9.11.18 Consejo Says There Is No War Between Sherry and Manzanilla

The response from the Association of Artisan Bodegas of Sanlúcar (Asaba) to the High Court ban on BIB has not gone down well in the Consejo which yesterday issued a communiqué criticising the nature of their response.

The Consejo rejected the disparaging remarks directed at the region´s institutions, especially the Consejo itself, as well as at “perfectly respectable people”. In particular the Consejo condemned the Association´s “insults” aimed at Fedejerez president Evaristo Babé who, it points out, “represents the interests of the majority of the trade”.

The Consejo also rejected the “localised and victimised” tone in which Asaba is making the BIB affair into a conflict between the DOs Sherry and Manzanilla. “There is no war between the DOs” it said, pointing out that Asaba omits to mention that the largest Manzanilla producers are against the sale of BIBs and that those in favour of it want to use it for both Manzanilla and Sherry.

The wines of both DOs “coexist in the bodegas´portfolios without any problems as they have been since the DO Manzanilla was established over 50 years ago” said the Consejo, and since then Sherry and Manzanilla “have shared the same production zone, have been supplied by the same vineyards and essentially face the same problems in the marketplace”, so to present the matter in terms of competing products is to attempt to fragment a sector which needs to be united to be able to successfully tackle the challenges of the future”.

The Consejo also responded to Asaba´s criticism of the sharing of representation at the Consejo “which can be changed through legal channels” but Manzanilla, vinegar and the small bodegas each having their own representative would not mean that the others would not have interests in Manzanilla, as happens in the production sector which is common to the three DOs supervised by the Consejo.

The bodegas affected by the High Court ruling, the association they belong to and the Junta itself have every right to appeal the court ruling which found in favour of Fedejerez against the Junta which authorised the use of BIB for use in horeca counter to majority decisions at the Consejo.

The latter underlined in its communiqué that its prohibition of BIB is “in line with the most prestigious DOs in Spain”, the criterion being image. Finally the Consejo points out that justice has proved that it acted legally in this matter and that “the decisión not to authorise BIB was made with the sincere conviction that it was best for our DOs”.