7.11.13 Sherry Takes Off in US; City Centre Improvement Conference

At last Sherry is beginning to see the fruits of its labours in the American market. The Consejo had decided to dedicate most of its promotion budget to the Anglo-Saxon world and most of that to the US, where events such as Sherryfest have helped sales to increase dramatically. The last few years have seen considerable promotional investment, totalling more than this year’s entire budget, which is a meagre 650,000 euros, due to the financial crisis.

Sales have grown by 12% and over a million litres of Sherry sold. Sherry is now to be found in shops, bars and restaurants as a result of the interest stimulated by Sherryfest in New York. The final coup de grace was the Grand Tasting which took place at the Astor Centre, with the participation of 25 bodegas and attended by 600 people, mostly trade or specialist press.  As Cesar Saldaña, director of the Consejo put it, “the idea was to make a noise, and we certainly did”. Tastings were held in 60 wine shops, restaurants promoted  menus married with Sherry and Beltran Domecq presented the translation of his book as well as lectures on Sherry.

A tasting at Sherryfest New York

The promotion is aimed less at the masses and more at the elite who have a better understanding of the complexities of Sherry. This year there was also a Sherryfest in Canada, and a welcome change in the law banning false “Sherries”. Although smaller, the Canadan event was equally successful and wound up with Sherry and food marriage dinners and a Sherry Cocktail competition.

A conference is taking place today in Jerez about what to do to stop the deterioration of the city’s historic centre. It is organised by the City Council and the official College of Architects of Cadiz. Ramon Gonzalez de la Peña architects are proposing a wider pedestrianisation scheme. They are also worried about what will happen to disused bodega buildings. Some have been successfully converted such as Valdespino in the Calle Ponce to the Official Language School, but others are in danger of collapse or tasteless supermarket conversions. It is to be hoped, however that the Sherry business can recuperate sufficiently to use these buildings again as they are ideal for that purpose, and not ideal for most other purposes.

There is pressure for housing, and so the centre must look better. Many residents left the centre in the 1960’s and many properties are now empty. Tradition must be respected but within the parameters of modern life. Another concern is the Ciudad del Flamenco, a project which has completely stalled. There is a great deal to be discussed  on the regeneration of a great city with such deep roots in wine and flamenco.

Bodegas: J Ferris

Bodegas J Ferris was established as recently as 1975 by industrialist Jesus Ferris Marhuenda and his wife Candida Ruiz, who already owned extensive vineyards. At the time, the Sherry business seemed everlasting, but Ferris has managed to survive by winning decent sales in the export market, albeit on a fairly small scale.

The bodega is of the "chateau type", on a low hill with the vineyards surrounding it, and is constructed in the traditional style but with modern facilities. It is located a little outside Sanlucar de Barrameda, to the south, with its vineyards in the Pago Miraflores. There is space for a press house, vinification plant with temperature controlled steel tanks, 10,000 butts of maturing wine, as well as stabilisation plant and bottling lines.

They make quite a variety of products as follows:

Manzanilla: La Piconera, La Liebre
Tres Candidas Range: Fino, Oloroso, Amontillado, Cream
J Ferris M Range: Moscatel, Pedro Ximenez
Red Wines: Senorio J Ferris Tinto and the quite rare Tintilla de Rota
Also Three Brandies and a Ponche

They also market a Piconera range under the name Bodegas Las Urtas, principally to Holland and Germany where the PX solera 1941 is popular.

Address: Ctra El Puerto de Santa Maria - Sanlucar de Barrameda, Km 13.6, 11540 Sanlucar
Telephone: (+34) 956 235 100 or (+34) 956 363 400
Website: www.bodegasferris.com
Visits? Not really, but might be persuaded...

6.11.13 Cadiz May Disappear

Most of the province of Cadiz will disappear beneath the waves as a result of global warming, according to a study by National Geographic. The magazine has created an interactive map which shows this situation after the polar ice caps have melted, raising sea levels by 300 metres. And it will not just be Cadiz, home to our favourite wine. Much of the Spanish coastline of today will be changed. And it will not just be Spain. Cities like London and Venice will disappear, along with the Low Countries. Across the Atlantic, most of San Francisco and New York will be lost. In Africa, Cairo and Alexandria will disappear, and temperatures will rise dramatically. Losses will be similarly catastrophic in Oceania and Australia. The only good piece of news from National Geographic is that these cataclysmic events will take about 5,000 years to happen.

Massive coastal changes promised by global warming

5.11.13 GastroCadiz; Cycle Round Bodegas and Vineyads

The first ever “GastroCadiz”took place yesterday, an event celebrating the cuisine of the province of Cadiz, and it took place at Bodegas Delgado Zuleta in Sanlucar. The well-known TV chef Dani Martinez and Bodegas Delgado Zuleta are the main promoters of the initiative which is also supported by the Consejo Regulador, whose director, Cesar Saldaña, had the job of marrying fine Sherries to the food prepared by various leading chefs.

Cadiz is blessed with great seafood, agriculture and meat, not to mention great wines, putting the province firmly on the gastronomic map. The chefs came up with some amazing dishes using only local produce, and Cesar Saldaña married it all perfectly with Sherry. This sort of initiative is surely an excellent way forward for both food and wine exports.

Another event for the European Wine Tourism day is the V Jerez Wine Tourism Cycling Route. For 5 Euros, one can sign up and start at Bodegas Lustau, where a tour is organised, and cycle out to the countryside where a meal and some Sherry awaits the weary pedallers at the Cortijo de Ducha, courtesy of the Consejo. Entries are open until Sunday, and already at least 50 have been received. It is a great family day out for little expense.

Palo Cortado 20%, Pedro's Almacenista Selection

Appearance
Light amber through gold and yellow to vanishing point, legs.
Nose
Quite fragrant with lots of lightly toasted hazelnuts and almonds, a hint of toasted bread, marzipan, faint traces of a Fino past with hints of autolised yeast, a certain implied sweetness, in fact quite Amontillado, fairly crisp but with an earthy hint of walnut at the end.
Palate
Quite light in style, all the charm of an Amontillado, fresh, tangy and lively with a lightness of touch. Not short of flavour, all those toasted nuts, then a slightly looser, more oloroso feel and slight traces of truffle, walnut. really more Amontillado than Oloroso, but exactly where do you draw the line?
Comments
This is a very decent wine from a range of four (Fino, Amontillado, Palo Cortado, Oloroso) specially put together for Majestic wine warehouses. It was sourced by "Pedro" who in reality is Peter Dauthieu of a company called Viniberia which sources Spanish wines for UK importer Ehrmanns. The wine comes from the bodega and almacenista Cayetano del Pino in Jerez, and was contract bottled by Sanchez Romate with minimal filtration. The labels on this range are really colourful and different, and feature old Jerez harvest festival posters, in this case, 1951. The wines are good, genuine, interesting and well priced, and my congratulations go to all concerned on a good job well done. This is the sort of project which will really help to boost Sherry sales.
Price
£14.99 only from Majestic

4.11.13 More Medals for Barbadillo; "Spain Bars" Growing in Japan

Barbadillo has done it again. The Salnucar bodega has won three awards at the Premios Mezquita 2013 in Cordoba.  Manzanilla Solear won the Gran Mezquita, Gibalbin 2011 (their red table wine) won the Mezquita Silver, and Eva Cream won the Mezquita Bronze. There were 390 wines entered, from all Spanish viticultural regions, tasted by thirty tasters. The Premios Mezquita, the only big competition in Andalucia, is now in its eighteenth year, and is a reference point in wine competitions due to the high standing of the judges. It has seen Barbadillo win awards time and time again. {The Mezquita is an equisite mosque in Cordoba}

Spanish bars and restaurants are seeing good growth in Japan, according to the Economic and Commercial Office of the Spanish Embassy in Tokyo. 33,396 cases of Sherry were imported last year, representing growth of 10.2%. This is not a vast quantity (Port and Madeira are ahead) but a great opportunity is there for the Sherry trade. Fino and Manzanilla are especially popular in bars which offer Spanish ham and Sherry by the glass. The latter also go spectacularly well, of course, with Japanese Sushi.

(Imagen Trip Advisor)

The Man Who had a Dream: Antonio Pedro Barbadillo Romero and his Castillo de San Diego

Toto, as he was known among friends, returned to Bodegas Barbadillo in Sanlucar towards the end of the 1960’s after trips to Europe and the United States, where he had been impressed by some of the wines he had tasted. He described them as the perfect wines to accompany seafood, but there was nothing of their sort in Spain. The smooth character of these wines reminded him of the musts he used in the bodega to produce Manzanillas and Sherries.

The idea of producing such a wine slowly became a personal project. He began to conduct tests on fermentations in a Phillips fridge at home. The results looked promising, but the tests continued.

Later, he met the English directors of Harveys with whom he signed a wine supply contract. This obliged him to build a vinification plant in 1975, equipped with all the latest technology, in the Gibalbin area, which he thus put on the map. At last he had the facilities to produce the wine that he wanted, and, taking a bit of a risk, he launched the young white table wine which he first called “Vino Noble de Mesa”.

(Imagen Jerez Siempre)

The Consejo and many bodegas were furious: he was prohibited from making any mention on his labels of the Sherry area, as well as any oblique reference to it with names such as “Castillo de Sanlucar” or “Castillo de Santiago”. In the end he named his wine “Castillo de San Diego” after the street where the bodega was situated. He also argued that white table wine was nothing new in the Sherry area, and produced documents from the late XIX century to prove it.

It worked. It was a pioneering wine in every sense, and nothing like it had been produced in Andalucia. At the beginning of the 1980’s, something happened which gave Castillo de San Diego the boost it needed. Felix Cabeza, founder of the excellent Madrid fish restaurant “La Dorada”, tried the wine and was so delighted with it that he made it his house wine. It became so popular that it was soon the best-selling white wine in Spain. And it remains so today.

Toto had a long and distinguished career in Sanlucar. He had a degree in law, but his future was the wine trade. Among his many jobs were company secretary to Bodegas Infantes de Orleans Borbon, president of Williams & Humbert, founding secretary to CAYDSA and president of Barbadillo and Pedro Romero.

He was related, of course, to the Romeros and the Barbadillos, and it was said of him that he was born among the manzanilla soleras. By nature he was charming, jovial and intelligent, and got along with anyone. His workforce loved him, as he loved his native land and its wines. He could prop up the bar for 24 hours! 

His view was that manzanilla was the wine of liberty; it was drunk at court in Cadiz, becoming more the wine of the people after the brief constitution of Cadiz. Along with Juan Carlos Barbadillo, Toto set up the Orden de la Solear (after their most popular brand) to recover the notion of a romantic Andalucia, in which manzanilla was the drink which brought people together.

The 3^rd of January 2005 was a sad day for Sanlucar when Toto passed away from a heart attack. By now he was an Hijo Predilecto of Sanlucar (a great honour) and held the gold medal for the defence of the culture of Wine.