18 May 2020

Buying sherry online

Mark Godden, lured to Iberia by a love of sherry after 15 years at Fishbone restaurant in Central Otago, helps us order some great Andalucian fortified wines, direct from the producer. Study of delivery details is needed by those outside Spain, but two significant UK retailers are listed at the end. See also this thread in our Members' forum about a UK sherry bargain and Hospo pairings – sherry published last Thursday. Image above courtesy of CRDO Jerez y Manzanilla.

In Madrid, some days it feels as though we are part of George Orwell’s 1984. Cooped up at home, while helicopters roar overhead and police patrol the streets day and night, we are kept up to date with the world via our mobile news devices.

However, we are lucky that, unlike in 1984, we are not forced to purchase ‘Victory Gin’ from the government and we have online wine choices as never before. [See our list of well over 800 retailers who’ll deliver to self-isolators – JR]

The demand for sherry among Spaniards is usually in full swing at this time of year, especially during the spring ferias. But this year, with spring 2020 apparently cancelled, I thought it would be good to update visitors to JancisRobinson.com about the Andalusian bodegas that have been moving with the times and now offer direct purchases from their websites. The range and quality of sherries available is just outstanding. Below are some of the personal favourites I have ordered.

E-commerce has never been as important as it is now, and into the future will become absolutely paramount. I am excited during lockdown to have had sherries delivered from bodegas almost instantly and have also found new sherries through Peter Liem’s and Jesús Barquín’s great 2012 book Sherry, Manzanilla & Montilla, which is now in print in Spanish also.

While the bodegas listed below may be shipping only within Spain at the moment, I have also listed a couple of great shippers of sherry to the UK and within Europe. For bodegas without their own e-commerce sites, I have listed good alternative specialist stockists.