Sherry Week almost over. The Work of Keeping Jerez Alive Is Not.

The world’s largest celebration of Sherry has become more than a promotional campaign. It is part of a necessary effort to reconnect new drinkers with one of wine’s richest cultures, at a moment when sales remain under severe pressure.

What happened

The 13th International Sherry Week took place from November 2 to 8, bringing tastings, dinners, masterclasses and cocktail events to bars, restaurants, wine shops and bodegas around the world. Organised under the auspices of the Consejo Regulador of Jerez-Xérès-Sherry and Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda, the initiative is designed to place Sherry in front of consumers who may know the name but rarely order the wine.

The scale is significant. Since its launch in 2014, Sherry Week has registered more than 35,000 events and reached close to one million people. The 2025 edition alone recorded 4,209 events across 27 countries, 38% more than the previous year. In 2026, the programme again extended from Jerez to cities including London, Berlin, Tokyo, Washington and São Paulo.

Those numbers make Sherry Week an effective global campaign. They also reveal why the campaign is necessary.

One region, several ways of understanding wine

Jerez is not one style. Its identity begins with the white albariza soils, the Palomino grape and a culture of ageing that can take wine in radically different directions.

Fino and Manzanilla mature under flor, a living layer of yeast that protects the wine from oxygen and produces their dry, saline and savoury profile. Manzanilla follows this biological ageing specifically in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the coastal environment contributes to its particular expression.

Amontillado begins under flor before continuing with oxidative ageing, combining the tension of biological maturation with greater depth and nuttiness. Oloroso is directed towards oxidative ageing, developing more body, concentration and warm spice. Palo Cortado occupies the narrow space between categories, bringing together the aromatic refinement associated with Amontillado and the structure of Oloroso.

The region also produces naturally sweet wines from Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel, as well as blended categories such as Cream and Medium. This range is one reason Sherry can work across an entire meal, from olives, seafood and cured ham to stews, mature cheeses and desserts. It is also part of its commercial difficulty. Jerez asks the consumer to understand several production methods, ageing systems and names before choosing a bottle.

For professionals, that complexity is fascinating. For a new drinker standing in front of a shelf, it can become a barrier.

Admired more than it is consumed

Sherry remains one of the most respected categories among sommeliers, winemakers and serious wine drinkers. Respect, however, has not translated into sufficient volume.

At its commercial peak in the late 1970s, the category sold well above 150 million litres annually. By 2010, sales had fallen to approximately 46.5 million litres. In 2025, the total was 23.87 million litres, another 1.1% below the previous year. The category now sells only a fraction of what it did at its height.

The composition of those sales is equally revealing. Manzanilla, Cream and Fino represented the largest individual categories in 2025. Amontillado, Oloroso and Palo Cortado, the dry styles most frequently discussed in specialist circles, together accounted for only a little over 5% of volume.

There are historical reasons for the decline. Sherry’s international expansion became heavily associated with inexpensive, sweet and often undistinguished wines, particularly in the British market. As consumption habits changed, the category struggled to replace an ageing customer base. Its unusual vocabulary, fortified strength and image as a drink for an earlier generation made recruitment more difficult.

Today the quality conversation is very different. The problem is no longer whether Jerez can produce exceptional wine. It is whether enough people will discover when, how and why to drink it.

The return of the vineyard

One of the most important responses has come not from another style of fortified wine, but from the renewed attention given to the vineyards themselves.

The wines commonly known as vinos de pasto are still, generally unfortified white wines from the Marco de Jerez. Most are based on Palomino and seek to express the region’s albariza soils, individual vineyards and historic pagos more directly. Some are fermented in cask, some remain on lees, some receive a brief period under flor and others are made without biological ageing.

They are not an invention detached from local history. The term recalls the table wines once consumed in the region before the commercial identity of Jerez became almost entirely associated with fortified and aged styles. What is new is the precision with which a generation of producers is treating origin, harvest dates, old vineyards and individual sites.

Producers such as Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez have been central to this movement, using historical research and vineyard work to restore the importance of pagos including Macharnudo and Carrascal. Their influence has helped move the conversation away from ageing category alone and back towards soil, exposure, farming and place.

The Consejo Regulador is now advancing a separate denomination, provisionally known as Vinos de Albariza, to protect these still wines. The proposed rules emphasise native white varieties, dry-farmed vineyards, traceable origin and categories linked to a single pago or vineyard. Formal approval is still pending, with implementation expected no earlier than 2027.

These wines will not replace Fino, Manzanilla or Oloroso, nor should they. Their importance is that they offer a more familiar point of entry. A consumer accustomed to Chablis, Etna Bianco or other site-driven white wines can understand a Palomino from albariza before moving deeper into flor, solera and oxidative ageing.

The TCJ View

Sherry Week matters because Jerez cannot survive on admiration alone.

The region possesses extraordinary wines, centuries of accumulated knowledge and one of the most distinctive ageing cultures in the world. Yet cultural importance does not automatically create commercial relevance. Bottles must be opened, placed at the table and explained without turning every first encounter into a technical examination.

The best role for Sherry Week is therefore not simply to generate a temporary rise in sales. It is to create occasions for consumption. Fino with fried fish, Manzanilla with seafood, Amontillado at the table, Oloroso with a slow-cooked dish and Pedro Ximénez in a context that goes beyond pouring it over dessert. Jerez becomes easier to understand once the wine is tasted with food and among people.

The vinos de pasto add another layer to that effort. They show that Jerez is not frozen in its own history. The region can recover old ideas, speak the modern language of vineyards and origin, and still protect the soleras and biological ageing that make it unique.

There is a risk in celebrating Sherry as a museum piece: something every wine professional respects but too few consumers actually drink. The future of Jerez depends on avoiding that fate. Sherry Week is useful when it turns heritage into habit, curiosity into an opened bottle and global attention into a reason for the next generation to keep vineyards, bodegas and soleras alive.

Sources

• Consejo Regulador, International Sherry Week 2026.
• Consejo Regulador, Memoria de Actividades 2025.
• Consejo Regulador, Jerez-Xérès-Sherry technical specifications and official vineyard-pago documentation.
• Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News, “Vinos de Albariza firmly on course to gain DO status,” June 1, 2026.
• Drinks International, “Saving Sherry,” June 24, 2024.
• Decanter, “Jerez mavericks Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez,” October 2026.