Thursday, 8 May 2014

Tio Pepe En Rama 2014 15%, Gonzalez Byass

Appearance
Fairly pale golden straw, some slow legs.
Nose
Saline, briny, doughy, strawy, bitter almond, dry scrub, yeasty, all the hallmarks of flor. This wine positively reeks of it, yet you can still make out a hint of palomino wine behind. Big and assertive without any oxidative notes, but perhaps a slight savoury trace of autolysis. Considerable complexity.
Palate
Yeasty, winey, a very slight sweet note, yellow fruit, then the flor cuts in and the palate develops its drier, more savoury side, hints of olive, almond, fairly low acidity, but penetrating flavour and considerable length. This is lovely, and frighteningly moreish!
Comments
The first three editions were made from the classic Tio Pepe blend of seven soleras, but starting last year, it is now a blend from soleras in just two bodegas: Rebollo, a dark, humid bodega producing top quality concentrated Fino, and La Constancia, which produces crisp clean lemon tinged Fino. Antonio Flores, chief oenologist at Gonzalez Byass, chooses only a very few butts which he marks with chalk for his annual selection. The “puro zumo de flor” (pure essence of flor), as he calls it, was bottled on 21st April without fining or filtration, and transported to the UK in a refrigerated lorry. From an original selection of 600 butts, he chose only 60 for final bottling, those with the thickest flor. Only some 22,500 bottles will be available worldwide, so buy yours as soon as possible!
Price
General retail about £ 15.00 UK importer Gonzalez Byass UK





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