The Sanish central tax authority, the Agencia Tributaria (or Hacienda
as it is known), is to auction off the old firm of Bodegas 501 in its entirety
due to its inability to pay taxes owed. According to some, the origin of this
sorry tale goes back a couple of decades to an alleged fraud in the payment of
alcohol taxes, and the proprietors, José Carlos Torres Gázquez
and family and one or two others, reached an agreement with Hacienda offering
their site and premises, which have great potential for conversion into housing,
as a guarantee. However the bureaucracy involved in changing the oficial use of
the site took forever and then the real estate crisis arrived, which made the
agreement unworkable.
In fact, Bodegas 501, originally
known as Bodegas Carlos & Javier de Terry dating from 1783 and re-named
after their famous and very successful Brandy 501, ceased their bodega
activities twelve years ago and converted themselves into distributors, albeit
of their own brands. In 2010 they signed a deal for Sánchez Romate to produce and
bottle 501 for the export market, having agreed some six months previously a
similar deal with Osborne to produce three versions of 501 – Solera, Grana and
Oro - for the domestic market. The soleras were transferred to Romate and
Osborne respectively, both of whom have more modern and efficient installations
which keep costs down.
The auction will take place on
28th May and in two lots. The first is the buildings which consist of two
warehouses and the land they stand on in Calle Valdés in El Puerto de Santa María,
for which Hacienda have fixed a starting bid price of 3.2 million euros. The
second lot is the industrial proprty rights to 24 brands of wines and brandies,
most in disuse, and Hacienda have fixed a starting bid price for these of 11.3
million euros.This sad news comes in the wake of the virtual demise of Garvey.
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