Gonzalez Byass – Tio Pepe 75cl Bottle

A Fino (dry) sherry. Pale gold. Crisp, fresh, clean, very dry and fragrant. Pungent, distinctive flor aroma. The estimated period of ageing is some 5 years. All the grapes are from vineyards owned by Gonzalez Byass in the Jerez Superior zone. As with all wine elaborated from white grapes, it is best consumed within a year. Serve chilled. Optimum temperature 4/10 degrees C. Serve in a small tulip shaped glass to half the capacity, to full appreciate its delicate aroma. Accompanies any type of aperitif (olives, cheese, nuts, etc.) and goes especially well with shellfish or seafood. It is excelent with ice or as a long drink with tonic. One may say that Tio Pepe Fino came into being for the first time on our 601 hectares of ‘albariza’ (lime earth) vineyards located on the outskirts of the city, on the exceptional ‘pagos’ (plots) of the Jerez Superior area. About the first week in September, the Palomino strain used to make sherry is ready to be hand picked and placed in 15 kg boxes intended to prevent breakage of the grapes during transport which would set off uncontrolled fermentation, all of these harvesting tasks last about 20 days, during which the reception and vinification plant at ‘Las Copas’, with capacity to receive one million kilos of grapes per day, swarms with activity. Once in the press, the grape is pressed several times, but only the first ones, that is to say, the softest, most delicate and least intense, will give the ‘Yema Must’ used to prepare Tio Pepe. Then fermentation begins in stainless steel tanks at a controlled temperature, through which the must will become wine of 12 degree to 13 degree alcohol content. After racking (separation of the sediments, or lees, in the wine), the classification operation is performed by organoleptic analysis; their overseer tastes the wines and an analysis is performed at the laboratory to determine which wines will become finos and which will become olorosos. Those that pass the strict examination we require for our fino Tio Pepe will be fortified by adding wine spirits up to 15 degrees, thus obtaining ‘sobretablas Fino’, which will lie in American oak casks for a year. The rest of the must will be fortified up to 18 degrees, thus becoming ‘sobretablas oloroso’. A year later, a second classification is performed to decide which way these wines will go, the finos remaining at 15 degrees and the olorosos at 18 degrees. That is when the traditional Jerez process of ‘Solera y Criaderas’ aging begins.