attractive perfume of mocha, miso, orange zest and caramel that builds and swirls around the mouth-coating palate, tapered by a salty breeze on the finish. Alc 21.5%

Vinariam, Vec, Fino, Sherry NV
Gold, 96 points
A divine austerity of coastal freshness, sea salt and nori seaweed soars over the oily texture gathering toasted almonds and honeyed tones along the way. Alc 15%

Harveys, Medium 30 Years V.O.R.S, Palo Cortado, Sherry NV
Gold, 95 points
Striking fruit cake, espresso and burnt caramel folds into the taut bitter orange peel core and conjoins with soy sauce and shitake mushroom charm. Delicious! Alc 20%

Search all DWWA 2026 results

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