Domecq Days

Of all the brand-names associated with Spanish wines, Domecq is undoubtedly in the top ten. Like many sherry houses, it was founded by non-Spaniards, along with the likes of Williams, Garvey, Croft, Sandeman, Osborne, Humbert, Harvey, Byass, etc, in Domecq’s case of French origin.

WORDS ANDREW J LINN

Sherry was the first wine to be exported and was drunk in England in Shakespeare’s time. Only the towns of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda can be referred to as producers of Xérès, or sherry: the sherry triangle. The golden age of sherry was the last half of the 20th century, when demand outstripped supply, and most members of sherry families did little work. The Domecqs were possibly the most numerous, with around 180 family members working in the bodega from a total of nearly 400. The surname was enough to open any door, and most of them led a charmed, not to say unreal, existence, comprising of a social calendar that included the ferias of Sevilla, Jerez, the El Rocio pilgrimage, shooting parties in the winter, and polo in the summer at Sotogrande. Practically all of them depended financially on the dividends paid each year by the company, and the money they spent on horses (a Jerez priority), fighting bulls, country estates, motor cars and a jet set lifestyle has never been quantified. As one example, I remember a famous party in a Domecq country house for which a Mariachi band was flown over from Mexico. While the good life lasted, it was the best to be had anywhere, and to be a señorito in Jerez, from a bodega-owning family, was to be blessed. Everyone believed at the time that sherry sales would go on growing forever. The Domecqs constituted a big family with expensive tastes, and the time eventually came when the wine business could not continue to keep them forever in the style to which they were accustomed. Eventually a transformation took place and all over Jerez the bodegaowning families started to be replaced by multinationals. The granddaddy of them all, Domecq, was acquired by Pernod Ricard/Beam Global/ Fortune Brands, which would then proceed to split up the family companies.

José Domecq de la Riva, or Pepe Domecq ‘Pantera’, as he was known (the last surname being acquired because of a pet panther he once owned) was the scion of the family. During my Jerez years I got to know him well and would often go up to his bathroom and sit by his tub drinking pre-lunch copìtas of La Ina brought up by the butler. At his office in the bodega, he did nothing apart from sign cheques and drink sherry supplied through a dumb waiter. Every August the family summered in Marbella, initially at the Don Pepe hotel and later on board his yacht in Puerto Banús. There were never less than ten people for lunch daily, always at Antonio’s in Puerto Banús, and occasional dinners at La Fonda. The Domecq private secretary, Badillo, would come down from Jerez at the end of the stay to go around Marbella settling all the bills that Pepe had signed during the month. As Pepe aged, he became more concerned about his financial situation, an example being when the palace’s domestic staff requested an increase in their bread ration and as a result felt the rough edge of his tongue. Needing to remove a cyst behind his ear, and rather than pay for private medical attention, a paramedic carried out the operation, without anesthetic, in the surgery of his private bullring. Lashings of La Ina was available for the onlookers. There was always a shadow over Pepe’s social situation, as he had committed an offence for which he was never forgiven by his Jerez peers. He had become involved with one of the servants, which resulted in his wife leaving him and taking the children. He continued the affair and replaced his wife with his mistress. This behaviour was unacceptable, and he was ostracised for life. Although he continued to act the part of a sherry baron at the ferias, he was rejected socially by his peers. Following his death, the bishop would not allow his coffin to enter the cemetery’s chapel, describing the occupant’s life as dissolute and ‘extramarital’. A life described elsewhere however as that of ‘the last señorito of Jerez’. e

Entrance to the Domecq Winery in Jerez