Sherry

Sherry is a fortified wine produced primarily using the Palomino grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Spain and takes it name from the anglicisation of the French name for the town, Xérès. As with other fortified wines, it is made by mixing grape spirit in order to increase the alcohol content. Popular varieties include white sherries like Fino and Manzanilla, or darker, heavier examples such as Oloroso, Palo Cortado, Pedro Ximénez and Amontillado.

Historically, spirits were aged in the casks used to transport sherry to market from Spain, so their use in the rum industry is best associated with the Spanish speaking countries of the Caribbean and South America. These "transport casks," as they were known, are a thing of the past however, with a Spanish ruling enforced in 1986 that stipulates all sherry must be bottled in Spain. Instead, casks are now specially prepared in Spanish cooperages through a process known as sherry seasoning, specifically for use in spirits maturation.

Availability of ex-sherry casks is therefore no longer reliant on market interest in the original contents, and they are easier than ever for distillers across the world to acquire. Having said that, rum distillers had less invested in the use of sherry casks than Scotch whisky producers, for example, and most were and still are satisfied to use American oak ex-bourbon casks instead. Those that have incorporated sherry into their wood policies tend to be those that have adopted the modern practice of cask finishing, or operate variations of solera system ageing. As a result, most sherry-influenced rum is either blended or has been subject to prior ageing, making fully sherry-aged rum a rarity. Luca Gargano of Velier took steps to rectify this in 2018 however, acquiring a batch of 40 casks from Bodegas Lustau that were subsequently used to fully mature single casks of clairin ansyen, and an expression called Pagos from the Hampden distillery in Jamaica.

As sherry is a geographically protected term within EU law, sherry-style wines produced in Australia and Canada have been known as apera since 2011 and 2014, respectively.

Sherry casks tend to be quite large in size, predominantly in the shape of puncheons and butts, however coopers can also take staves from these casks and fashion them into smaller 250 litre hogsheads.