7.6.15 New Campaign Against Bag-in-Box

After various meetings with the Ministries of Consumption and Agriculture the Consejo Regulador has launched a joint informative campaign to persuade the pouring trade and consumers against the use of Bag-in-Box (BIB). They hope to achieve this by persuasion rather than risk confrontation.

The Reglamento (rules of Sherry production) states that only glass bottles can be used for Sherry with the Denominación de Origen (DO), so BIB is therefore illegal. Many producers have got round this by selling wine in this format by de-classifying it from the DO, and many bars and restaurants use it for price and convenience reasons.

BIB from the Cooperative at Sanlucar

Not everyone agrees with the Consejo’s and particularly Fedejerez’ stance which has steadfastly refused to consider any container other than glass. After all wines such as Montilla-Moriles and many others are commonly and legally sold in this format. At the last plenary meeting in May, the Consejo noted that there had been a rise in the fraudulent use of BIB, above all in Sanlúcar where there have been instances of BIBs used to refill screen printed bottles given to restaurants and bars by bodegas.

It is worth remembering that BIB is not a legal container and so will most likely contain wine which is not DO, and any Sherry-related terminology on the label is not legal either thus misleading. Nonetheless, BIBs are good sellers; the Consejo estimates that a million litres were declassified for sale in BIB last year, but they can only estimate, as this format also makes nonsense of official figures.