7 sherry cocktails

Read our guide to the best sherry cocktails, then explore the best sherries to drink this Christmas, the best ports to buy and our collection of 64 Christmas cocktails.

What is cream sherry?

Cream sherry is a style of sweet sherry that's usually made by blending a dry wine, like oloroso, with sweet wines like pedro ximénez. It was once hugely popular (especially Harveys Bristol Cream, which in its early 1970s heyday sold a million cases a year in the UK) but this has waned thanks to the mass production of sickly-sweet, low-quality sherries and, more recently, the changing tastes of drinkers as they seek out dry styles like fino and manzanilla. This is rather a shame because a good cream sherry from a quality producer is a lovely thing: sweet but not cloying and full of the beautiful festive flavours of dried fruit, caramel and nuts that make it a perfect match for desserts and cheeseboards (try it with blue cheese). While it’s delicious sipped neat (always drink it chilled – on the rocks with an orange slice is particularly good), the complexity of flavours in a good cream sherry make it a surprisingly versatile cocktail ingredient. Plus it lasts for ages in the fridge once opened – for weeks and even up to months.

Sherry cocktail recipes

Cream sherry cocktails

Sherry flip

Velvety and nutty, this sherry flip makes an excellent alternative to eggnog during the festive season.

Sherry highball

Inspired by the sherry colada at New York bar Sip & Guzzle, this drink mixes cream sherry with pineapple soda for a fresh, tropical, highly gluggable highball.

Sherry whisky sour

A Christmassy spin on a classic whisky cocktail, the cream sherry adds extra festive flavours to the drink.

Manzanilla sherry cocktails

Seabreeze cocktail

You'll need cranberry vodka, two types of sherry and grapefruit juice for this zesty, tart cocktail, from Manzi's seafood restaurant in Soho.

Olive martini

Add a touch of sophistication to your next martini with guindilla pepper brine and manzanilla sherry. Don't forget the green olive to garnish.

Fino sherry cocktails

Rebujito

The rebujito, popular in Andalusia, is just the ticket for warm-weather drinking: a highball cocktail where dry fino sherry is mixed with lemonade for a tall, thirst-quenching drink.

Tuxedo

This sleek and elegant cocktail is very similar to a martini, but instead of vermouth uses dry fino sherry for an appetisingly nutty edge.