Style
Cream Sherry
Sweet sherry based on Oloroso with added Pedro Ximénez. Sugar 115-140 g/l. Iconic example: Harveys Bristol Cream from the 1860s.
What it is
Cream Sherry is a sweet sherry within the Generosos de Licor category of the DO Jerez. Legally: between 115 and 140 grams of residual sugar per litre. Made by combining a blended Oloroso (oxidatively aged) with naturally sweet wine, almost always Pedro Ximénez (PX), in a ratio where the PX makes up 20 to 30 percent of the final blend.
How it began
Bristol, England, mid-nineteenth century. The local Bristol Milk (a sweet blend) had been popular since the seventeenth century. Around 1860 John Harvey & Sons made a more refined version; according to the legend, an aristocratic visitor remarked: “If that was Bristol Milk, then this must be Bristol Cream.” The name was born, and with it a global category. Harveys Bristol Cream became the world’s best-selling sherry in the twentieth century.
In the glass
Dark amber to mahogany. Deep, sweet nose of raisin, fig, caramelised nut, walnut. Full on the palate, creamy texture (hence “cream”), sweetness balanced against the structure and faint bitterness of the Oloroso base. Long finish with molasses and dried fruit.
Not all Cream is the same
Mass-market Cream (Harveys, Croft Original Cream) versus premium Cream (Lustau Solera Reserva East India, Sandeman Armada Superior, González Byass Néctar): the difference lies in the age of the Oloroso solera (four years versus twenty plus), the quality of the PX, and how much sugar is genuinely added versus naturally arriving via sweet wine.
Legally
Since 2021 (Consejo Regulador reform): sugar measured as glucose + fructose only, excluding other reducing substances. Minimum ageing: two years in solera. Alcohol: 15.5 to 22 percent. Volatile acidity up to 0.8 g/l.
When
Classic with dessert: Christmas pudding, fruit cake, vanilla ice cream with nuts. With blue cheese (Stilton, Roquefort) it works excellently. Not with chocolate (too heavy, too bitter).