A Sherry Called BOB !

This was the cleverly named title of the following article in today's Diario de Jerez

The IDEA agency of the Junta de Andalucia has published a report into the situation of Sherry, its market and its future possibilities, and presented it to the last plenary session of the Consejo Regulador in January.

Alongside recommendations for opening new markets and making Sherry more accessible to younger consumers, the report revives the debate about the difficult co-existence of buyers’ own brands (BOB) and the bodegas’ own brands on one side, and on the other side the complexity of the plethora of styles of Sherry.

Much has been said about the BOB business to which bodegas have traditionally resorted to boost turnover as sales fell, but which had grave consequences for both the price and the image of Sherry. Despite the abandonment of BOB by one of the leading bodegas in recent years, it is BOB which provides the vast majority of exports to the traditional markets of the UK, Holland and Germany, at a price often of below one euro a bottle, and that damages the bodega brands.

BOB was the main reason for the massive fine of seven million euros imposed by the National Competition Commission on some Sherry shippers for an alleged cartel to assure dominant positions in the export markets.

In line with the report, sources in the Sherry sector agree that it is time the debate resurfaced, in order to avoid confusion. One suggestion is to mark bodega brands with the words “Jerez Superior”. While the report recommends simplification of the different styles of Sherry, this would not be easy, and in some cases would run against the Consejo’s own Reglamento.

The report notes that another thing holding back Sherry is the concentration on just a few markets which are not evolving and which generally prefer one style of wine, and recommends diversifying the range on offer. Spain drinks little else but Manzanilla; Britain little else but Cream and Medium, for example, but some bodegas have been trying to diversify.

Other recommendations are pretty obvious, such as creating and promoting brands; increasing public knowledge of the wines; concentrating more on the pouring trade; working on enotourism.

To sum up, the report, rather than coming up with new ideas, points up some questions which have never been resolved, mainly because of the tense and confrontational atmosphere between the bodegas and the producers over the many years of crisis. Now that there is interest again in Sherry, it is up to them to do the right thing.