1.4.13 Sherryfest West; "Cartel" Fines Reduced

Last week Sherryfest West was held in Portland (Oregon, USA) after the great success of its predecessor, Sherryfest New York last autumn. The events were the idea of Peter Liem, who co-wrote the recently published book “Sherry, Manzanilla and Montilla” with Jesus Barquin, and the idea was to hold events where people could taste and enjoy Sherry and learn about it.

Like the event in New York, the Portland event held 36 tastings in shops, four seminars, various dinners and a big public tasting of 130 wines from 20 bodegas. It was the biggest event promoting andaluz fortified wines ever held outside Spain, and many of the big Sherry names were present.

The impact of these events in the press has been enormous, and thousands of consumers have taken part. What with last summer's Great Sherry Tasting in London and the Big Fortified Tasting (to be held on April 24^th – also in London), Sherry and fortified wines are at last experiencing a real renaissance on both sides of the Atlantic – something unimaginable just two years ago.

The Supreme Tribunal has considerably reduced the fine imposed on Gonzalez Byass by the Comision Nacional de la Competencia (the equivalent of the Office of Fair Trading in Britain) for allegedly being involved in a “Buyer’s own Brand cartel. In 2010 the CNC had fined the Sherry Shippers, all members of Fedejerez, and the Consejo 6.7 million euros, but the Supreme Tribunal found that while the fines were correct in principle, they were excessive.

The shippers had agreed, given extremely difficult market conditions, to put a cap on BOB sales in order to increase prices. Nueva Rumasa complained and the next thing was that the CNC began looking into things. The trade was also fined for fixing grape prices. Nueva Rumasa was exempted from its 670,000 euro fine for cooperating with the investigation.

GB had been fined 780,000 euros, being about 10% of its BOB turnover while it belonged to the cartel, but the Tribunal has halved that to 5%. It is thought that this will open the door to similar reductions to the fines of others.