Tio Pepe - Gonzalez Byass, Fino en Rama, Sherry, Jerez, Spain

Typically, sherry is fined and filtered before bottling, largely to increase the shelf life of the beverage and because, like all the wine world, producers believed consumers only wanted "clean" looking wines free of sediment. En rama is a style that harks back to the times before industrialized winemaking. It is basically "raw" sherry, unfixed and unfiltered and more like how the sherry would taste from the barrel. This means the “flor,” or live yeast, that is traditionally filtered out is left in.

This means the increased contact with the lees provides this bone dry, fino sherry with more texture, nuttiness and butter-y notes alongside the traditional bruised apple and bread notes.

The coastal producer Solear was the first to release an en rama. Gonzalez Byass was the first of the inland producers in Jerez to release an en rama with its Tio Pepe En Rama, to celebrate the bodega’s 175th anniversary in 2009.

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