Fino Style Amontillado Style Oloroso Style Fresh, zesty citrus character. Nuts and coffee aromas and flavors will have an underlying zestiness from time in the Fino solera. Tertiary aromas and flavors of nuts and coffee.

WARNING – strap in! And then there is Palo Cortado—a rare style whose production is very complicated and varied. The following is a basic introduction:

Historically, Palo Cortado Sherry was created when a wine that was pre-selected to become a Fino Sherry naturally or accidentally lost its flor. The key here was the natural loss of the flor, as opposed to Amontillado’s purposeful switch from flor to oxidative aging.

In the high-maintenance world of today’s commercial Sherry production, however, this “accidental” loss of the flor doesn’t really happen anymore. But when it does, or when it’s intended, Palo Cortado Sherry enjoys a limited time of flor aging (biological aging), followed by oxidative aging. The resulting style is close to an Amontillado. It will have slight flor-induced aromas but be dominated by oxidative, Oloroso-style aromas and flavors – and have the rich, concentrated texture from its time aging oxidatively.

Here’s a visual to help make sense of Palo Cortado Sherry:

Have questions about Fino and Oloroso production and styles? Here is a quick snapshot: