Get your tastebuds
around this latest gourmet idea: top quality cheese steeped in top quality Jerez brandy! Cheese producer Reny Picot and Williams &
Humbert have got together to create this wonderfully tasty limited edition product
which will be promoted throughout the Christmas period.
Master cheesemakers Reny Picot, based at Fresno
de la Ribera (Zamora) have produced a traditional ewes milk cheese called Señorío
de Montelarreina Gran Reserva to a centuries old formula, which was the winner of a silver medal at last year’s
World Cheese Awards among many other accolades. The quality of the cheese is
due, like that of Jerez, to climate, soil and location both of the sheep and
the dairy, which are in a mountainous area.
The cheese has been steeped in Gran Duque de
Alba Gran Reserva brandy giving it an even more intense flavour. It is
available whole or in 250g.packs and they recommend it with fine table wine,
but it sounds to me to be the perfect partner for a good old Sherry, which can so
easily deal with that intensity of flavour.
The artisan BIB
bodegas in Sanlúcar say they are being “persecuted” by the Consejo. They are soliciting the help of
the Junta vice president, Manuel Jiménez Barrios who visited Sanlúcar on
Wednesday, to get more power of decision making on affairs which exclusively affect
Sanlúcar wine, including the possibility of an independent decision making body.
They are defending the sale of bulk wine in general and especially in BIB rather
than garrafa, a measure which they say was endorsed a while ago in a Consejo
report, a copy of which they have sent to the Junta.
After the meeting the Manzanilleros complained
to Jiménez Barrios about the “total and absolute” lack of decision making power
in the DO Manzanilla which is actually controlled by Fedejerez. In order to
rectify this and prevent “the continued loss of bodegas, vineyards and jobs” the
group reminded him that the rules of the Consejo contemplate decision making on
Manzanilla affairs in Sanlúcar. Certainly the rules include the possibility of
setting up a commission to deal with the specific affairs of any of the DOs,
but any decisions would still have to go before a plenary at the Consejo which
has the final say.
For the moment the rebels have not requested
such a commission because they know that Manzanilla only has one representative
out of twenty in a plenary which would make it extremely difficult to make any
headway. They are not proposing a separate DO but rather to have a separate parallel
plenary relating specifically to Manzanilla. As far as their complaints about
the “harassment” they claim to suffer from the Consejo are concerned, and which
they reported to Jiménez Barrios, they denounced the fact that the day
following their meeting with him, an unannounced visit took place by inspectors
from the Consejo’s Control and Certification department, a most unusual event
according to a spokesperson.
The Consejo has emphatically denied this
accusation, saying it would be difficult to do their job if they gave notice
and thus give any lawbreaker the chance to conceal their activities. All
members are treated equally and it is the purpose of the Consejo to ensure that
rules are obeyed and not to look the other way when people explicitly say they
are going to break them (alluding to the rebels’ plans to sell BIB Manzanilla).
Despite their disapproval of the inspectors’ unannounced visit they claim they
have nothing to hide and that the quality of their wine is infinitely higher
than that of those who would wish harm (meaning Fedejerez) to those working in
an ever more concentrated business in which the interests of a few are imposed
on the rest.
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