29.8.15 Vineyard Tourism; More on Harvest

Jerez City Council has decided to take a step forward to empower the Sherry vineyards as a tourist attraction. It is well known that previous municipal efforts fell foul of the Junta in this respect so it will have to be seen how this will work in the future. On this occasion however, the council is aware that too much of the tourist offer is based in Jerez itself and that the vineyards offer the chance to discover the very roots of Sherry.

On Thursday the mayoress, Mamen Sánchez, and Consejo president, Beltrán Domecq and director, César Saldaña, accompanied by members of the relevant council departments visited the vineyards of the Castillo de Macharnudo, the Cooperativa Nuestra Señora de Las Angustias and bodegas Real Tesoro with the idea of promoting the harvest from the vine to the bodega.

Mamen Sanchez helping with the harvest (foto:diariodejerez)

The mayoress said that “Jerez is also about vineyards, not just towns and independent local entities but about the countryside which little by little we are going to make into a tourist resource.” She praised the work already being done by private enterprise as well as that of the Ruta del Vino y Brandy. One of the first things to be done is to produce a guide to the tourist resources the vineyards offer for promotion abroad. She also said that diversification is needed around the wine itself, opening the vineyards to visitors. As Beltrán Domecq said, “the vineyard is 50% of the wine, so it is hugely important for the quality of Sherry.”

The council noted that the Fiestas de Vendimia which are to be held from 1 – 20 September will be celebrating the 80^th anniversary of the Denominación de Origen and of the Consejo, and numerous activities will be taking place in the vineyards.

It was an intense meeting which clearly demonstrated the tourist potential being wasted by not making better use of the vineyard houses, all standing in elevated positions with spectacular views and the cool interiors provided by their XIX century construction.

Rafael Rendón, director of Beam Suntory, explained at the Castillo de Macharnudo how the harvest progressed through to the favourite product of the Anglo Saxon world: Bristol Cream. At Las Angustias it was pointed out that they are one of the largest producers with 200 growers on 1,000 hectares of vineyard. At Grupo Estévez’ bodegas Real Tesoro, company secretary, Jaime Estévez and production director, Eduardo Ojeda, showed the visitors the technology at their production centre in Avda. Reina Sofía yet they still employ traditional harvest practices. Eduardo Ojeda explained the fine quality of this year’s harvest saying that the sugar levels, acidity and health of the grapes are excellent. The group is making great efforts during this summer to promote the vineyards.

The visit really showed the potential there is and how much benefit there could be. Let us hope it happens.

Harvesting (foto:lavozdigital)

The big three bodegas in Jerez (González Byass, Estévez and Beam Suntory) have nearly finished what has been a fairly short harvest but one of excellent quality which may exceed the Consejo’s predictions of 70 million kilos. The Consejo says it has been a “capricious” vintage with days with very high temperatures and others cooler. Over 45 million kilos are already picked with most of the rest in the cooler coastal areas starting to come in.

The first “mostos” or newly fermented wines will be ready inside a month, according to Eduardo Ojeda, production director at Grupo Estévez. They will be fermenting the “mosto yema” (the finest juice, pressed by its own weight) for Finos, some in barrel for Valdespino Inocente and the rest in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks for Tio Mateo. Juice from the presses will produce other styles of wine, especially Olorosos.

Mechanised harvesting, meanwhile, appears unstoppable. According to Rafael Rendón of Beam Suntory, producers of Bristol Cream, 90% of the grapes were harvested by machine. González Byass used to employ about 500 pickers, but now it is more like 100, and mainly for the old vines which are not planted in a suitable way for machines.

The Perfect Match of Vineyards and Tourism

An interesting article in today’s La Voz Digital by Jesús A Cañas

The countryside of Andalucía is bathed in blood and sweat. Toil is expended and mixed with every clod of soil in this land peppered with vineyards, like the tanned faces of the day workers who live and breathe for its prosperity and that of the rest of the province. They have always bound their existence to the preservation of a trade which struggles not to languish, not to die, besieged by ferocious competition and the policy of grubbing up vines. Meanwhile this landscape of thousands of vineyards, of green slopes as far as the eye can see is witnessing a viticultural apocalypse which everybody wants to stop, but nobody knows how. Yet it is here that the latest effort of the public administration is being drawn up. At the Environment and Planning department of the Junta in Cádiz they understand the complicated reality the trade is going through in the province, and are looking at the only possible way to get the bodegas to diversify what they offer without abandoning their roots: vineyard tourism.

The administration has produced a meticulous study of the existing vineyards in the Sherry zone and the rest of the province, analysing ways to develop this new form of tourism which is still to materialise in Cádiz. At the very start, the document contains one figure which invites serious reflection: the vineyards of the province have shrunk from 32,000 hectares ten years ago to only 7,000 now.

Rafael Martín Ballesteros is chief of Rural Development and author of a study which he rates as complex and includes many aspects of wine tourism. Federico Fernández, from the Environment department explains the motivation for the study “To identify needs, proposals and avenues of assistance, we are acting to invigorate the process.” The key to this proposal is to match up the private and the public, as Fernández says in his study. “The idea is to provide the fabric and each bodega can make a suit” he explains.

Classic vineyard with vineyard house/winery (casa de viña) foto:lavozdigital

This fabric is no more and no less than a diagnosis in which a series of strong points are established and which the bodegas can exploit. It rests on two pillars: the vineyard landscape and the vineyard houses. The idea is that the bodegas take a step further and don’t just settle with offering tourists a visit to a bodega, but take them to the vineyard and show them the winemaking process, following the grape from vineyard to wine. Martín has identified ideal vineyard areas in Jerez, Sanlúcar, Trebujena, El Puerto, Rota, Chiclana and Puerto Real. Of these the ones that stand out are those around Jerez because of the number of them and their buildings which create interesting landscapes with their slopes of albariza soil and the vineyard houses at the crest of the slope. “They are very unusual in that in many cases the vineyard houses survive. This is where they used to make the wine."

Nowadays many are just used to store vineyard tools, where they are still standing. Some feature very interesting vernacular architecture from the late XIX or early XX centuries, with valuable timberwork. There are some 20-30 still standing, but many are abandoned and have suffered deterioration and theft. The study has also revealed that many vineyards themselves are suffering neglect and will disappear making it easier for new housing construction on the land. Now “the vineyards are close to a lot of housing, and a singular landscape has been lost” says Martín.

This is the case in places like Chiclana where the wine trade was always associated with small proprietors who worked their own vineyards. But the grubbing-up of vines led many to sell parcels of their land for construction of housing, much of it illegal.

Martín hopes to protect the vineyard landscapes which are facing such threats. “Our countryside is the patrimony of us all.” And he points out his weapon which is the Plan for the Governance of the Land as a useful tool for protection. It is a tool which the private sector can use and which can be modified so that they can be included.

The whole purpose of this study is to attract the tourist into the country. It also raises the need to improve rural roads to make this possible. Tourism is evolving in a province where not all visitors are looking for sun, sea and sand. “It is about a business which doesn’t yet exist, one which could offer more to attract tourists inland. These tourists are looking for something different, and this would offer a complementary experience to that of buildings and nature to foreign moneyed tourists who love culture and are not necessarily seasonal visitors.”

To make all this possible it will be necessary for the bodegas to take the lead. To that end the administration is agreeing every step with them, organising meetings, conferences and lectures to encourage them to seek the necessary changes and investment. The Junta promises in exchange to provide any necessary assistance or grants using tools like the Rural Development Plan and the Integrated Land Initiative. All this will be needed to change a situation where there is “no programme, no corporate image and no offer”, according to Fernández. Now the ball is in the court of the bodegas. The bottle of the finest product of Cádiz is open, it is now up to them whether to pour a glass and toast this perfect match.

The Great Challenge facing the Historic Vineyards

From an interesting article in today’s Diario de Jerez by A. Espejo.

A great deal of work needs to be done to develop the countryside as a tourism resource, and this is the principal aim of the provincial vineyard plan. The coordinator of the plan stresses that the first thing to be done is to stop the destruction of the patrimony and to deal with its state of abandon.

From the porch of the vineyard house of La Esperanza in the Pago Balbaína a sonnet on a beautiful tiled panel greets the passer-by. It is a vestige of the times of splendour which were experienced by the countryside and the wine trade in the mid XIX century when the house was built. It was later refurbished in 1935 by José de Soto Abad.

The caserio at La Esperanza in a rather dilapidated state (foto entornoajerez.com)

Unfortunately the La Esperanza vineyard is also a clear example of the decadence and the state of abandon of the patrimony throughout the Jerez area. Its privileged position, separated from Jerez by a sea of vines is now a small island of vines, albeit still in production, is now spattered with wind turbines. What once resembled an earthly paradise has lost most of its charm.

Sonnet to the glory of Esperanza (foto objetivojerez.lavozdigital.es)

Among the distinct Pagos of Jerez, bald patches of uncultivated soil occupy a great part of the land which was once a sea of productive vines until the ravages of grubbing-up to reduce production during the crisis. But there are still a few spots which retain the flavour of those glorious times, places which make one think that there is room to extend the Ruta del Vino de Jerez - thus far only including bodegas - to the vineyards. Currently Rafael Martín, the coordinator of the provincial vineyard plan, is paying visits to many of these spots, some in better shape than others, some owned by growers, others by bodegas.

Wind farms are everywhere (foto entornoajerez.com)

This is the first phase of the plan, which centres on understanding the terrain and getting to know proprietors and their concerns and ideas, is hoped to be complete by the end of this year. Starting in January, the man from the Junta will begin the second phase which will involve meetings with local councils to try and assess the necessary public measures to invigorate vineyard tourism.

It is a mammoth task. The historic vineyards add up to some 7,000 hectares but another thousand exist which are either Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz (VT Cádiz) or not connected to any Denominación de Origen.  Martín says that not only is there no vineyard tourism, but that it is a long way from being a reality. “It is not impossible, but we have to start from zero.”

You don’t have to go far in the countryside to see the deterioration of the landscape and the patrimony.  In the Pago Balbaína, approached by a gully from the road to Rota, the wind turbines completely spoil the aesthetic of any vineyards which still exist, while there are hardly any traces of the roadside vegetation and even the roads are in a poor state.

Much farther north the Pago Carrascal offers a very different picture, perhaps somewhat closer to the model for vineyard tourism. Here the vegetation still exists and the landscape is dotted with jacarandas along the roadsides making a bicycle route a possibility with various country roads which are passable if not in a great state of repair.

The regeneration of the countryside will take time and will need the cooperation of the various administrations as well as the wine trade.  Martín says that what is needed is awareness of the damage being done, putting a stop to the wind and solar energy farms which are not irreversible. What it will take is local authority ordinances and the Junta’s Plan de Ordenación Territorial (POT) de la Bahía de Cádiz to take things forward with the minimum obstruction.

The wind turbines are, of course, a source of income to small growers, who would need some other source of income to augment their meagre income from grapes. The big vineyard owning bodegas are the obvious ones to grab the reins and start attracting tourists to the vineyards, opening the growers’ eyes as to how it is done.

The wine tourist is demanding, quite different to the locals who might hire a vineyard house for a celebration but are not prepared to shell out 10 to 15 euros for a tutored tasting at the vineyard, or less still prepared to spend more on a whole day’s visit with lunch.

Unlike the traditional vineyards which are scattered and with distant bodegas, the VT Cádiz vineyards often have a bodega on site, making them ideal vineyard tourism venues where they can actively promote their wines, which are still not widely known.  They could be a good model for the Sherry vineyards, but the challenge for the Junta is to make it work. There is, needless to say, much competition with other wine regions both in Spain and abroad, as well as the inevitable shortage of investment.

Entrance to Vina El Caballo (foto entornoajerez.com)

The El Caballo vineyard, also in the Pago Balbaina could be a good example of an outside investor who has confidence in the future of tourism and winemaking in the Jerez countryside. The vineyard, which has a vineyard house in a good state of repair was bought from Osborne by Vicente Taberner, a businessman from Valencia and owner of the Huerta de Albalá near Arcos de la Frontera, one of the first wineries in the VT Cádiz. So far he has not divulged his plans for El Caballo.

Some of the leading Sherry bodegas have perfectly serviceable facilities for vineyard tourism; Gonzalez Byass in Carrascal, for example, and Barbadillo in Gibalbín where the Santa Lucía vineyard impressed Martín. But these are isolated cases, and there is a massive amount of work to do.

13.6.13 Vineyard Tourism; GB & Instituto Cervantes; Alvaro Domecq; Bodega Management Changes; BBC in Jerez

Yesterday the local government presented the first phase of its special plan for development of vineyard tourism to the Sherry trade at the Hacienda Vistahermosa of bodegas Luis Perez. The mayoress, Maria Jose Garcia Pelayo told the 200 people  present that the aim is not only to preserve the countryside, but also to create economic and touristic development of the area in the hope of creating wealth and employment.

The idea is to promote the initiative with Sherry as the central theme and create activities which are considered to be in the public interest at, for example vineyard houses, bodegas and associated industries, equestrian centres, school farms, health, religious and educational centres, as well as inns, hotels, restaurants.

This is a suitable legal framework to define all the possible activities, which would eliminate the need for individual projects.  It would also help the infrastructure, strengthening countryside and environmental values. Present at the meeting were representatives of the growers and cooperatives, Fedejerez, the Consejos Reguladores of Sherry and Brandy, the hotel and catering trade, Wine tourism, Equestrianism, and any business with an interest in rural tourism and viticulture.

Jorge A Grosse MacDougall of Gonzalez Byass and Victor Garcia de la Concha of the Instituto Cervantes have signed an agreement of collaboration. The bodega will support the institute in its work to promote Spanish language and culturerge A Grosse MacDougall world-wide in the 102 countries in which GB does business through various initiatives of a cultural, academic or institutional character. Tio Pepe itself is a part of Spanish culture and a languagewith 500 million speakers throughout the world.

Tourism professionals in the province of Cadiz have decided to recognise the great work done by Alvaro Domecq Romero to promote the brand “Jerez” over decades. They have organised an event at the Sherry Park Hotel on the 20^th June at 8 o’clock, in the Salon Guadalete. Alvaro has confirmed he will be there.   

             

Alvaro Domecq with some of his wines

Lola Rueda of the organising committee said that he was and is an entrepreneur, ahead of his time, having realised projects which have brought wealth and employment to the province over many years. “He is admired and respected by tourism professionals as someone who is passionate about Jerez”

Horses and wine were the basis of his brilliant career. For 26 years he was a hugely successful rejoneador, in 1973 he organised an equestrian spectacular which became the Real Academia, later he created A Campo Abierto, a horse and cattle spectacular at his cortijo los alburejos  In 1999 he acquired the old bodegas of Pilar Aranda, and began a career in Sherry, Alvaro Domecq SL.

Poor results have led to surprise management changes at Barbadillo and Caballero. Manuel Valdecantos leaves Barbadillo, being replaced by Victor Velez, and Jon Martinez leaves Caballero, replaced by Luis Luengo. Manuel Valdecantos leaves at a delicate moment, being the main spokesperson for the Sanlucar bodegas against the Fino/Manzanilla changes to the reglamento proposed by Fedejerez.

The BBC has been filming in Jerez and various other places in Andalucia for a documentary on Flamenco. They filmed activities at the academy of Ana Maria Lopez at the oldest Flamenco club in Jerez, Los Cernicalos in the Calle Vicario. No news about when the programme will be screened.