Tio Pepe en rama saca 2016 15%, González Byass

Appearance

Mid to pale strawy gold with a barely perceptible trace of green, light legs.

Nose

As soon as it was poured I could smell it at the other side of the room! Fragrant,very fresh and generous with pronounced flor but not excessively bitter, there's some depth here and seriousness, which show just what a treasure these soleras are. Hints of almond and a slight trace of butter give added complexity to a gentle but very characterful Fino wine.

Palate

Dry, clean and lively, a trace of acidity and abundant but gentle flor give perfect balance to that trace of butteriness which stems from the dead yeasts at the bottom of the butt. It has a gently dry texture with traces of olive brine, almond and flor, and a very long clean finish.

Comments

This 7th release is a blend of wines from 60 selected butts in the Tio Pepe soleras in the La Constancia and Rebollo bodegas,and bottled mid April. This year's wine had more flor than usual as a mild winter with ideal average temperatures followed a cooler than average late summer and a complete absence of the warm Levante wind allowing it to remain intact on the surface. Then it burst into life again in spring ready to give zest to the wine, which it certainly did! Antonio Flores, the winemaker, describes it as "sublime, pungent and fresh." If you want to see a 50 second video of Antonio and his boss Mauricio González tasting it, go to #sueloyvelo

Price
About 15 euros from Licores Corredera

5.4.16 Award for International Sherry Week; Tio Pepe en rama 2016

International Sherry Week has won the Drinks International award for Best Digital and Social Media Campaign. This highly innovative platform has brought people all over the world together with tastings, food matching and cocktail events (among many others) attracting a much needed younger audience to the magic of Sherry. This year’s event will take place 7-13 November on www.isherryweek.com and is not to be missed.

The new release is now available. Antonio Flores, chief oenologist at González Byass has described it as “sublime, pungent, fresh and very much in the style of traditional Tio Pepe.” Slightly unusual weather conditions have allowed the flor to flourish throughout the year, and the wine was selected from 60 butts, but as it is shipped to 19 markets there isn’t a lot to go around so order yours now.