7 Best Sherry-Finished American Whiskeys, According to Spirits Critics

Sherry finishing is having a moment in American whiskey, and the results are all over the map. Done well, a sherry cask can add layers of dried fruit, baking spice and earthy complexity that American oak alone rarely delivers. Done poorly, it turns a perfectly good whiskey into something that tastes like grape juice fell into a barrel. The seven expressions below skew heavily toward the “done well” end of that spectrum, ranked using The Daily Pour Critics’ Score, our proprietary metric that aggregates and averages scores from the most trusted critics across the internet.

7. New Riff Sherry Finish Malted Rye

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New Riff has built a stellar reputation in Northern Kentucky since being founded in 2014, and this 6-year malted rye finished in sherry casks at a robust 56.35% ABV is another example of the distillery swinging for the fences. The malted rye base is a rarer format than your standard rye mash, offering a softer, more rounded grain character before the sherry cask even enters the conversation. Priced around $70, it sits at the bottom of this list only because the competition above it is so stiff.

6. Barrell Bourbon Cask Finish Series P.X. Sherry

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Barrell Craft Spirits is the biggest name in the American independent blending game, and its Barrell Bourbon Cask Finish Series P.X. Sherry brings that same reliability to the Pedro Ximénez finishing format. PX sherry is the richest, most syrupy of the sherry styles, and at 57.76% ABV, this is not a whiskey that whispers.

Barrell used 9 and 10-year-old Kentucky bourbons; 6-, 7-, 8- and 12-year-old Indiana bourbons; and 7- and 15-year-old Tennessee bourbons to craft this blend before finishing in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks from Spain.

5. Oaklore Story Series Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish Four Grain Bourbon

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Oaklore is a distillery you may never have heard of, but you should expect to hear about it more and more, and this sherry-finished bourbon is the proof. The nose on this 6-year, 47.5% ABV bourbon is all raspberry jam and cherry danish with a warm cookie butter sweetness underneath, the sort of thing that makes you want to skip the glass entirely and just inhale. On the palate, the oloroso’s fruit-forward character holds firm, but the bourbon’s oak structure keeps it honest, with cherry pie, cinnamon and a grip of tannin pulling the sweetness back from the edge. The finish goes earthy and spiced, with tobacco, cocoa, coffee grounds and clove. Available for $99.95, this is an under-the-radar distillery continuing to quietly outperform its profile.

4. ASM Whiskey Finished in Sherry Casks

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ASM Whiskey Finished in Sherry Casks is the most approachable pour on this list. At 42% ABV and priced around $65, the accessibility is real. What’s interesting about this one is how a lighter ABV can actually let the sherry cask do more of the talking without heat competing for attention. It’s a different kind of sherry-finish experience than the barrel-strength bruisers elsewhere on this list, and for certain occasions, that restraint is exactly what you want.

3. McCarthy’s 6 Year Oregon Single Malt Whiskey Finished In PX Sherry Casks

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Hood River Distillers has been making McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt for long enough that it commands serious respect among American single malt devotees, and the 6-year PX sherry cask finish version pushes that reputation further. At 56.1% ABV, this is a high-wire act: Pacific Northwest grain character, six years of American oak maturation and the dense, raisin-and-molasses weight of Pedro Ximénez sherry casks layered on top. Priced around $120, it costs more than most of the competition here, but it’s delicious stuff.

2. Jacob’s Pardon ‘Cask Collective’ 16-Year-Old Oloroso Sherry Cask-Finished Whiskey

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American light whiskey is a niche category that doesn’t get nearly enough credit, and Jacob’s Pardon ‘Cask Collective’ 16-Year-Old Oloroso Sherry Cask-Finished Whiskey is a case study in why that’s a shame. The nose is powdered sugar and French toast with a savory, mushroomy undercurrent from the oloroso that shouldn’t work as well as it does (and yet). On the palate, those earthy mushroom notes push to the front, flanked by dried fruit, cotton candy and more of that powdered sugar sweetness, forming a profile that is genuinely unlike anything else in this roundup. The finish is tobacco, bright cherry candies and sponge cake, a combination that sounds chaotic on paper and lands with surprising coherence in the glass. At 48.25% ABV and priced around $125, this 16-year MGP-sourced expression is the most distinctive whiskey on this list.

1. Lasso Motel Sherry Cask Finish Bourbon

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The best sherry-finished American whiskey comes from one of the more unexpected labels. Lasso Motel Sherry Cask Finish Bourbon, produced at Green River Distillery in Kentucky and bottled at an easy-drinking 50% ABV, earned the top critics’ score of 93 in this group. No age statement, no premium price tag (it sells for around $70), and no famous name attached to it. What it does have is a sherry finish that the critics found more compelling than anything else in this field, a reminder that the most interesting American whiskey right now is often coming from labels you’ve never seen on a back bar.

Sherry finishing in American whiskey is no longer a novelty, and this group of seven makes a strong case that the format has earned its place as a legitimate category. The ceiling here is high and the floor is higher than you’d expect, with every expression in this list scoring a 90 or above.