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.
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| 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 20th
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.
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