Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: María Vázquez Fariñas
Author-Name: Javier Maldonado Rosso
Title:  CÁDIZ, CIUDAD VINATERA ENTRE MEDIADOS DE LOS SIGLOS XIX Y XX
Abstract: Resumen:La ciudad de Cádiz ha sido históricamente reconocida por la importancia de su actividad comercial y de su puerto: lugar de entrada y salida de los intercambios entre Europa, África y América durante siglos. En ese comercio siempre han tenido especial relevancia los vinos del Marco de Jerez, sobre todo desde la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII, cuando comenzó a incrementarse paulatinamente como consecuencia de la transformación de la vinatería tradicional jerezana en agroindustria vinatera moderna. Por el contrario, es muy poco conocido el hecho relevante de que Cádiz fue también, entre mediados de los siglos XIX y XX, una destacada ciudad vinatera y que entre los años 1933 y 1964 formó parte de la demarcación de la Denominación de Origen Jerez-Xérès-Sherry: una interesante realidad que tratamos de poner de manifiesto en este estudio.Abstract:Cádiz has historically been recognized by the importance of its businesses and its harbour: a relevant place for the trade between Europe, Africa and America for centuries. Sherry wines have always had a special position in that trade, particularly from the second half of the eighteenth century, when wine sales began to increase gradually as a result of the transformation of traditional Sherry winery in modern winemaking agribusiness. On the contrary, is very little known the significant fact that Cadiz was also a remarkable vinicultural city from the mid-nineteenth century, and that between 1933 and 1964 it was part of the demarcation of the Sherry Wine Region: an interesting reality that we try to bring out in this study.
  Many industries related with wine commerce were set in the province in the XIX century. The trading port function of Cadiz regard to wine and the rise which took the wine industry in Jerez from the twenties of the nineteenth century induced many merchants to become winemakers. For instance, we can highlight the cases from Julián Pemartín or León de Argüeso, who became very famous wine merchants. In a context of continuous changes and transformations in the wine sector there had arisen many wine-houses in the city of Cádiz such as Manuel Moreno de Mora, J. Díaz Tezanos and Company, Viuda de X. Harmony and Company, Lacoste and Company, Guillermo Shaw and Company and Aranda and Cesteros. Especially significant was the activity developed by three aging cellars established by prominent merchant families: Lacave and Company, Miguel M. Gómez and Abarzuza and Company. They got a significant position in national and international markets and gave employment to many workers in the city, so they constituted one of the main bases of the town's economy.
  These three wineries offered a large variety of wines and among their products they included the following typical ones: Sherry Amontillado, Moscatel, Pedro Ximénez, Manzanilla, and some imitations of wines such as Port wine, Málaga or Madeira. One of the main features of these wineries was that any of them had vineyards in the city, but they bought grapes or wine to others producers in order to finish the production process and sell them later. The main competitive advantage of these houses was their strategic location, close to the sea and to the railway station, as they could make the shipment of their expeditions effectively, both by land and by sea.
  So the function of Cadiz as a city which elaborated Sherries and other wines, not just a commercial city of wines from Jerez, is demonstrated by the significant and lasting activity of that three wine-houses which were established in Cadiz for more than one hundred years, globally speaking. There were times of growth and expansion and others of crisis and economic recession, but these companies were able to overcome all the problems, strengthening their position in national and international markets over time. In addition, they were very important for the development and application of new technologies and production methods, as well as the installation of new means of transport in the city.
  Moreover, it should also be noted that Cadiz was part of the demarcation of the Sherry Wine Region from 1933 to 1964 thanks to these three wineries, a fact unknown for many people. The wines from this area were sold around the world and they were known for their great prestige and quality. Lacave and Company, Miguel M. Gómez S.A. and Abarzuza and Company enjoyed the benefits of the demarcation of the Sherry Wine Region and developed their activities under the protection of the Regulatory Council for over thirty years.
  But the case of Cadiz is different from the case of Bordeaux and Porto. The wines of the Medoc and other neighboring French wine regions are better known as “Bordeaux”, and wines produced exclusively in the Douro Valley are known as “port wine”. This has been due to the early vintner functions of Bordeaux and Porto. Following the initiative of the vintner Arnaud de Pontac in the sixties of the seventeenth century, aging large-scale New French Claret (name that gave the British to modern Bordeaux wine) began in stores that British merchants had in Chartrons (commercial district of the city located on the banks of the Garonne river), because they were who controlled the production and the trade of wines in the area. In the British Isles and in general, these wines were taking the name of “Bordeaux”. In Porto, after an initial phase of preparation of their wines to the British consumers’ tastes, the English merchants chose to control the quality in the origin in the mid-eighteenth century by setting up branches of their companies. In fact, the wineries were located in Vila Nova de Gaia, but the commercial importance of the second Portuguese city and the fact that businessmen resided there was the cause of the Douro wines raised in Vila Nova de Gaia were called “Port wine”.
  Meanwhile, Cadiz was not a vintner centre until the second or third decades of the nineteenth century, as we have discussed above. During the modern centuries (XV to XVIII) the city of Cádiz was a commercial and financial centre for Sherry wines to the British Isles, the northern continental Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and the Spanish colonies in America, as others towns in the area (El Puerto de Santa María, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Rota, Chiclana...). But in all this time there is no evidence that there were any aging wine activity in Cadiz: the functions of the city on this business line were commercial and financial transactions, and provision of vessels to board wines. Consequently, Cadiz did not name the wines of its region, unlike Bordeaux and Oporto. On the contrary, when the demarcation of the Sherry Wine Region was constituted in the thirties of the twentieth century, Cadiz was integrated in the breeding area (maximum category) with Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. It was the official recognition of Cadiz as a vintner city.
Classification-JEL: R1
Keywords: Vitivinicultura, Nuevas viticulturas, Cámara de Comercio, Vino, Cádiz, Historia, Grape And Wine-Growing, Viticulture, Business Dynamics, History
Pages: 95-119
Volume: 2
Year: 2017
File-URL: http://www.revistaestudiosregionales.com/documentos/articulos/pdf-articulo-2521.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:rer:articu:v:2:y:2017:p:95-119