Jerez-Xérès-Sherry DO

The Greek geographer Strabo, writing in the 1st century BC, recorded that the Phoenicians brought the first vines to the Jerez region in 1100 BC, and the remains of wine presses have been found in excavations at Castillo de Doña Blanca, 4 km from Jerez. Roman rule over the Betica region was established around 138 BC, and wine from the Ceret region was exported to Rome. Moorish rule began in 711 AD and in Jerez lasted over five centuries, during which the city remained a large wine producing centre. In 1264 King Alfonso X of Castile took Jerez from the Moors. On 12 August 1483 the town council established the Regulations of the Guild of Raisin and Grape Harvesters of Jerez, the first rules governing the Denomination of Origin. The solera and criadera system, bodega architecture and Jerez wines as known today began to take on their distinct characteristics in the late 18th century. Phylloxera arrived in the region in 1894, and the first Spanish Wine Law, published in 1933, referred to the Denomination of Origin Jerez and its Consejo Regulador, the first to be legally constituted in Spain.

• Under the Moors the city was called Sherish, and a map by the geographer Al-Idrisi kept in Oxford University's Bodleian Library shows it as Seris, the name from which the word Sherry derives.
• In 1587 Sir Francis Drake attacked Cádiz and carried off 3,000 kegs of sherry; when the booty arrived in London it made sherry fashionable in the English Court.
• Magellan purchased 417 wineskins and 253 kegs of Sherry before setting out on his voyage around the world.

The production zone lies in the extreme south of the Iberian peninsula, in the northwest of the province of Cádiz, framed to the north by the Guadalquivir river, to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east by the foothills of the Sierra de Cádiz. It is delimited within the municipalities of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Trebujena, Chipiona, Rota, Puerto Real, Chiclana de la Frontera, Lebrija and San José del Valle; Lebrija belongs to the province of Seville. On 1 August 2025 the registered vineyard covered 6,866.74 hectares, of which 4,730.00 lay in Jerez de la Frontera. The climate is warm, with an average annual temperature of 17.3ºC, very mild winters, very hot summers in which temperatures frequently rise above 40ºC, and between 3,000 and 3,200 hours of effective sunlight; rainfall averages six hundred litres per square metre a year, usually falling in autumn and winter. Sanlúcar de Barrameda, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, has milder temperatures and higher levels of relative humidity than the rest of the Jerez region, conditions that favour the special flor behind Manzanilla's distinctive character.

• A review of the rules approved by the Consejo Regulador in 2021 ended the Sherry Triangle as the only ageing zone, allowing Sherry to be aged throughout the production zone; the 2026 pliego allows Fino to be aged in any municipality of the zone except Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
• Two prevailing winds mark the growing season: the cool, humid Poniente from the west, with humidity that can reach ninety-five percent, and the hot, dry Levante from the south-east, with humidity of around thirty percent.
• Three features give Sanlúcar its milder, more humid conditions: the Guadalquivir to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the flat wetland of the Marisma.

The authorized varieties are Palomino, Listán Blanco or Palomino Fino, Pedro Ximénez, Moscatel de Alejandría, Beba, Perruno and Vigiriega, all of them white. Beba, Perruno and Vigiriega were added to the pliego in 2022 and remain anecdotal so far, while Palomino is the main base of almost all protected wines and the predominant variety in the Marco de Jerez. Palomino Fino buds sprout during the last fortnight in March and ripen in early September. Pedro Ximénez grapes are generally sunned before vinification to concentrate their sugar, and Moscatel vines are best suited to vineyards close to the sea. The predominant soil is albariza, a soft white marl whose calcium carbonate content is normally at least 25% and up to 40%, alongside clay and silica from the shells of diatoms and radiolarians in the sea that covered the area in the Oligocene. Albariza has a high moisture-retaining power, storing each winter's rainfall to nourish the vines during the dry months. Vines also grow on barros, generally in hollows and the lower parts of hills, and on arenas, predominant in coastal vineyards.

• Roots up to twelve metres in length have been found at depths of up to six metres in albariza soil.
• Before phylloxera appeared in Jerez in 1894, Palomino was grown alongside Pedro Ximénez, Mantuo, Albillo, Cañocazo, Perruno and Moscatel; replanting on American rootstock brought the definitive selection of the varieties still used today.
• The predominant pruning method is vara y pulgar (stick and thumb), or jerezana, which trains each vine's trunk into two branches pruned on alternate years.

The vinos generosos carry a minimum average ageing of two years and are defined by type of ageing: Fino is exclusively biological, Amontillado has a first biological phase followed by an oxidative one, Palo Cortado is predominantly oxidative after the initial veil of flor disappears, and Oloroso is exclusively oxidative. Fino is a dry white wine made from palomino grapes, fortified to 15% by volume and aged under a veil of flor in a biological ageing process of at least two years. Manzanilla is a dry white wine aged under flor and produced exclusively in the bodegas of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the climatic conditions favour a special kind of flor. Amontillado first ages under flor; at a given moment the flor begins to disappear, giving way to oxidative ageing that gradually darkens the wine. Oloroso is fortified to 17% by volume from the outset, preventing the development of flor so the wine ages in contact with oxygen. Palo Cortado comes from very fine must initially fortified to 15%; when tasters note specific characteristics after the sobretablas stage, they mark the cask and fortify the wine again to above 17%, redirecting it to oxidative ageing. Pedro Ximénez is made from sun-dried grapes of the same name, with a sugar content of 212 grams per litre or more.

• In biological ageing the flor protects the wine from oxidation and consumes alcohol, glycerine and volatile acidity, while the content of acetaldehydes rises substantially.
• In the criaderas y solera system the oldest wine sits in the solera at floor level; the saca draws wine from it, and each tier is refreshed through the rocío with wine from the next younger criadera. The ratio of total volume to annual extraction must be greater than two.
• The pliego consolidated in May 2026 sets Fino's alcohol content at between 14% and 17% by volume; the lower minimum lets bodegas sell biologically aged wines, which generally complete their ageing below 15%, without additional fortification before bottling.

The dry Sherries are grouped as Vinos Generosos: Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado, Palo Cortado and Oloroso. Generoso wines are dry wines, with a maximum residual sugar of five grams per litre, produced from the total fermentation of must, usually from palomino grapes, at the end of which a film of yeast known as flor appears upon the surface of the base wine. The bodeguero's decision to fortify that base wine to either 15 or 17 percent by volume determines the type of ageing the wine will later undergo. Biological ageing takes place under the film of yeasts known as velo de flor, which protects the wine from oxidation. In oxidative ageing the wine becomes gradually darker and is more clearly affected by the concentration produced as a consequence of transpiration through the walls of the butt. Criaderas y solera is a dynamic system by which wines from different stages of the ageing process are blended together in order to perpetuate specific characteristics. Beyond the Vinos Generosos, the pliego protects vinos dulces naturales (Pedro Ximénez, Moscatel and Dulce) and vinos generosos de licor, labelled Pale Dry, Pale Cream, Medium or Cream by sugar content. Biological ageing cannot be prolonged over an excessively long period of time. After an average of seven or eight years the yeast grows weak, having consumed practically all of the nutrients in the wine, and the film can no longer protect the wine from direct contact with the oxygen in the surrounding air, which is why very old sherry wines have, at least in most cases, undergone an oxidative ageing process. V.O.S. stands for the Latin Vinum Optimum Signatum, wine selected as optimal, and is also expressed as Very Old Sherry; it designates Sherry of over twenty years of age. V.O.R.S. stands for Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum, wine selected as optimal and exceptional, expressed in English as Very Old Rare Sherry, and designates Sherry of over thirty years of age. Both are restricted to Amontillado, Oloroso (sweet or dry), Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximénez, and each saca must be submitted to an independent Tasting Committee of specialists of accredited expertise and reputation who have no connection of any kind with sherry firms, supported by laboratory analysis at the Estación de Viticultura y Enología de Jerez. The Consejo also certifies Sherries with an Indication of Age of 12 and 15 years, and vintage (añada) Sherries aged in sealed casks.

• Vinos Generosos are dry wines with a maximum of five grams per litre of residual sugar, on whose base wine flor appears
• Fortifying the base wine to either 15 or 17 percent by volume is the decision that sets which ageing path the wine takes
• Criaderas y solera is a dynamic system blending wines from different stages of ageing to perpetuate specific characteristics, worked through the saca and the rocío
• V.O.S. (Vinum Optimum Signatum) covers Sherry over twenty years of age and V.O.R.S. (Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum) over thirty, limited to Amontillado, Oloroso, Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximénez and certified by an independent Tasting Committee

González Byass dates to 1835, when Manuel María González Ángel founded the winery in Jerez; shortly afterwards his British partner Robert Blake Byass joined the company, which has been family-owned across six generations. Bodegas Barbadillo began when Benigno Barbadillo y Hortigüela and his cousin Manuel López Barbadillo moved from Mexico to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where in 1821 they purchased their first winery, El Toro. In 1827 Barbadillo shipped its first casks of Manzanilla to Philadelphia, and a few months later it launched Pastora, which the house calls the first bottled Manzanilla. Equipo Navazos began in December 2005, when, visiting a small old bodega in Sanlúcar, its members found several dozen butts of an old natural amontillado and bottled the equivalent of one bodega butt, a little over 600 bottles, as La Bota de Amontillado NAVAZOS.

• Equipo Navazos bottles its La Bota wines in limited, closed editions numbered in sequence with the saca date identified, and from the summer of 2007 a small number of bottles of each edition went on sale to the general public.
• Lustau ages its Los Arcos dry Amontillado for equal periods under flor and in contact with oxygen in the Bodega Emperatriz Eugenia in Jerez de la Frontera.
• Barbadillo's Cortado Obispo Gascón is certified V.O.R.S., drawn from soleras of more than 30 years.

Sales straight from the barrel in taverns, bodega shops (despachos) and the tabancos, Jerez's own Sherry bars, were long an informal practice, and the review approved in 2021 authorised and regulated this local supply chain. Fino and Manzanilla are served chilled between 6 and 8ºC, and Amontillado, Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez between 12 and 14ºC. Fino suits olives, nuts and Iberian cured ham, shellfish and fish, and cold soups such as gazpacho and ajo blanco; Amontillado goes with soups and consommés, white meat, tuna, wild mushrooms and semi-cured cheeses; Oloroso with red meat, game and stews of gelatinous meat such as bull's tail; and Pedro Ximénez with desserts based on slightly bitter chocolate, ice-creams and intense blue cheeses such as Cabrales or Roquefort.

• Manzanilla combines with fish and seafood, salted fish and cured meats, and is served in traditional wide-rimmed catavinos or a white wine glass.
• Amontillado, Palo Cortado and Oloroso can be stored in open bottles for months.
• In Decanter, Sarah Jane Evans MW advises recorking an opened bottle of Sherry and storing it in the fridge for up to a week.

Primary sources (Pliego de Condiciones, Consejo Regulador and MAPA register, producers' own sites): https://www.sherry.wine/documents/597/21052026_Pliego_Jerez_1wBQg8y.pdf, https://www.sherry.wine/documents/593/Memoria_2025_compressed_1.pdf, https://www.mapa.gob.es/es/alimentacion/temas/calidad-diferenciada/dop-igp/detalle/vcprd/dop_jerez, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-region/sherry-wine-region, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-region/history-of-sherry, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-region/consejo-regulador, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/production/viticulture, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/production/ageing, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/production/fortification, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/dry-sherry-wines, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/dry-sherry-wines/fino, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/dry-sherry-wines/manzanilla, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/dry-sherry-wines/amontillado, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/dry-sherry-wines/palo-cortado, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/dry-sherry-wines/oloroso, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/naturally-sweet-sherry-wine/pedro-ximenez, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/naturally-sweet-sherry-wine/moscatel, https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/special-categories, https://www.gonzalezbyass.com/en/our-family, https://www.barbadillo.com/en/our-history/, https://www.barbadillo.com/en/product/solear/, https://www.barbadillo.com/en/product/obispo-gascon-vors/, https://www.equiponavazos.com/es/inicio/, https://lustau.es/en/shop/sherry-wines/solera-familiar-en/lustau-amontillado-los-arcos/. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/sherry-do-regulations-to-see-historical-changes-464747/, https://www.decanter.com/learn/know-your-sherry-279407/. Last verified 2026-10-05