ASEVI, the growers’ association considers that any
permission to blend grape alcohol and non-grape alcohol and call the product
brandy is “intolerable”. There is a proposal to allow up to 49% non -grape
alcohol in a blend, which has been roundly denounced by growers.
A large lobby against the proposal has been set up, and has
written to the minister for agriculture, Miguel Arias Canete asking for a
meeting to look into the matter in detail, and persuade him of the negative
effects such a change would have on viticulture. They consider it unacceptable
that brandy could consist of up to 49% industrial alcohol, even if it is
derived from agriculture (molasses, beetroot etc). According to current EU legislation, brandy consists of
distilled wine.
From the 21st till the 25th of June
the Feria Andaluza de la Biodiversidad Agricola will be taking place. It takes
place in many places, but the first event is a visit to the navazos of
Sanlucar. Many are now in disuse, and lack care and attention, and the idea is
to bring to people’s attention this aspect of their patrimony and there are
moves to save it.
Navazos are rarely found elsewhere than the Sanlucar area
and are an ancient method of agriculture which creates usable land among the
coastal sand dunes as well as helping to stabilise them. Soil is dug out from
behind the beach head and put on top of it to form a barrier to the sea, and
soil is also heaped up behind the dug-out area and heaped up similarly, facing
inland. Between the heaps is a lower area which can be used for agriculture or viticulture,
an area with its own microclimate, humid, as it is close to the water table,
and protected from the west winds. Drainage was naturally a consideration as
well. Some navazos are allowed to be irrigated by the tides. All in all, they
worked very well and fitted beautifully into the eco-system.
The earliest archaeological remains of navazos date back to
the V century BC and they were still used in theXVII century. Moves to restore
them will bring rewards as another form of tourism.
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