Styles of Sherry

The term "En Rama", meaning light filtration, usually by hand using a cheese cloth style filter, can be applied to any style of sherry filtered in this manner, but is usually on fino and manzanilla sherries that are filtered in this way and released without any bottle ageing, intended to be drunk while young and fresh.

The term "Sacca" followed by a year is not a vintage; instead, it refers to the year a wine was drawn from its solera system for bottling. This is often applied to En Rama bottlings.

Manzanilla

Style: Very dry (0 grams sugar per litre), light-bodied, fresh and delicate, sharp and crisp with light acidity.
Taste: Tasting notes: Chamomile, green apple, cucumber, celery, fennel and faint salinity.
Pronounced "man-zuh-NEE-uh", Manzanilla sherry is made from the Palomino grape and biologically aged. It's dry and faintly salty, said to be imparted by the sea air of the town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda where the sherry is taken for ageing. Here, the cooler climate of this seaside town allows the flor to remain active throughout the year, rather than just in the Spring and Autumn, thus giving the wine a different character.

Manzanilla Pasada

Style: Very dry (0 grams sugar per litre
An older Manzanilla, aged for at least seven years under a layer of flor yeast, hence with a more concentrated flavour.

Fino

Style: Very dry (0 grams sugar per litre), light-bodied and complex with light acidity.
Taste: Almond, Parmesan cheese, dough and thyme.
Pronounced "FEE-noh", Fino sherry is made from the Palomino grape and aged biologically under a layer of Flor.
Serve: As an aperitif with nuts and olives, or an excellent accompaniment to seafood, soups, oysters, asparagus, oily, smoked and fried foods.

Fino Viejo

Style: Very dry (0 grams sugar per litre)
Aged for at least 7 years under flor min

Amontillado

Style: Dry (0.8 grams sugar per litre) medium-bodied. A bridge between the lightness of a manzanilla/fino and the fuller flavoured palo cortado/oloroso.
Taste: Hazelnut, almond, toffee, tobacco, wood.
Pronounced "uh-mon-tee-YAH-doh", Amontillado sherry is made from the Palomino grape and is basically a Fino whose flor has died or been deliberately killed.

Palo Cortado

Style: Dry (1 gram sugar per litre) medium-bodied, combining finesse
and power.
Taste: Hazelnut, sultana, lactic toasted butter, leather, citrus and spice.
Pronounced 'Pal-O-Core-Tad-O', this is a rare wine made with little or no flor, and so is hard to deliberately make, tending to occur as a happy accident. It combines the fragrant characteristics of an Amontillado with the body of an Oloroso. Some describe it as "an oloroso with finesse."

Oloroso

Style: Dry (2 grams sugar per litre), full-bodied, rounded and rich.
Taste: Walnuts, dried fruit, caramel, tobacco, coffee, leather, spice.
Pronounced "oh-loh-ROH-soh" and made from the Palomino grape, these deep, brown wines are fortified to a higher degree than Finos & Amontillados, thus preventing Flor from developing.

Cream

Style: (115 - 140 grams sugar per litre) Full-bodied and velvety. Sweet with
cleansing acidity.
Taste: Ripe fruit, cocoa, toffee, raisin, walnut, orange.
When applied to sherry, 'cream' does not mean that dairy cream or milk has been added but that the sherry is a blend of sherry styles, usually amontillado or oloroso sweetened by the addition of pedro ximénez or or moscatel.

The East of India cream sherry solera at Lustau

Moscatel

Style: Sweet (160+ grams sugar per litre) full-bodied, rounded and rich.
Taste: Citrus, honey, caramel and raisins.
A dessert Sherry made from late-picked and/or sun-dried Muscat d'Alexandrie grapes. Moscatel sherry tends to retain more of the grapes' aromas than PX, even with age. Moscatel is lighter, more perfumed, and less dense than PX.

Pedro Ximénez

Style: Very sweet (383 grams sugar per litre), full-bodied, rounded and rich.
Taste: A liquid dessert. Raisin, fig, date, chocolate, liquorice, honey.
Pronounced "PAY-droh zih-MEN-ez" but commonly referred to simply as 'PX', this is a superbly rich dessert sherry made from sun-dried Pedro Ximénez grapes.