The Association of
Artisan Bodegas of Sanlúcar has issued a communiqué in which they outline their position in the
BIB conflict, question the legality of the proposal to modify the regulations,
and call for dialogue at the Consejo. After the Junta said BIB could be legal
if it was sold only to horeca (hotel, restaurant, catering), the Consejo change
the rules, prompting the association to pose a few questions.
Firstly they point out that they had “right
from the start tried to maintain dialogue with the Consejo in the belief that
what they were doing was legal. The dialogue was kept up with growers, cooperatives
etc, but Fedejerez refused to talk”. According to the association the Junta’s
report “confirmed that what they were doing was right and legal and that consequently
BIB is perfectly legal for certain types of sale such as horeca”.
They also complain that “members of the Consejo
did not know about the Junta’s report till the very moment the plenary began on
Tuesday, at which Fedejerez produced their proposal to modify the rules to
prohibit BIB, which is absolutely legal, even now”. Representatives of the
association held a meeting with the Consejo Director 24 hours before the
plenary at which “we asked how it was possible that a proposal to modify the
rules could be presented when nobody would see the Junta’s report till the
start of the plenary. Given that the presentation of the proposal was
manifestly irregular, we asked that it be withdrawn”.
The answer was “no” and the proposal remained
on the agenda, so at the end of the meeting the association’s representatives
gave him a note which “confirmed the irregularities being committed in case the
matter were put to a vote. At no time did the association try to coerce or restrict
the rights of members of the plenary, but only make them aware via the report
that this was an irregular proposal, unjustified, illegal and from a dominant
position.” The association says that the Sherry zone needs dialogue and
innovative proposals to reactivate things and put an end to the “bodega cemetery”
image which has arisen over recent years, and all that is a consequence of
conservative policies and a concentration of power to the detriment of the
sector as a whole.
The association admits that their “sales as a
percentage of the whole DO are small but we represent 80% of the Manzanilla
bodegas of Sanlúcar, and quality cannot be measured in terms of scale, but by
the artisan process. Members of our association were never rebels but acted
reasonably, and that reason was supported by the Junta, and now there are
attempts to deny it to us.”
Finally they call for dialogue, “we are all the
Consejo Regulador and reason is not a question of taste or preference,
especially when the image of quality for the consumer should be the contents,
not the packaging, and we fulfil that.”
