Don Jose Ignacio Domecq
Spanish Winemaking dynasty.
Don Jose Ignacio Domecq (left) receiving the Award with with Don Manuel Domecq-Zurita
Award Motivation
For his contribution to developing the wine and sherry industry worldwide.
Award details
Jose Ignacio Domecq Gonzalez, was the aristocratic head of the Spanish wine-making family who owned Pedro Domecq, one of Spain’s oldest and largest sherry and brandy shippers, from 1816 until 1994, when it was merged with Allied Lyons P.L.C., the beverages giant based in London. It is now known as Allied Domecq P.L.C.
The tall, lean Mr. Domecq was known throughout the international wine trade as ‘El Nariz’ for literal as well as figurative reasons. His hawk like nose, endlessly caricatured in profile, was memorably large. It was also his fortune, an indispensable gift in the blending necessary for creating fine sherries.
From childhood on, he said, he memorized aromas and tastes ranging from those of the freshly pressed must of palomino grapes to those of the rich, old dry sherries called olorosos dating to 1730, when the company was founded. Its rise began in 1816 when a forebear, Pedro Domecq, acquired it and gave it his name.
Sherry, like port and madeira, is a fortified wine, which means that alcohol is added for body and strength. The name is an Anglicization of Jerez, the capital of sherry production. Mr. Domecq’s skills as a blender were outstanding.
“Pedro was a man passionate about the art of wine-making who respected the land that provided such treasures and wine flavours and tastes. ”