The Strongest Men in Sherry

Interesting article in today’s Diario de Jerez

Arrumbadores. A lovely word. These are the people who move the butts around the bodega and perform the tasks of saca e rocio (running the scales -extracting wine and refilling the butts), a very important job in the Sherry business. This is about the arrumbadores of the 1950s and 60s. The Civil War, closely followed by the Second World War paralysed the Sherry business, and the 1950s saw a resurgence of business, consolidated in the 1960s when the old markets were re-established.

The famous writer on Sherry, Julian Jeffs came to Jerez to work in bodegas during this period, in 1956, and witnessed the rebirth of the Almacenistas and the rude arrival of Rumasa. These had been hungry times, and a rebirth was more than welcome. In the bodegas, squads of arrumbadores did their daily work under the watchful eye of the capataz (cellarmaster) who was king. There were thousands of them, always in charge, demanding and disciplined, with great tasting ability, their hats pulled down and sashes to protect themselves from lumbago – easily incurred from the hard work.

The good capataz was usually a bit older and had to be more experienced and wiser. One, Luis Valle Saborido spent all his working life with Sandeman and after 37 years became capataz, but not before receiving classes in enology and microbiology. Capataces are like that; they don’t boast, but expect some respect. They jealously supervised their teams which consisted of a chargehand, two officials and an apprentice. These were burly men, their sleeves rolled up and wearing black sashes tightly round their kidneys, carrying metal jars hither and thither.

All the while, the capataz would keep an eye on the erection of the rows of butts up to three and even four high, the substitution of faulty ones, their loading and unloading from transport, topping-up, moving wine to fresh butts, and other work requiring great effort and skill. Without them the ageing of the wine would have been impossible, but modernisation quickly wiped them from the map.

The bodegas then transferred this lost tradition to the Fiesta de la Vendimia celebrations as a nostalgic competition, with teams from various bodegas competing against each other. Beforehand, an experienced arrumbador would explain the tactics to a young capataz who in turn would teach his squad.

Gonzalez Byass, like many firms had a paternalistic attitude to their staff. The firm had a company store which supplied staff with basic products at cost price, such as clothing and later on, white goods. When GB then did a deal with car maker Seat, the town filled up with Seat 600s. The bodegas had a deal with builders who sold housing to 20% of the staff at easy rates. They even had a company doctor, since the XIX century who visited the workers' families on occasion.

Workers’children would have priority to fill their father’s vacated post. On the death of a worker, the bodega would offer employment to his son or work in bottling to his widow. In cases of advanced age, the widow would receive a small pension.

Domecq had a company shop with goods at half price. They even promoted education grants to those who could show their children had the necessary skills, not to mention an in-house doctor, and help with purchasing a home.

The arrumbadores worked from 8-12 then from 2-6, Monday to Saturday when they would be paid. To mitigate the poverty and misery during the hungry years of unemployment post war, the bodegas would employ half the work force one week and the other half the other week.

Work was hard, and inevitably the odd glass of wine was drunk, without the capataz knowing obviously. One trick was the “monkey”, a bottle small enough to go through the butt’s bung hole on a string. Another – cruder – way was to use the tube for transferring wine to drink from. GB put a stop to this theft of wine by giving everyone a bottle of wine or a voucher for the equivalent value after work every day.

In those days a job in the bodegas was thought to be for life, but technology put an end to that - and the arrumbadores - from the end of the 1960s. Sherry would soon go through its worst times.