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TÍO PEPE & cooperage company VASIMA make up the new #ExperienciaTíoPepe by González Byass, which shows the importance of the Jerez-based cooperage industry, from the drying of the American oak to the final assembling of the barrel. This initiative aims at highlighting the old trade of coopers, deeply rooted in the Jerez region and especially meaningful for the quality of the wines and brandies made in this area.
The tour begins with the discovery of the journey made by oak from the forests of Missouri in the United States to the moment it arrives at Vasima’s drying house, where it starts a drying phase in the open air that will make the wood gradually lose its moisture in the course of a year. Once inside the building we will find the consecutive stages of elevation, beating of the hoops and toasting, a process in which the wood of the inner part of the barrel undergoes very high temperatures. Executed by expert coopers –who have learned this craft from generation to generation– these tasks require perfect accuracy, since their result will determine the character of the casks containing the González Byass sherry wines, Brandy Lepanto and the Nomad whiskeys.
After the making of the casks at the cooper workshop, the process continues at the González Byass wineries in Jerez, where visitors can observe how the noble wood of the casks interacts with the wines and brandies made by the Tío Pepe producers. This importance of this delicate work, which will mark the future of sherry wine, is revealed through the tasting of some oloroso wines from sobretabla casks –with still a sharp woody flavour– as well as some añadas of different ageings, which reflect the slow and gradual influence of wood on the wine.
Wood is also decisive in the future character of whiskies such as Nomad, an Outland Whisky aged in casks having contained Pedro Ximénez, and Lepanto, a Brandy Gran Reserva which precisely bases much of its character and flavour on the barrels where it ages. Finally, a tasting of spirits and holandas in their different phases will attest the significant role that wood and its toasting play in the aging of brandy.