I’m currently researching the emergence of sherry bars in London and the current fortunes of the sherry industry. While it means drinking a lot of sherry like Tio Pepe en Rama and a 1968 Oloroso with iberico jamon and other delicious morsels (woe is me), it also involves a lot of staring at statistics.
The UK head of the Sherry Institute of Spain supplied me statistics enough to drive me to drink but also some fun statistics from New Zealand. From the figures, it would seem I am making a fair dent in the Manzanilla sales in the country. I probably drink a couple of litres of the stuff each month, so 12 litres in the first half of the year. In the past six months, just 352 litres of Manzanilla were exported to New Zealand, making my personal consumption almost 3.5% of the country’s total consumption!
Fino exports are thankfully rather higher at more than 6000 litres between January and June.
It might come as no shock to Brits that almost 60% of sherry sales in Aoteroa are sweeter styles like ‘medium’ and ‘cream’. I have moved thousands of miles yet can’t get away from a nation of sweet sherry drinkers. On the other hand, there are a lot of British ex-pats and even a British corner-store selling Branston pickle, Yorkshire tea and I’m sure if I ventured in, there’d be a dusty bottle of Croft or Harvey’s Bristol Cream on a shelf.
So, inspired by the likes of Jose and Pepito I may have to run a Sherry evening upon my return to New Zealand – who knows, it might improve the stats!
