30.9.15 Consejo Meeting on BIB; "Red Duchess" Archive

In a bitter debate yesterday at the Consejo Regulador, approval for the use of the bag in box (BIB) was again refused. Much of the three hours of the meeting was taken up with this highly controversial matter and another, proposed by Fedejerez, to restrict sales of bulk Sherry except in exceptional circumstances. The latter will be discussed at greater length at another meeting, but one wonders how this might affect tabancos. In a strongly worded statement Evaristo Babé, Fedejerez president stated that BIB is “manifestly illegal” and lamented the lack of “immediate measures” from public administrations against this “fraud which is going on every day.”

Some of the Archive of Medina Sidonia

Nicknamed the “Red Duchess” for her anti-Franco activities, the Duquesa de Medina Sidonia, who died recently, was a member of a very old and noble family in Sanlúcar. A previous duke led the Spanish Armada in 1588, and the family has built up a huge archive of great historical importance, consisting of over six million documents, some from the XIII century. It is one of the two most important in Europe. To conserve it the duchess established the Fundación Casa Medina Sidonia, to which she donated the archive which was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural, based in the Palacio de los Guzmanes in Sanlúcar.

The duchess died in 2008 and did not include the archive in her legacy as she had already given it away, but her heirs think differently and are disputing the will in court, and that could mean breaking up the archive which is priceless but has a notional value of €60 million. A large platform of citizens, writers, historians, the Junta de Andalucía, the Diputación de Cádiz and Sanlúcar Town Council has been established to try and ensure this doesn’t happen. The case begins today.

12.7.15 Sanlúcar Mayor Pro BIB; Latest on Harvest

The Town Council of Sanlúcar has made a stand in favour of Manzanilla producers who are flouting the wine rules in general and those of the Denominación de Origen (DO) in particular by selling declassified wines in bag-in-box (BIB), a container which is not authorised by the Consejo.

On Friday they sought explicit support from the Mayor of Sanlúcar, Victor Mora, in a ratcheting-up of the love-hate tension between Sanlúcar and Jerez, where there is also the issue of Sanluqueños being allowed to produce Fino for commercial expediency while Jerezanos cannot produce Manzanilla. Both issues remain unsolved.

BIB was the main topic of the meeting at the Council, which came out in spirited support of it, saying that the BIB is taking over from the traditional “garrafa”, the only vessel allowed by the Consejo for bulk wine, as the trade is modernising by taking advantage of this container’s superior qualities of hygiene and environmental impact. Wine is protected from the light and the air, and is more easily poured and transported.

Victor Mora meeting with Manzanilleros (foto:diariojerez)

The Consejo for its part says that BIB’s are marketed in a way which confuses the consumer, as they carry the name of the producer, Manzanilla imagery, and use terms such as “en rama” and “fina” leading people to think they are genuine Manzanilla.

Despite repeated heatwaves the harvest is looking fine so far. The worst enemy is the Levante wind which can reduce the crop, but not much has been seen of it. The predicted start date for the harvest is the 20^th of August and a crop of between 67 and 70 million kilos is expected, much the same as last year, which was sufficient to restock the soleras. The grapes are healthy, and growers are crossing their fingers that it stays that way.