Del Duque Amontillado Sherry VORS

The Palomino grapes for Del Duque Amontillado are carefully harvested by hand, immediately brought to the winery, and gently pressed in pneumatic presses to obtain particularly fine musts. By law, the must yield is limited to a maximum of 72.5 liters of must from 100 kg of grapes. The musts are fermented dry in stainless steel tanks until the young wines have a natural alcohol content of around 11 to 12 percent by volume. They are then fortified to 15.5 percent by volume alcohol and placed in the uppermost casks of the Tio Pepe Solera. The oak barrels are deliberately filled to only about five-sixths to allow room for the flor to develop and form a thick layer of yeast on the wine's surface. Flor yeasts are naturally abundant in Sherry bodegas, and they spontaneously develop the firm film on the wine's surface. Initially, they work like fermentation yeasts, converting sugar into alcohol. Once the sugar is fully fermented, flor yeasts abruptly change their mode of operation and now use alcohol and oxygen to form an increasingly compact layer of yeast on the wine's surface, which ultimately seals the wine completely airtight. At the same time, this yeast cap provides it with important nutrients and gives it its characteristic Sherry aroma.