Gonzalez Byass Tio Pepe Fino

Tio Pepe – it’s the most famous dry Sherry in the world! In 1835 Manuel María González bought a small winery in the Spanish region of Jerez and named it after his uncle – Tio Pepe.

You might think of Sherry as the stuff your old Nan drank gallons of back in the day. It was probably the cheap, mass produced, sweet stuff that flooded the markets in the 20th century (meanwhile the Spaniards were keeping the good stuff for themselves!).

In fact most Sherry is actually dry and one of the great wines of the world. Like Champagne in France, it can only be labelled Sherry if it’s from the Anadalucia region of south west Spain.

Made with the local Palomino grape and aged for four years using the famous Solera system. It’s a blending system whereby several rows of small oak barrels are stacked pyramid style and grouped by vintages, oldest at the bottom and youngest at the top.

When it’s time to bottle around a third of the Sherry from the bottom barrel (the oldest) is removed and replenished with Sherry from the barrel sitting above it and so on. And when Sherry producers are finished with their casks they ship them off to bonny Scotland where whisky distillers like the world famous Glenmorangie used them to add nutty, toffee like flavours to their drams!

Tio Pepe is a light, crisp style that’s best served chilled. When it comes to food pairing – boy what a wine! Think seafood, sushi, olives and cured meats!