10.2.16 Consejo Elections to be Held 29 April

At this Friday’s extraordinary meeting of the Consejo it will be proposed that the elections take place on the 29^th April, the day before the start of the Feria. Another meeting will be called in mid-May for the new representatives to take their seats and they will elect the president and inform the Junta. As things stand there are no other candidates, so unless he were to resign, Beltrán Domecq is likely to be re-elected for 4 years.

What with recent tensions over BIB he has demonstrated his flair for diplomacy and dialogue as well as his passion for Sherry, making him one of its principal ambassadors both in Spain and abroad. The equivalent meeting for Brandy de Jerez will take place in parallel with the Sherry meeting and it looks likely that current president Evaristo Babé will be re-elected. He is also president of Fedejerez, the association of bodegas, whose representatives can now only speak for their principal activity even if their bodega owns vineyards, thanks to new rules from the Junta.

14.1.15 Faustino Gonzalez 91 Parker Points; Consejo Elections

Bodegas Faustino González of Jerez have received excellent points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate magazine. Both their Fino en Rama Cruz Vieja and their Amontillado en Rama Cruz Vieja were awarded 91 points by Robert Parker’s Spanish expert, Luis Gutiérrez, who remarked that this bodega is one to watch. All the more exciting, as these were the first bottlings for the open market after many years as almacenistas. They are to be heartily congratulated! UK importer: Jose Fine Wines in London.

The elections for the Consejo Regulador will have to be delayed until spring as the Junta de Andalucia’s Agriculture Department has yet to reply to  the allegations of Fedejerez (the bodegas’ representative body on the Consejo), which object to the draft order in which each body can only vote on one standpoint. Up till now the bodegas have been able to vote as vineyard holders as well as bodegas, but the Junta wants to restrict this to a firm’s main business only.

The Agriculture Department informed the Consejo of the bones of the order at the beginning of October hoping to publish it as soon as possible so that the elections could be held at the start of this year, but three months after Fedejerez presented its objections – in which they also complain about the lack of consultation and direct communication with interested parties other than the Consejo itself – there is still no reply.

The Junta hopes to publish its order in February, and thereafter there will be three months for the Andalusian Denominaciones de Origen to hold their elections, which could delay them till April or May. It is worth remembering that Fedejerez chose the contentious route in case the Junta went against them.