Fantastic Lecture at Williams & Humbert

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the latest lecture in the excellent series organised by W&H. Entitled "The Curious History of Fino" the lecture was imparted by Javier Maldonado Rosso, a local academic and historian of all things Jerez who has written or contributed to important books on the subject. Widely respected, he was introduced by Jesús Medina, managing director of the bodega.

The well attended lecture took place in the section of this vast bodega devoted to the famous Añada wines, and I am sure a butt from my birth year (which shall remain a secret) was smiling at me. Among the bodegueros and members of the public present were Beltrán Domecq and Evaristo Babé. Javier began by saying that Fino has a surprising history "as there is no other wine which has gone from being described as feeble and sick to being considered a jewel of worldwide viniculture."

Evaristo Babe, Javier Maldonado, Jesus Medina, Beltran Domecq

He then delved into the origins of a wine which apparently took as its name the highest quality description a wine can have: "Fine (Sp: Fino) Wine" but one which had a difficult time earning general respect. In Jerez the term Fino means light, elegant and sophisticated. From the earliest times until comparatively recently the appearance of flor yeast on the wine's surface was considered a defect and it took a long time to realise the beneficial effect it had on the wine. 

In the 1820s tastes in the British market, the most important at the time, were changing in favour of lighter wines, and there was an impetus to do more with Fino. The paler wines sold at that time were however closer to young Amontillado than the Finos of today. Therefore how long Fino as we know it has been on the market is hard to say as it depends on its definition. In conclusion Javier said "Fino is the work of growers, bodegueros, oenologists, arrumbadores (the men who positioned the butts and climbed up to get samples) and scientists, and the result of collective empirical and scientific knowledge.

The evening, which was very much enjoyed by all, closed with questions and answers which were followed by general conversation with a glass of Fino Pando or Canasta Cream dispensed by a very efficient young venenciador. Williams & Humbert did us all proud.

27.11.15 Gremio de la Vinatería v Consejo Regulador

In his lecture to the Scientific Symposium celebrating 80 years of the DO Jerez, the famous historian Javier Maldonado Rosso chose to talk about “From the Gremio de la Vinatería to the Consejo Regulador. From Protectionism to Liberalism.” He said that there is a widespread belief that the Gremio de la Vinatería/Cosecheros (Guild of Winegrowers) was the antecedent of the Consejo, but this is far from true.

While Denominaciones de Origen and Consejos Reguladores came about from the necessity for self-regulation and to combat fraud and imitation which were doing enormous damage at the beginning of the XX century, the growers’ guilds were revelling in privileges granted long ago by royalty which meant a straightjacket for the development of Sherry by holding back modernization. The Consejos are integrated entities; they unify growers, almacenistas and exporters to whom they offer judicial security while they represent a guarantee for consumers. In contrast the Gremios were exclusive – growers only – rabid localists and protectionists of their privileges.

The Gremio de la Vinatería de Jerez was established in the XVIII century, closely preceding those of Sanlúcar and El Puerto. It was constituted in response to the growth of exports and the consequent disparity of interests between growers and exporters. The exporters wanted to squeeze the growers to achieve better margins so the growers organised to protect themselves, but the Gremios tended to be run badly by oligarchies of growers. The system was corrupt from the start and by the end of the 1760s, the growers’ failure to comply with their own rules led to the development of the system we know today. In the case of Jerez the transformation was led by Juan Haurie – founder of what would become Domecq – together with a small band of growers who established the ageing of wine in the solera system for easy blending for British tastes which led to the construction of the great bodegas to store them.

Javier Maldonado Rosso (foto:gentedelpuerto)

This movement, whose objective was to recapture the added value of the wine from Britain so it remained in Jerez, led to the liberalisation of prices and the appearance of exporting houses with vertical integration – the bodegas de Crianza y Expedición which also owned vineyards. With the triumph of liberalism after the death of Fernando VII in 1834, the Gremios were abolished without the growers’ attempts to face down the exporters over the following decades ever coming to fruition.

Bodegas Tradición Restores and Catalogues Historic Archive

An altarpiece by Juan de Leví from the late XIV century, a dossier from 1666, a wooden plaque from 1650, and 80 year old wine… the passage of time runs through every inch of these bodegas which seem to have been here almost for ever in this enclave of the Calle Cordobeses. Here can be found their well- known art gallery containing over 300 Spanish works from the XV to the XIX centuries, their beautifully aged and sought-after wines and here is where they continue working with history, now with the restoration of the bodega archive.

In a large, fresh, recently restored room thousands of documents are being researched. Well-ordered and stored in boxes they lie on an elongated table awaiting their turn to be cleaned, catalogued and read by Manuel Marín. The quality of the paper and the ink and the fact that they have been stored so long without being moved mean that the great majority have been preserved in good condition, although it has not been possible to restore all of them. The archive comes from the bodega CZ (Cabeza y Zarco) which is thought to be the oldest documented bodega in Jerez dating from 1650, although the oldest document found so far is from 1666. “Hopefully older ones could still be discovered,” says Helena Rivero, president of the bodega.

Manuel Marin at work

The documents have been fumigated, removed from the boxes and had the dirt removed, one by one. Wrinkled ones are put through a press. The plan is to digitalise them so they can be consulted easily. According to Javier Maldonado Rosso, one of the foremost historians of Sherry, “the Sherry business could not be fully understood without these archives.” He says that in these papers the move to industrialisation can be seen, when the bodegas controlled everything including the price until the arrival of the almacenistas when they lost total control. A legal case legitimised the latter and thus the whole Sherry production process changed from winemaking to wine growing and making. This happened in Jerez before anywhere else.

Part of the archive and its condition (foto:diario jerez)

These documents have passed through the hands of the different owners of the firm until arriving in the hands of the Rivero family, after “difficult” negotiations with Antonio Núñez Terriza, who found it very hard sentimentally to let go of the dossiers. In the boxes they have found cheques from the British Royal Household for wine orders and official documents which show that wine which was in some ships which returned from the battle of Trafalgar formed the solera for the fine Trafalgar 1805 Sherry brand which was prestigious in its day. The dossiers, very few of which are of a personal nature, include photographs of when Joaquín María Rivero, grandfather of the current owner and married to an heiress of Cabeza y Zarco in the XIX century, took over the bodega and added his name to the firm’s title. He would then undertake a process of internationalisation so many more were aware of the prestige of the brand. The history of this bodega is practically unknown to most Jerezanos yet it has been in the heart of the city for centuries.

Just like the wine in its butts which needs time and can’t be hurried, this archive is also taking time: the time Manuel Marín needs every day to put in order books of accounts, books of formulas - written in symbols so they couldn’t be copied - letters with documents which state how when the Marqués de Montana died in 1785 the bells tolled at all the Jerez churches joined by those of the convents which no longer exist; a letter from the minister for Development from 1906 informing Joaquín María Rivero in the most prosaic (or perhaps respectful) way that he was virtually bust.

There are myriad documents covering the XVII to the XX centuries which include important references to the vineyards, what they were like originally and how the countryside changed. There are hundreds of letters, work diaries or more modern things. For example there is a 1943 contract in which it states that 1,000 cases of CZ brandy were sold in Tangier at 100 pesetas each, despite the fact that no one is supposed to drink alcohol there. “There is so much information which is so useful to document the history of how they thought historically. We’ve been thinking about the ink they used which is very good quality,” says Helena Rivero, conservator of the art collection and also the archive. “Also the paper is what used to be called “cloth paper” which has cotton in it, not cellulose which wood lice like to eat, and has a parchment feel to it.” Despite the huge amount of documentation, Helena is surprised by how few photographs there are, but “we are anxious to read all there is and impatient to come across more information so we can connect everything. My great grandfather was concerned to conserve the archives, for which we have to thank him.”

Helena Rivero

On Manuel’s work table there are piles of dust and dirt from the dossiers which grow every day with every stroke of the cleaning brush on the paper, and a special kind of rubber cleans off impurities. Meanwhile violin music sings from the radio, making the conservator’s work still more delicate.

To make the archives available to researchers and visitors, time is still needed to clean everything up, as Helena jokes: “anywhere between one year and ten years.” In time the archive room will be fitted out with shelving to store the documents as well as an area for study. For storage a series of files have been commissioned with the Rivero crest, made from a special material which is PH neutral.

Juan Haurie, a Smart Businessman

Jean Haurie Nebot (1719-1794) was the first Haurie to arrive in Jerez and founded what was to later become the most international of the Sherry houses, Domecq. Yet little was known about this Frenchman who left Bearn in France like his relations, the Domecqs, and appeared in Jerez in the early days of the XVIII century. It was known that he had a bakery in the Plaza Plateros where he also sold silks and linen. He was a friend of fellow bachelor and neighbour Patrick Murphy, an Irishman of poor health to whom he lent money and helped him with most aspects of his wine business.

Javier Maldonado Rosso, a doctor in History, has studied Haurie, who in a recent public exhibition is revealed to have had a privileged mind, an incredible eye for business, and more importantly he was the man who led the transformation process from traditional viti-viniculture of XVIII century Jerez into its modern form.

When Murphy died, Haurie inherited everything, and now found himself mostly in the wine business. He was very shrewd, and no business opportunity passed him by. He was a tenant farmer of fields of cereal belonging to the Jerez aristocracy or to the Catholic Church, and this was a gold mine as he practised a sort of agrarian credit, giving out money against the next harvest but at a lower than market price. He did business with Cosme Duff Gordon, the British Consul in Cadiz, whom he appointed as his agent in Britain.

Perhaps his principal contribution was to do with viti-viniculture. Haurie summoned from France his four Haurie nephews, Juan Jose, Juan Pedro, Juan Carlos and Juan Luis, as well as his Domecq nephew, Pedro Domecq Lembeye and together they established the firm of Juan Haurie & Sobrinos in 1791. The company progressed well until it later reached the hands of Juan Carlos, who not only brought the firm to bankruptcy, but brought shame and hatred on himself for siding with the French during the Napoleonic invasion.

Juan Haurie wanted for nothing. To complete his requirements, he acquired 70 hectares of fine vineyard, buying more year after year including some on a fine slope in the Macharnudo. He managed to integrate all the processes of production of Sherry with those of sales abroad, from growing the grapes to selling aged wine on foreign markets through his British agent. He was therefore a grower, bodeguero and exporter, something no one else had yet achieved.

It had not been easy, though. He was up against the Gremio de Vinateria de Jerez (Guild of Vintners) which fixed prices for grapes and wine, imposed export quotas and controlled wages, as well as prohibiting merchants from keeping large stocks. The idea was to keep profits in the hands of the growers, but all it succeeded in doing was to restrict the growth of trade until it was wound up in 1834.

Faced with this ridiculous system, Haurie proposed a new, liberal agro-industrial system: he defended and practised the production of finished wines, that is, wines aged and blended to the taste of the customer (which required large stocks). Furthermore he proposed the abolition of fixed prices, and the freedom to sell wine all year round – another Gremio restriction. The proposed new liberal system needed a new style of company capable of developing it. These were the almacenistas and the ageing and shipping bodegas.

Sharp as a tack, Haurie knew how to attract the support of others like him.  In 1772 he initiated the collection of signatures among the small growers who hated the Gremio. On the 5^th of May the following year Haurie took the definitive step, presenting to the Council of Castilla (effectively the government) a formal request for the Gremio to be wound up. This engendered bitter argument between the two sides and became known as the “Haurie Case”, recognising him as the main promoter of the cause against the Gremio’s restrictions. This earned him some respect and he was seen as a leader giving hope to the Jerez wine producing bourgeoisie. He and his supporters were known as “Juan Haurie and his accomplices”, committed to political action and participating in economic societies, becoming almost a political party and gaining considerable influence as representatives of the people.

Slowly the Gremio began to lose its powers. Haurie moved on. As a representative of the people, he set about improving the upbringing of foundlings, the improvement of conditions for prisoners and the speeding up of their prosecution, the exemption of citizens of the requirement to lodge troops in their homes, among many improvements. His greatest achievements, however were in the fields of business and politics because the transformation of the traditional viti-viniculture of Jerez was a state-level matter with international importance.

Haurie came out on top. A Royal Decree of 1778 liberalised the production and commerce of wine throughout the whole country, invalidating the ordinances of the Gremio. Thus, the modernisation of viti-viniculture in the Jerez area advanced rapidly as did the demise of the Gremio system, which was abolished finally in 1834.

Interestingly, some of Haurie’s wine still exists in the ancient soleras held by Osborne, who bought them from Domecq who inherited them from Haurie. These VORS wines are Sibarita and Capuchino, and are available commercially in very limited quantities.

9.11.13 XVIII Fino Days in El Puerto

This Monday, at the bodegas Obregon in El Puerto, the programme for the events will be unveiled at 1.00, which this year will be celebrated on the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th of this month. The programme is as follows:

Friday 15^th at 8.30 at the Hotel Monasterio San Miguel: The presentation of the programme followed by a round table on single vineyard Fino. There will be a glass of Fino served afterwards in the Hotel’s Cloister.

Saturday 16^th at 12.00 at Bodegas Caballero (entrance by the Castle). There will be a grand tasting starring Fino Pavon and a homage to Caballero and Lustau oenologist Manuel Lozano, winner five times consecutively of the IWC “Best fortified Wine Maker in the World”.

Sunday 17^th at 12.30 at Viña del Carmen (meet at Venta el Cepo) Visit to the vineyard and talk about the soils and the single vineyards by historian Javier Maldonado Rosso. New wine and country food will be served.

There’s just time to get a flight booked!