11.6.13 What is Jerez Brandy?

 The brands which abandoned the DO Brandy de Jerez are now seeking the DO’s support so that Brussels might authorise their production without a base of distilled wine and with a reduction in strength to below 36%, and still call themselves “Brandy”, which they can’t at the moment.

Brands like Veterano and Soberano and many solera brandies left the DO to change themselves into “Spirituous Drinks” below 36% vol. without the requirement any longer to be made 100% from wine.

The plenary session at the Consejo Regulador del Brandy de Jerez last Thursday avoided any pronouncement on the proposal, spearheaded by Osborne - the first to convert to “Spirituous Drink” - to seek support for the use of the word “Brandy” once more. The appellants, who include Torres in Catalunya, would like the Consejo to lobby Brussels for a change in the Community regulations to allow their products to be called Brandy.

The old label, marked "Brandy Solera"

Below, the new label marked "Bebida Espirituosa"

They want to change the European rules to allow a new category for Brandy, made from a blend of at least 51% wine distillate and the other 49% from other alcohols (distilled possibly from molasses, cereal etc.)in order to reduce their production costs, which have increased fourfold for raw material.

To achieve this, they need the support of the Consejo, Fedejerez, FEBE (Federacion Espanola de Bebidas Espirituosas) and the Spanish Government to apply pressure on Brussels.

Currently, the European definition of Brandy is an alcoholic drink distilled 100% from wine, with a minimum strength of 36% vol. It is not only Spain which is seeking change; France would like to see it too.

The proposal is by no means fully supported in Jerez. Together with the fact that many bodegas wish to keep things as they are (to avoid consumer confusion for one reason), the enormous task of securing change to a European regulation will make things very difficult.

Bodegas who are against the changes complain that the brands which converted to Spirituous Drinks have been playing on the confusion caused by the fact that their labels have not changed at all, except for the exclusion of the word “Brandy”. They also complain that nothing has been done to differentiate Spirituous Drinks from Brandy on the sales side of things; both products being found on the same bar gantry, the same shop shelf, and in the same section of product lists.