Today is the Blog's First Birthday!

When I started out with the blog, I never realised just how many people shared my passion, so you can imagine my delight at the response. Thank you all for your remarks and comments; feedback is always needed, and helps guide the blog in the right direction. It would be wonderful, however, if the bodegas themselves were to contribute something - anything - as one of the main purposes of the blog is to stimulate interest in their product, as well as educating consumers about its fabulousness.

It has been an interesting year. The renaissance of interest in Sherry is growing. The Great Sherry Tasting in London, two Sherryfests in America, World Sherry Day are testament to that. Then there is the growing number of Sherry bars, which seem  to be (unsurprisingly) incredibly popular. Sales seem to have bottomed out, and a modest increase in UK sales has cancelled out falling sales in Spain. At my work, Drinkmonger in Edinburgh, we do many consumer tastings, but the only one we have had to repeat - by popular demand -was the Sherry tasting - twice!

Other good things to have happened are the increase in sales of bodega's own brands and a corresponding dip in buyers' own brands (BOB). That can only be good news for quality, for at the end of the day, quality is what sells. How much claret is sold on the back of the reputation of the Classed Growths? The word needs to be spread, and I'm sure we are all doing what we can, but the Consejo needs to be better funded. It is doing well on a limited budget - a mere fraction of the 8 million euros of that of the Rioja. The bodegas could surely get away with a tiny price increase to cover increased levies to the Consejo for the urgently needed education and promotion which would be recouped with increased sales.

So let's all rush out for a bottle of Sherry and celebrate the World's greatest wine - I did: