30.7.17 La Bodeguita to Open to Public

The town council of Jerez has decided to open its own little bodega, known as “la bodeguita” to the public, and work to repair some butts and smarten up the space is already under way in the hope that it will be ready in autumn. The plan is to open it during the Fiestas de la Vendimia, or at the latest on the 9^th of October, the day of the patron saint of Jerez, San Dionisio.

The bodeguita was created in 1991 by Pedro Pacheco who was mayor at the time, and is in the town hall buildings in Calle Consistorio. The council has been in talks with various bodegas asking them to supply wine and butts since a dozen of these were past repair, but the heads have been retained so as to exhibit the signatures of various personalities. In fact, given the small size of la bodeguita (30 square metres) the barrels are half butts of 250 litres.

The oenologists Antonio Flores (González Byass) and Eduardo Ojeda (Grupo Estévez) have both visited the bodeguita to assess the condition of the wine, while the Julio cooperage has been working on the butts and running the scales at the request of Fundador. Estévez have sent a specialist to repaint the signatures and restoration of posters and paintings, some of which are fine works of art, is also in hand.

Still to be established are opening times, entry prices and whether a tasting should be made available. The idea is not to compete with commercial bodegas but to stimulate visitors to visit the commercial bodegas and buy their wine.

Many bodegas originally donated butts of wine to the bodeguita: González Byass, Williams & Humbert, Sánchez Romate, Domecq (now Fundador), Lustau, Fernando de Castilla, Osborne and Sandeman. Now there will also be wine from Grupo Estévez, Diez Mérito and Tradición. There is no Fino, but there is Amontillado, Palo Cortado, Oloroso and Cream, all of very fine quality, and the bodegas themselves will look after it as it is a shop window for their products.

Bodegas: La Bodeguita

Few Jerezanos are aware that there is a tiny bodega on the ground floor of Jerez city chambers. Now, it is all but forgotten, except for a few legends. It was the idea of Pedro Pacheco, the city’s longest serving mayor (1979-2003), as a feature of private visits, not long after the council moved from C/Madre de Dios to its present location of C/Consistorio. Until then some half a dozen butts of wine, donated to the council by various bodegas, had been stored in the basement of the historic building, which would be refurbished in 1991.

A year later, while an annexe was being refurbished, Pacheco decided to bring the wines up from the basement to a 120 metre space on the ground floor, and set up the collection of butts, now amounting to fifty-six and the majority being half-butts, in two groups stacked five high. There are also three quarter-butts, donated by Lustau, at the entrance, and another with a glass front for observing the flor.  Pacheco’s successor, Pilar Sánchez, began the tradition of giving a glass of Sherry to those who get married at the council.

For many years Pacheco counted on the help of the late Rafael García “Kubala” to maintain the good condition of the wines, a good few of which are very old. Once Pacheco was no longer mayor, he set up his own little bodega in the basement of his house. Meanwhile, as part of the “Tourism Excellence Plan” the bodega was occasionally opened to visitors, however in the following years it was hardly used at all. Now, under the mayorship of Mamén Sánchez, the question of what to do with the bodega is again on the table.

 In 2015, Manuel Lozano, Lustau’s oenologist, visited the bodega and agreed to recuperate it, which he felt could be done in a reasonably short space of time. He worked there three times before his untimely death. Since then, the council has been in discussion with five bodegas who would be interested in helping, and also supplying the necessary wine to top up the butts. Francisco Camas, councillor in charge of patrimony, culture and festivals, would like to see a visit to the bodega included in a tour of the council building, which would include the gallery of portraits of past mayors, the great hall, the patios, the loggia and the adjacent Antiguo Cabildo, the beautiful old council building of 1575 in the Plaza de la Asunción.