25.2.16 BIB Information Day; More on Versos 1891

The Professional Association of Artisan Bodegas of Sanlúcar has invited everyone in the sherry trade, producers, distributors, bodegas, Cooperatives, institutions such as the Consejo regulador and public administrations to an information day in Sanlúar entitled “Bag in Box and Quality Wine”. It will take place at the Castillo de Santiago in Sanlúcar on the 2 March at 19.00 and they expect a good attendance.

Francisco Yuste with his BIB (foto:andaluciainformacion)

There is a double purpose: partly to inform interested parties and public opinion about BIB which is seeing exponential growth in some markets, and in some European countries represents over 60% of sales, and partly to dispel any doubt about its legality in horeca. There will be a comparative tasting of quality wines, some from the bottle and some from the BIB and they will attempt to demonstrate the advantages of the BIB over the legal garrafa.

Barbadillo’s new launch, the £8,000/10,000€ Versos 1891 is selling fast. UK importer Fells received orders for 20 bottles before it was even released. So you had better hurry – there are only 80 bottles left and it will be many years before any more can be bottled. Here's a picture of it with its gift packaging. I just wonder what the Consejo thinks of having a date so prominent on the bottle. Obviously it is unlikely to be a vintage wine from 1891 and the word Vintage/Añada has not been used but someone might think it is...

And there's more: The bottle is "intelligent". It is sealed with a thin printed film called NFC Opensense Thinfilm which can distinguish between factory sealed and opened via an application in the cloud so the seal can transmit authentication data to any smartphone with the NFC app. and each bottle has a unique identification which cannot be cloned. If I could afford it I'd be scared to open it!