Ok, can we put a chain on this squirrelly word “dry”? Dry can mean “not sweet”, “less sweet” (than something, what?), or fuck all. To my knowledge—today—amontillados and olorosos are no less “dry” than any fino or manzanilla. There is effectively zero residual sugar, and they’re not sweetened. Is this a recent development? Process/regulatory changes? Then we have “brown sherries”, “cocktail sherries”, “medium sherries” kicking around, raising dust—are these just the vestiges of an era when everything routinely had sugar dumped in it?
Aside: in the US, Lustau has had a profound effect on bars for many years by offering a well-distributed, comprehensive one-of-each-kind economical product line, making ordering cleverly easy. As long as I can remember, if a US cocktail bar has any sherry inventory, 90% of the time it’s comprised of Lustau products.