Tio Pepe - Gonzalez Byass, Fino en Rama, Sherry, Jerez, Spain (2024)

TASTING NOTES

The 2024 rendition of this super complex Fino is amazing. Lots of yeasty flor character, saline almonds, lemons and tangy. A crisp, deep, layered and utter delight.

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

While still a blend of sherries aged for varying lengths of time, the en rama style enables the characteristics of the flor at the time the liquid is withdrawn (saca) from the barrel thereby expressing the climatic conditions of that season. This year a spring-like winter influenced its development, favouring an active and healthy layer of flor.

The wine is always around 5 years of age. While previously sourced from Tio Pepe’s founding bodegas of Constancia and Rebollo (soleras dating back to the 19th century) maestro Antonio now also selected barrels from the 1960s soleras of the Gran Bodega Tío Pepe.

As always, the label is inspired by a historic label from the archives at Gonzalez Byass (which hold over 4000 labels). It is then reworked by the house’s designer, Hugo Zapara.