The Health Benefits of Moderate Sherry Consumption

(From an article by Juan P Simo in the Diario de Jerez)

The Spanish Government’s minister of health, Ana Mato, is drafting a new “Ley de alcohol” (Alcohol Law) which contemplates the restriction of alcohol to minors even with permission from parents or guardians, the restriction of alcohol consumed by adults in the streets, and its promotion. If it proceeds through negotiations without dilution it will be pioneering legislation in Europe by integrating under the same legal umbrella all the laws concerning consumption, labelling and advertising. There will be serious fines for any infringement. The implications are very worrying as the similar “Loi Evin” in France has had profound detrimental effects.

The intention of the law is to curb under-age drinking and the annoying "botellones" or street drinking parties the young so love. As usual with politicians, they can see no difference between people drunk on beer and spirits and civilised wine drinking, so there will be no exceptions in the law for wine.

The Spanish bodegas will fight this tooth and nail as it ignores the positive benefits of drinking moderate amounts of wine and demonises its consumption, a part of the culture, as mere alcohol. Besides, alcohol consumption in Spain is steadily falling anyway. So now would be a good time to show the positive side of alcohol. The wines of Jerez have a long anecdotal - and almost certainly genuine - history of health-giving properties, and perhaps the following will convince any sceptic.

There was the miracle of Manuel Maria Gonzalez Gordon (1886-1980), author of the book known as the “Sherry Bible” ("Sherry" in the English edition) and director of Gonzalez Byass. As a child he was sick and the doctors gave him little chance of survival, but regular doses of Sherry saw him through and he lived a long, productive and healthy life to the ripe old age of 94. 

Another miracle was that of the King Alfonso XIII, who at only four years of age proved to be a sickly child with weakness and fever. Various things were administered to him at all hours: soups, milk and even Sherry, but the latter ensured his health and survival. Yet another was a soldier of the second squadron of the cavalry of Santiago who was in 1854 a wreck of a man, suffering from pneumonia. They tried everything till his doctor prescribed a biscuit steeped in dry Sherry to be taken every three hours. In three months he was fit enough to leave the clinic.

So, what are the benefits of drinking Sherry which are not already well known? Well, for example, does our minister know of the home remedy of “candie” (from the English “candy eggs”), a glass of sweet Sherry with an egg yolk which is infallible against the flu or a cold? Or “chiribitas” (from the English Sherry and Bitters)? Or a small glass of Sherry with two eggs to ward off anaemia? Or that Oloroso Rio Viejo kills flu bugs?

If all the foregoing were not enough, there are millions of reasons confirmed by educated people such as historians, doctors, researchers and health organisations, who over many centuries have come to the simple conclusion that moderate drinking of wine is beneficial to the health.  From the long-lived Noah onwards, everyone praised the virtues of wine. Saint Matthew advised his disciple Timothy to drink a little wine instead of water for the sake of his stomach ailments. Hipocrates recommended wine as the ideal remedy for “the fever of the combatant”, while Homer reckoned it gave one strength.

In the classical pharmacopoeia Sherry was known as “Vinum Xericum”, recognising its tonic and therapeutic properties. One of the great surgeons and politicians, Fermin Aranda, from Jerez, who performed the first open heart surgery in the world, and whose daughter Pilar ran an outstanding almacenista business, was quite right when he said that Sherry is life-giving wine as it contains iron, nitrogen and vitamins, and sufficient alcohol to cool any fever.

Louis Pasteur called wine the most healthy and hygienic drink, while Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of Penicillin reckoned that while his discovery could cure the sick, Sherry could resuscitate the dead. Another doctor, Jose Luis Ruiz Badanelli, put to bed the notion that Sherry, drunk even moderately, could cause cirrhosis of the liver. He was quite clear: “Sherry has surprising qualities: it doesn’t irritate the stomach with acidic compounds like tannins and tartrates as happens in other wines. It is a nourishing and powerful remedy which, when administered at the right time to the patient, strengthens the cardiac muscle and speeds up the metabolism.” Sherry was regarded as wholesome enough by the bodega workers that it occasionally made up for the lack of lunch. Columbus drank more Sherry than he ate food on his journey to the Americas.

The great bibliophile Jose de Soto Molina described Sherry as a “vivifying tonic par excellence”, while the great XIX century novelist Benito Perez Galdos also described it as “vivifying”, and many of his works are impregnated with his preoccupation for exalting the medicinal virtues of Sherry. In the more recent past, the Nobel prizewinning author Martin Rodall came to Jerez to support the work of the Estevez family in reducing the histamine content in Sherry, and praised the wine as a “healthy drink”. Severo Ochoa, another Nobel Laureate and one of Spain’s most distinguished scientists, never stopped praising the health-giving virtues of Sherry.

Another great protagonist of Sherry was Gregorio Marañon, a famous doctor and scientist from Madrid, who in his lecture to the Fiesta de la Vendimia in 1955, defended moderate consumption of Sherry. “Let us reject the supposed dangers of wine to health. My colleagues and I have seen some hundred thousand patients with all sorts of complaints, and very few of them were caused by excess of wine.” He maintained that wine- in moderation - is inoffensive and often useful, as long as we stay within our limits.

Sherry is a powerful anti-oxidant which combats cancer and ageing. The anti-oxidant properties of Sherry are 100 times more effective than vitamin C, and 25 times more effective than vitamin E. These anti-oxidants are known as polyphenols, and attack free radicals and the effects of ageing.

Longevity is a well-established trait in Jerez. Remember Manuel Maria Gonzalez Gordon who lived to 94 after the doctors had given up hope. His father Pedro Nolasco reached 97, and his father, GB founder Manuel Maria, recognised the role of Sherry in his recovery from childhood tuberculosis, dying at 75, an advanced age for his time. His great grandson, Mauricio died quite recently at the age of 90.

As a final point, let’s remember Manuel Salido de la Cal from Jaen, a businessman in the graphic arts, father of Antonio Salido Paz, founder of the Jerez football team, Jerez Industrial, who, in various interviews explained how he reached his centenary. “Every day I had a glass of wine before lunch: a glass of Oloroso to set myself up, and maybe one or two glasses of Fino. I feel terrific.”

So there we are; in Jerez someone who doesn’t recommend Sherry either doesn’t like it – or they are mad. You are probably convinced by now – or always were – but just in case, there follow some even more convincing footnotes:

*30-50% reduction of risk of death by heart attack with moderate consumption as against abstention.

*Reduces arterial pressure and thereby arterial sclerosis.

*Stimulates concentration, reduces stress and is helpful against Alzheimers.

*Moderate consumption has no effect on the digestive and nervous systems.

*Facilitates digestion and stimulates appetite without causing weight increase.

*Fights osteoporosis.

*Delays ageing.

*Lowers cholesterol.

*Acts as a mineral supplement.

*Reduces allergic reactions.

(Legal disclaimer: Please remember that while moderate consumption of wine/Sherry does have positive physical effects, not all doctors see things that way. This is not intended to persuade you to drink anything other than moderate quantities of Sherry.)

The First "Wine Tourists" in Jerez

Behind the wine of Jerez hides an immensity of stories. During the XVIII and XIX centuries many aristocrats, men and women, travelled across the Iberian Peninsula dazzled by the prospect of a “Paradise of the South”. They came from Germany, Holland, Ireland, France and Britain and found themselves in an Andalucia at the height of its depression.

For these romantic travellers, contrary to the spirit of the Enlightenment, Andalucia was the most different region of Europe, the most African, the most scenic, and culturally, thanks to the lengthy period of Arab influence, the most exceptional, the most unpredictable and the most picturesque.

It is true that Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Ronda, even Gibraltar were the preferred destinations of the Romantic travellers. But it is undeniable that a great legion of these “early tourists”, writers and artists, were attracted by the famous wines of Jerez and the many wonderful buildings, which would later appear in their accounts of their journeys – perhaps the first tourist guides.

La Cartuja de Jerez (Foto Gente de Jerez)

Jerez historian Jose Luis Jimenez has managed to unearth the names of some 140 of these travellers in the late XVIII and first half of the XIX centuries. Without going into all of them, let’s look at the most famous ones from the busier latter period.

LORD BYRON

One of these pioneering tourists, eager to get to know the countryside, the flamenco and the wine was called George Noel Gordon Byron, Lord Byron. He set sail from Falmouth in July 1809 with his old school friend John Cam Hobhouse, arriving after a four and a half day crossing at Lisbon, whence they sent their luggage ahead to Gibraltar. A keen sportsman despite his lameness, he would later emulate the legendary Leander swimming across the Dardanelles straits. He bought a horse, and with it he crossed into Spain – right in the middle of the Napoleonic Invasion – and headed for Seville, with which he was fascinated. He travelled from Seville to Jerez on horseback through beautiful countryside as he described to his mother in a letter of 11^th August.

Lord Byron, dressed to pass unnoticed

Byron was well received by his relative James Arthur Gordon Smythe, who put him up in his house, the Atarazanas for a few days, during which time he had the opportunity to visit the family firm’s vineyards and the bodegas where he could see how Sherry was produced. He wrote the following to his mother: “In Jerez, where they make the Sherry we drink, I met a great businessman, a Mr Gordon, a relative of ours, who kindly showed me his bodegas. Thus I was able to drink this famous wine at its very fountainhead”. This is surely one of the more beautiful descriptions of Sherry. Five days earlier, he had written to Frances Hodgson: “I will come back to Spain before seeing England, because I have fallen in love with this country”.

Once in Cadiz, where he again arrived on horseback, Byron made friends with old Arthur Gordon, the founder of the Gordon Sherry business, and another distant relation Sir William Duff Gordon. Even today, many anglo-saxons come to the province to reconstruct Byron’s journey, for example the trip undertaken in 1977 by the members of the Byron Society of London.

Almost twenty years after Byron’s journey, the American Washington Irving arrived in El Puerto de Santa Maria. He soon made friends with Juan Nicolas Bohl de Faber, a German who was in charge of the Duff Gordon bodegas, and whose daughter was the famous writer Fernan Caballero. When Irving left Andalucia, he wrote to Bohl placing a wine order for the American Embassy in London. The order was somewhat unusual: “I have promised Mr McLane (the ambassador) to obtain for him, with your help, a butt of old Sherry which contains sound reason in every glass; some of that liquor with which Lady MacBeth intoxicated King Duncan’s pages. Would you help me keep this promise by sending me a butt of this full, old and choice wine?”

After visiting and dining at Domecq one hot August day, Irving wrote in his diary: “May God let me live for all of time that I may drink all of this wine and be as happy as it makes me.” There are many such eulogies to Sherry wine, which was by now well known to rich Europeans and Americans.

DAZZLING CITY

In his detailed book “Passionate Travellers: Testimonials in the Province of Cadiz 1830-1930”, Ramon Clavijo Provencio tells us of the flood of Romantic tourists who travelled throughout and reflected upon the province. He picks out one David Henry Inglis, a British gentleman who arrived in Jerez in 1830, when the city had over 500 listed bodegas. His book, “Spain in 1830”, was considered by his colleague George Borrow to be the best book ever written about this country. In it, he speaks brilliantly about the production process of Sherry, exports, the state of the business and much more, giving us an excellent picture of how the trade worked at that time.

A French traveller, a poet and novelist called Pierre Louys, marvelled at the city, which he describes in his letters of 1896 as “Dazzling, everywhere the aroma of wine from the bodegas, nowhere else is the white so dazzling to the sight as in Jerez.”

“I got it absolutely right! It is one of the cities I shall always want to lock in my memory. For it, I would give 2 Cadiz, 125 Malagas and even a little corner of Seville. Just imagine, it is an undulating plain which is green in springtime but like the Sahara in summer, a city which is entirely white – it could not be whiter (…) the streets are broad like avenues or narrow like corridors. There are very tall palm trees in the squares, and bodegas everywhere.”

MONOTONY

George W Suter, an Englishman who visited the city in 1831 (and later a bodeguero and British Consul) described it less generously: “Before the elegant carriages were brought in, there were only three private coaches, and none to hire. One of these, an enormous old vehicle pulled by mules with decorated harness, is the property of a local Marquis. It was so high and so uncomfortable that a servant had to bring a stool so that his master could get in and out. The streets have no drainage, and are neither paved nor lit (…) When a family goes out at night to the theatre or a party, a servant walks ahead of them with a lit torch in one hand, and a stout stick in the other, while young men have lamps fixed to the crown of their pointed hats, and carry a sword or pistol.

When in Spain, the French adventurer, Josephine Brinckmann, a hardened traveller, always protected herself from assault by bandits with a pair of pistols. She found Jerez “boring”, yet in her book “A trip through Spain”, she emphasises the curiosity aroused by looking at the bodegas. “One needs to see this city, but one needs to take care of oneself and not stay longer than a day. It is deadly dull, dreary and boring. They say that a good third of the population are English, so it must be these insular English who have left their lamentable mark.”

There were plenty of French travellers: Theophile Gautier mentioned in his book “Journey to Spain” of 1845, his amazement at the bulls and thewine, according to research by Jose Luis Jimenez. “We passed along avenues of barrels piled four or five high. We had to try it all, or at least the better stuff, of which there is infinite supply. And Gautier’s equally famous compatriot, Alexandre Dumas, wrote in his book “Travels from Paris to Cadiz” the phrase “Jerez, symbol of joy and the Spanish spirit.”

There is more: in 1862, the hispanist Jean-Charles Davilier organised a trip to Spain with the artist Gustave Dore, who accompanied him with the idea of getting to know the country and producing illustrations for an edition of “Don Quijote”. In the book “Travels in Spain”, he includes the chapter “Cadiz, Jerez and Betica” in which he tells us of the countryside and people of the city. “What surprised us when we arrived at Jerez was the appearance of wellbeing of the place, its richness and cleanliness which are not found in all Spanish towns. Both men paid great attention to the artistic and folkloric aspects, as well as to the wine. The picture by Dore of the Cartuja, one of the great attractions to the Romantic tourists, is of great beauty, as were also the paintings and engravings of the fine Scottish artist and Romantic, David Roberts.

Jerez from the City Walls by David Roberts

Roberts arrived in Jerez in April 1833, where he produced five works: View from the city wall; interior of the church of San Miguel; façade of the church of Santiago; the Cartuja and views of the Arroyo gate. In a letter to his friend and fellow Scottish painter David Ramsay he writes: I was detained in Jerez for a few days as I had letters for Scottish friends {possibly the Gordons} who gave me a wonderful reception. After visiting one of their immense bodegas and trying their unbeatable wine, I decided to leave.”

The “Manual for Travellers in Spain and Readers at Home” is one of the most creditable of the “guides” of the Romantic Movement. It was written in 1845 by the Englishman Richard Ford, who was quite a character, and who made the dandy style fashionable. He travelled throughout Spain dressed like this because “it shows all who look at you that you are not going to be pestered by beggars”. On one of his journeys, Ford arrived at Jerez in a chaise after taking a steamboat from Cadiz to El Puerto de Santa Maria. He demonstrated a perfect knowledge of Sherry production , but rather put his foot in it describing some of the Jerez buildings.

William Somerset Maugham, famous internationally as a writer, even spy, was born in the British Embassy in Paris in 1874, and his book “Andalucia, the Land of the Blessed Virgin” talks about his trip to the region. One chapter is titled “Jerez” where he defines it as follows: A small city in the middle of a fertile plain. Clean, comfortable and handsome. White Jerez has been forever the home of Sherry.”

“Home of Sherry” is a lovely phrase; maybe that is why it has always been said in Jerez that there is no need to leave as everybody comes to Jerez.

From an article in the Diario de Jerez by Juan P Simo

The "Garvey Question"; British or Spanish?

An article published in El Diario de Jerez in February 2014 by Juan P Simo

Throughout its history, Sherry has had immense power, and the Sherry business has moved all kinds of mountains, has built entire cities, has controlled the lives of its people for centuries, ruined and swallowed up whole families, and brought prosperity to generations of others. For that alone, the history of Jerez could never be understood without its wine. And if many of those first captains of industry, the first Sherry barons, went bust in the attempt, many others built up fortunes enough to keep the next three or four generations going.

In Jerez there have been incalculable fortunes. Imagine the legacy of Manuel Maria Gonzalez Angel, founder and patriarch of Gonzalez Byass, or of his son, Pedro Nolasco Gonzalez y Soto and of many other legendary names. Pedro Domecq Lembeye, the first of the Domecqs to come to Jerez, left the “trifling” sum of one million pounds to his brother Juan Pedro, not having any masculine heirs. {How things have changed, thank goodness!} Or Juan Pedro Aladro, Pedro Domecq’s adopted son, who died leaving a legacy of more than two million escudos.  We could get lost in a sea of unbelievable figures for the period.

William Garvey Power already came from a line of aristocrats when he came from county Waterford in Ireland to the bay of Cadiz in 1776. He set out with the idea of acquiring some merino sheep for his father, when his ship was wrecked and he was rescued by Captain Rafael Gomez, whose daughter he later married. Here he spotted the enormous possibilities of the Bay of Cadiz, and changed his plans to dedicate himself wholly to the wine business.

William Garvey, who started it all

The “Garvey Question” arose with his son Patrick (Patricio) Garvey Gomez, who married in 1826 Maria de los Angeles Capdepon y Lacoste, a young girl from a French family with a large fortune, who would bear him eleven children. Only seven survived; three boys and four girls. The sons were Guillermo, Patricio and Jose. Patricio went on to marry Consolacion de la Mota Velasquez-Gaztelu, but Guillermo and Jose remained bachelors.

Little is known about Jose Garvey, who was born in Jerez and dedicated much of his work to the family firm. On his death in 1912, and given his state of bachelorhood, he made his will in favour of his nephews and nieces, Luis, Angeles and Blanca Medina Garvey as well as to Angeles and Dolores San Juan Garvey, and on the other side to Jose Lopez de Carrizosa, Marques del Merito, another of his nephews.

What he bequeathed amounted to a fortune of 42,152,777.37 pesetas {have you noticed how the currency keeps changing?} which he possessed in English and Swiss banks, an almost unimaginable fortune, but there was more; his deposits in Spanish banks amounted to some 3,942,480.37 pesetas, a most respectable amount for those days.

The problem arose when Hacienda Española – the Spanish tax authority – opposed the legacy being governed by English law as opposed to Spanish law. The case was complex and certainly long drawn out, being published in El Parlamentario, which followed it step by step during 1916 in the book “The Garvey Question: A Case in Law”. Over three years, two hundred and fifty pages were filled, covering the ins and outs of judicial hearings until the case ended up at the Supreme Tribunal. Here, the Garvey case was corroborated, Jose Garvey was deemed to be a British subject.

This was not so much a fiscal case, but one of volition: the volition of a Jerezano, Jose Garvey, who felt that he was a British subject, not a Spanish one. The Spanish case was not unreasonable in that, unlike his father Patrick and his grandfather William, he was a Jerezano by birth, and by dint of that he had felt obliged to obey certain Spanish laws, including doing military service, and later, being included in the electoral roll, casting votes.

It might be concluded that these two matters would constitute overwhelming proof of his being Spanish, but the Spanish authorities had never precluded anyone of British nationality from serving in the army. The same authorities made a big mistake, however, by including him, as a British subject, in the electoral roll, meaning his votes were illegal.

Jose, just like his father and grandfather, were British subjects, and were registered as such at the British Consulate in Cadiz, the British Vice-Consulate in Jerez and also at the Civil Government in Cadiz. Furthermore, the three of them travelled on passports issued by British Consular agents, passports which had been authorised by Spanish diplomats who had recognised them as British subjects. At the same time, none of the Garveys had made any effort to become Spanish subjects, so three generations of Garveys scrupulously held on to their British nationality. They never renounced it nor made any effort to take Spanish nationality.

The court’s ruling was clear. The socialist MP Pablo Iglesias took it himself to the Spanish Parliament. There was no reason for Hacienda to tax the inheritance of a British subject. The Inland Revenue of Britain, however, was the winner, having received annual income tax from Jose Garvey, seen by them too, as a British subject. The Garvey legacy was paid out in England. Interestingly, the Garvey family came from Ireland, not really Britain.