4.11.14 Sherry sales to End September

The sales figures for Sherry reveal that the domestic market has levelled off as sales have ceased falling, but they continue to fall in the export markets. Spain took about a third of the 25.5 million litres of wine sold to the end of September at just over 9 million litres, while the export markets took just under 16 million litres. European sales declined over 8% as against the same period last year, with UK sales down a worrying 11%.

At the end of this year, Jerez will pass on the title of European City of Wine (ECW) to an as yet un-named city in Portugal, following the RCVIN system of a different country each year. In the year so far, Jerez has achieved its objectives, and the name of Sherry has within and without the Spanish border thanks to the efforts made for the ECW, and has put Sherry at the forefront of the wine scene.

The sector is well aware, however, that it must build on the results achieved as well as those still to come via promotional projects. It is not all doom and gloom, though, since as volumes continue to slide, prices are slowly rising, principally as the sales slide is largely in the BOB market while sales of better wines are rising slightly. The bodegas are happy enough with this as income is rising slightly along with quality and the drop in sales is slowly levelling off.

Fino and Manzanilla continue to be the best sellers with sales of 5.9 and 5.6 million litres respectively. Medium, mainly an export Sherry, sold 5.5 million and Cream 4.2 million while Pale Cream sold 1.5 million. These latter three all registered fairly serious falls in sales. PX was up slightly at 610,000 litres, Oloroso down 15% at 390,000 litres, Amontillado down a whopping 76% at 273,000 litres. Then Dry was 46% up at 236,000 litres, Dulce down 0.72% at 234,000 litres, Moscatel was up 2.8% at 56,000 litres and Palo Cortado was up a creditable 24% at 45,000 litres.