Eight teams, eight countries, one kitchen in Jerez de la Frontera. A chef and a sommelier per country face each other inside the Villamarta theatre, with three courses and a carefully chosen glass of sherry per plate. That is Copa Jerez. Since 2000 this biennial competition has been the global stage where chefs and sommeliers prove that sherry is far more than an aperitif.
What is Copa Jerez?
Copa Jerez is the international competition for pairing haute cuisine with sherry. It is organised by the Consejo Regulador of the DOs Jerez-Xérès-Sherry and Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda together with Fedejerez, the federation of bodegas in the Marco de Jerez, and supported by ICEX, Spain’s national export promotion agency. The final takes place every two years in Jerez de la Frontera, the heart of the sherry region in Andalusia.
The premise is simple but ambitious: show that sherry’s stylistic range, from pale fino through nutty oloroso to sweet Pedro Ximénez, can carry a complete restaurant-level three-course menu. The reward is international recognition for both the team and the restaurant representing the country.
How the format works: chef + sommelier + sherry-driven menu
Each country is represented by one team of two: a chef and a sommelier, both actively employed at the same restaurant. Together they design a three-course menu, starter, main and dessert, with each dish linked to a specific sherry or manzanilla. The wine choice is no afterthought: the sommelier has to defend why a fino en rama suits a fish course better than a manzanilla pasada, or why an oloroso V.O.R.S. brings the right counterweight to game.
During the final the team cooks the menu live in a professional kitchen, in front of jury and audience. The jury is made up of Masters of Wine, international chefs and gastronomic press. Judging covers four areas: technical execution, flavour harmony between dish and wine, creativity, and the structured defence of the pairing by the sommelier.
Beyond the main team prize the jury awards Best Sommelier, Best Chef and category awards for the best pairing per course (starter, main, dessert) and the most creative pairing.
The history: from first edition to today
The roots of Copa Jerez sit, surprisingly, in the Netherlands. The first editions launched around the year 2000 as a small-scale pairing challenge built around amuses with sherry. After three editions the concept grew into an international final hosted in Jerez itself, organised by the Consejo Regulador.
Since then the final has taken place every two years, with one pause around the pandemic. The ninth international edition ran in 2021, the tenth in 2023 and the eleventh in June 2025. The event has matured into a two-day forum with masterclasses, bodega visits and a public programme around the final, drawing close to 600 attendees per edition according to figures published by sherry.wine.
Which countries take part?
In its current setup eight countries compete for the international title. Regulars are Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States. In recent editions Mexico has joined as the eighth participant. Each country runs its own national pre-selection in which restaurants compete for the single ticket to Jerez.
Recent winners (based on verified sources)
Denmark has been the dominant force in recent years. A summary of confirmed winners:
- 2017: Netherlands, Podium Onder de Dom (Utrecht), with chef Leon Mazairac and sommelier Goos van den Berg
- 2019: Denmark
- 2021: Belgium, Paul de Pierre, with chef Fabian Bail and sommelier Paul-Henri Cuvelier (a triple win, a first in the history of the competition)
- 2023: Denmark, Parsley Salon
- 2025: Denmark, Sdr. Bjert Kro, with Emil Rask Bahr and Andreas Kobs Laursen
Among the individual prizes, sommeliers and chefs from different countries regularly share the podium. In 2023 the Best Sommelier award went to Gianluca di Taranto of the Belgian restaurant Cook & GTD, while the Netherlands took Best Main Course Pairing in the same edition.
Copa Jerez NL: the Dutch pre-selection
The Netherlands runs its own national round, Copa Jerez NL, in which usually three to four restaurants compete for the ticket to Jerez. The pre-selection takes place in a professional kitchen in Amsterdam, with a jury of Dutch chefs, sommeliers and sherry specialists. A dedicated platform, copajerez.nl, publishes participants, jury and results per edition.
The standout feature is the consistent quality of the field. Recent Dutch winners have all been Michelin-recognised restaurants:
- 2017: Podium Onder de Dom (Utrecht), Leon Mazairac and Goos van den Berg
- 2021: Restaurant De Librije (Zwolle), Lars Aukema and Sem Beks
- 2022: Restaurant Vigor (Vught), Randy Bouwer and Martijn Wijnands
- 2024: Restaurant Basiliek (Harderwijk), Yornie van Dijk and Anne Marie Nijhoff
- 2025: Restaurant Puur Sanh, Jean Paul Witte and Stijn Hinke
Dutch results on the international stage are substantial. Podium Onder de Dom won the international final in 2017, as far as is documented the first and so far only overall Dutch victory. De Librije then took Best Starter Pairing in 2021 with a combination of trout, sherry vinegar and Fino En Rama from Bodegas Gutiérrez Colosía. In 2023 Vigor won Best Main Course Pairing for sweetbread and eel with Oloroso from the same bodega.
That places the Netherlands among the countries that have collected a category prize or overall title in nearly every edition since 2017. A claim of structural dominance would be a stretch, that title belongs to Denmark, but the picture of a serious and consistent contender holds up.
Why this matters for sherry culture
Copa Jerez has a purpose that goes beyond a trophy. The competition functions, in practice, as an educational instrument. By forcing top international chefs to build three courses around sherry, every two years a fresh set of reference pairings emerges that gets picked up by the trade press, sommelier programmes and bodega communications.
For the sherry category itself that is valuable. Sherry has long battled an image problem outside Spain, too often seen as a sweet dessert wine or a bitter aperitif. Copa Jerez finalists keep showing that fino with raw fish, amontillado with ramen broth or palo cortado with aged cheese is not exotic but obvious.
For Dutch restaurants there is an extra layer. The pre-selection works as an accessible showcase for Michelin kitchens to put their sommelier work in the spotlight. Not the chef alone, but the duo. That fits a wider shift in which sommeliers are increasingly treated as co-authors of the menu rather than service staff.
Sources
- Copa Jerez, official page, Consejo Regulador del Vino y Brandy de Jerez: https://www.sherry.wine/copa-jerez
- History of Copa Jerez, sherry.wine: https://www.sherry.wine/news/copa-jerez-history-of-the-competition
- Rules for participating, sherry.wine: https://www.sherry.wine/copa-jerez/copa-jerez-competition/rules-for-participating
- Copa Jerez 2017 winner, sherry.wine: https://www.sherry.wine/news/podium-onder-de-dom-holland-wins-copa-jerez-2017
- Copa Jerez 2017, Sherry Notes: https://www.sherrynotes.com/2017/sherry-news/netherlands-wins-copa-jerez-2017/
- Copa Jerez 2019 Denmark wins, sherry.wine: https://www.sherry.wine/news/the-danish-team-is-proclaimed-winner-of-the-copa-jerez-forum-and-competition-2019
- Copa Jerez 2021 Belgium wins, sherry.wine: https://www.sherry.wine/news/belgian-team-wins-ix-copa-jerez-forum-competition-2021-most-groundbreaking-and-revolutionary
- Copa Jerez 2021 Belgium wins, Sherry Notes: https://www.sherrynotes.com/2021/sherry-news/belgium-wins-copa-jerez-2021/
- Copa Jerez 2023 Denmark wins, Sherry Notes: https://www.sherrynotes.com/2023/sherry-news/denmark-wins-copa-jerez-2023/
- Copa Jerez 2025, sherry.wine: https://www.sherry.wine/news/michelin-starred-chefs-and-sommeliers-eight-countries-and-a-single-winning-team-welcome-to-copa-jerez-2025
- Copa Jerez 2025 highlights, The Drinks Business: https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/06/copa-jerez-2025-highlights-the-versatility-of-sherry/
- Restaurant Vigor wins Dutch Copa Jerez 2022, sherry.wine: https://www.sherry.wine/restaurant-vigor-wins-the-dutch-copa-jerez-2022
- Librije wins Copa Jerez NL, Entrée Magazine: https://www.entreemagazine.nl/culinair-chefs/librije-winnaar-copa-jerez-nl
- Copa Jerez NL platform: https://copajerez.nl/jury
- Copa Jerez NL pre-selection 2026, Perswijn: https://perswijn.nl/event/copa-jerez-nederlandse-voorronde-2026/