26.10.15 Junta Declares Bag in Box Illegal

Bodegas in Sanlúcar which continue to sell de-classified Manzanilla in BIB will be prosecuted by the Junta, which has noted that the sale of these products without a Denominación de Origen (DO) is illegal and has already been denounced by Fedejerez and the Consejo Regulador. At the last full meeting of the Consejo BIB was again refused authorisation. Now the Junta’s technical and legal people from the Agriculture Department have taken samples from the bodegas reported to it. They say there is clear infringement of the rules in terms of labelling and offenders could be fined between 3,000 and 50,000 euros depending on the seriousness of the offence.

BIBs for sale in a bar (foto:diariodejerez)

The Junta has already informed offenders that proceedings have begun and they have 15 days to answer the allegations and a period of 10 months for a resolution. Two types of offence have been detected: those which infringe the DO by the use of protected terms such as “fina” or “en rama” or protected imagery such as the harvest or rows of barrels which allude to Sherry, and those which infringe law 2/2011 with respect to the quality of agro-alimentary goods.

In the latter case the rules state that biologically aged wines with an alcoholic strength of 15% can only be sold under the umbrella of the authorised DOs of Sherry, Montilla and Condado de Huelva. By choosing to de-classify their wine to sell it in BIB producers are not covered by the DO and lose the right to sell it as wine. At the last Consejo meeting Fedejerez lamented the time it was taking for the Junta to act on its complaints against the Manzanilla producers.