Manzanilla Sherry substitute

Best substitute

Fino sherry

Use the same amount as the manzanilla sherry you are replacing

Best for gambas al ajillo

Close match

Fino sherry is a straight 1:1 swap and is essentially the same style made a few miles inland. Amontillado also works at 1:1 if you accept a darker, nuttier result, and dry white vermouth is the best non-sherry option at 1:1. Without alcohol, use chicken stock or clam juice with a few drops of sherry vinegar per quarter cup. In Andalusian cooking, manzanilla is doing a very specific job: it adds dry savoury depth, a nutty almond note and a hint of sea salt to garlic prawns, mushrooms, clams and jamon dishes, without adding sugar or fruit. This is why sweet sherry is not a substitute at all, and why a fruity white wine tastes wrong even though it is also a dry wine.

Other manzanilla sherry substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Amontillado sherry
Different taste
Use the same amount
A step darker: a fino that lost its yeast veil and aged oxidatively, so it is deeper and nuttier but still dry.
What changes
Best for
mushrooms, chicken, oxtail and beef braises, lentils, onion soup, reductions
It will tint a pale sauce amber and it tastes distinctly of hazelnut and dried orange peel, so a plate of garlic prawns made with amontillado reads richer and more autumnal instead of crisp and coastal. Excellent in anything braised, slightly heavy in delicate seafood.
3Dry white vermouth
Different taste
Use the same amount
The best swap outside the sherry family, because it is dry, fortified and aromatic rather than simply fruity.
What changes
Best for
seafood, chicken, mushrooms, pan sauces, vegetables
Vermouth brings a herbal, faintly bitter wormwood-and-citrus note that manzanilla does not have, so the dish tastes greener and more perfumed and less nutty. It keeps for weeks in the fridge, which makes it the practical choice if you rarely cook with sherry.
4Dry white wine plus a few drops of sherry vinegar
Different taste
1 cup dry white wine plus half a teaspoon sherry vinegar
The everyday fix using a bottle already open, with a small correction for the missing savoury tang.
What changes
Best for
prawns, clams, chicken, vegetables, deglazing
Plain white wine is more acidic and more fruity, so a garlic prawn pan sauce made with it tastes brighter and greener but loses the nutty, sea-salty backbone. Sherry vinegar, used sparingly, puts back a surprising amount of that character. Avoid oaked Chardonnay, which turns buttery and muddles the garlic.
5Shaoxing wine
Different taste
Use the same amount
An unexpected but genuinely close match, since Chinese yellow wine has the same nutty, savoury, slightly oxidised quality that makes dry sherry useful.
What changes
Best for
braises, mushrooms, pork, chicken, savoury sauces
It is browner and its savoury note tips toward soy and toasted grain, so a Spanish dish made with it edges slightly Chinese in flavour and darker in colour. Many bottles are salted, so hold back on salt until you taste. Works well in braises, less well in pale seafood dishes.
6Chicken stock or clam juice with sherry vinegar (no alcohol)
Different taste
1 cup stock or clam juice plus 1 to 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
The alcohol-free route, aiming at savoury plus tangy plus saline rather than trying to imitate wine.
What changes
Best for
alcohol-free cooking, prawns, clams, soups, mushrooms, rice dishes
Clam juice is the better base for seafood because it carries the sea-salt note that manzanilla contributes; chicken stock suits meat and mushrooms. You get savouriness and brightness but not the nutty aroma, so the dish tastes more like a stock reduction than a sherry sauce. Both bases can be salty already, so season last.

What is Manzanilla Sherry?

Manzanilla Sherry is Manzanilla is a bone-dry, pale sherry from Sanlucar de Barrameda on the Andalusian coast, aged under a living veil of yeast so it tastes crisp, nutty and noticeably saline, with none of the sweetness people associate with the word sherry.

Cooking tips

Do not reach for a bottle labelled cooking sherry or cream sherry. Cooking sherry is salted and dull, and cream sherry is sweet, which will make garlic prawns or mushrooms taste bafflingly like dessert. Dry, pale and unsweetened is the whole point.
Manzanilla and fino are living wines that oxidise fast once opened, going flat and cardboardy within a week or two even in the fridge. Buy a half bottle, keep it cold, and use it quickly, or use amontillado instead, which keeps far longer because it is already oxidative.
Add it to a hot pan and let it bubble for 30 to 60 seconds before anything else goes in. Sherry that has not had its alcohol cooked off tastes sharp and spirity, and this style is dry enough that there is no sugar to mask it.
A small amount goes a long way. Two tablespoons is plenty for a pan of prawns for two, because the salinity and nuttiness are concentrated; a quarter cup can make the same dish taste harsh.
In a soup such as a chilled almond or a mushroom soup, a teaspoon stirred in raw at the end works differently from sherry cooked into the base: raw, it reads as aroma and lift, and cooked, it reads as savoury depth. Both are useful, but do not swap one for the other.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the manzanilla out?

In a garlic prawn or mushroom dish, you can, and you will simply have a garlic-and-oil dish, which is still good but flatter and less complex. Replace the volume with stock, or with a squeeze of lemon plus a tablespoon of water, so there is still liquid to make a pan sauce. In a sauce where the sherry is the main flavour, substitute rather than omit.

Is manzanilla sherry the same as fino?

Almost. Both are dry sherries aged under a layer of yeast called flor, and they use the same grape. Manzanilla is made in Sanlucar de Barrameda, where the damp sea air produces a lighter, more saline wine, while fino comes from Jerez and El Puerto. For cooking, treat them as the same thing.

Is manzanilla sherry the same as manzanilla olives?

No, and this trips people up constantly. Manzanilla olives are small green Spanish olives; manzanilla sherry is a wine. The word simply means little apple in Spanish and is used for both. If a recipe lists both, it means both.

Can I use regular white wine instead?

Yes, at 1:1, and the dish will still be good. It will taste brighter, fruitier and less nutty, and you will miss the salty-savoury edge that makes Andalusian seafood taste the way it does. Half a teaspoon of sherry vinegar per cup of wine recovers a lot of it.

What does sherry actually do in gambas al ajillo?

It deglazes the pan, so the browned garlic and prawn flavours lift into the sauce, and it adds a dry, nutty, saline depth that plays against the olive oil. It is not there for sweetness or acidity, which is why the substitute you choose must be dry and savoury above all else.

Related substitutes

More alcohol & vinegars substitutes

Manzanilla Sherry substitute

Other manzanilla sherry substitutes

2Amontillado sherry

3Dry white vermouth

4Dry white wine plus a few drops of sherry vinegar

5Shaoxing wine

6Chicken stock or clam juice with sherry vinegar (no alcohol)