No-headache sherry gives competitors a hangover

Elizabeth Nash finds uproar in Jerez as tradition is shaken by a histamine-free fino

Jose Estevez is giving his fellow sherry producers a big headache. He is challenging the hallowed traditions of Spain's fortified wine by producing a pale dry fino that he says will not give you a hangover.

Mr Estevez, 66, a bounding personality who dominates every vast room of his palatial properties in Jerez, makes his Tio Mateo sherry practically without histamine, a substance to which many are allergic and which can cause asthma, diarrhoea and crashing headaches.

He wants to advertise his achievement, and announce on Tio Mateo's label its minimum histamine content. But the regulatory Sherry Council, resisting Mr Estevez's unorthodox ideas, won't let him. They say his claims are misleading, and the consumer will be confused.

Mr Estevez cannot conceal his anger and frustration. "These people are asleep. The sherry sector has been in crisis for 25 years and nothing has been done to revitalise our industry. Today's consumers are more health-conscious and they demand information. Sherries are quality products, but some have up to 11mg of histamine in each litre, which can make people feel terrible. With my sherry, they'd feel fine."

Scientists agree, and the European Histamine Research Society, which holds its 26th annual congress next month in Seville, plans a visit to his bodega in recognition of his work. The society's chairman, the Spanish chemist Felix Lopez Elorza, praises Mr Estevez's success in producing a low- histamine wine as "a very positive advance".

"Wine with less histamine is definitely healthier, especially for people who have difficulty eliminating histamine, which is possibly from about four to seven per cent of the population," said Dr Elorza.

Francisco Bravo, research professor in chemistry and oenology at Madrid's Centre for Scientific Studies, CSIC, agreed: "Low-histamine wine has great value from a medical point of view, especially for those who must reduce the amount of histamine in their diet. It is a toxic substance, especially in combination with ethanol in wine."

But Jerez's powerful sherry-ocracy of grand old families and multinational conglomerates has turned on Mr Estevez, whom they accuse of breaking the rules and besmirching the name of their illustrious product by suggesting it is unhealthy in comparison with his version.

"Informing the consumer about histamine is not permitted by law, which means it is forbidden," says Luis Breton, director of the Federation of Sherry Exporters. "It's confusing to the consumer and against legislation on labelling and presentation. Histamine is a natural product formed in the fermentation process. It's in foods like cheese, yogurt and strawberries in larger quantities than in wine, and forms part of the body's natural defence mechanism."

Despite his string of 25 thoroughbred horses, his collection of antique clocks, his cavernous bodegas lined with old masters, and a high-speed lifestyle that could inspire a Jilly Cooper novel, Mr Estevez - Don Jose as they call him - is a newcomer to this aristocratic world, a self-made man from nowhere. "My father was a labourer. And the best thing he ever owned was a bicycle," he says.

While working in a local bottle factory, young Jose Estevez wondered why so many bottles were flawed and had to be smashed. He was told it was because of the variable quality of sand used to make them. So every weekend for the next four years, with his five sons and two daughters around him, he scoured Andalusia for perfect sand. He found it in 1962, 18 miles from Jerez, and bought the plot. The sand pit proved a gold mine: he cornered the market and made his fortune.

In 1974, he bought a couple of sherry bodegas that had fallen on hard times, and spent years, and millions, reviving them. "I thought, I must find something original, something different and specific if I'm to succeed in this flagging industry that's run by useless incompetents. So I decided to research. The aim was to produce a healthier wine."

Six years ago he teamed up with the German family firm Underberg, makers of a low-histamine sparkling wine, and established a laboratory in Switzerland. Don Jose's daughter Maribel, a biologist and oenologist, runs the technical operation in Jerez. "We prevent the formation of histamine by controlling the kind of yeast that helps sherry ferment, and by being scrupulous about hygiene in the bodega," she says.

Francisco Perdigones, technical director of rival producers Osborne, whose silhouettes of giant bulls bestride the Spanish countryside, is sceptical about the claims. "It's a big lie. They add a white powder after fermentation and before bottling to extract the histamine. Ultimately, what causes the headache is intoxication. It's just a publicity stunt to get attention."

Mr Perdigones pooh-poohs Mr Estevez's scientific credentials: "In the world of science it's very easy to find opinions to suit you. I doubt the value of some scientists. He has something these gentlemen don't have, which is money."

Mr Perdigones now wishes the Sherry Council had allowed Mr Estevez to put "practically no histamine" on his wine labels. "It was a mistake to say 'no'. It has provoked this huge absurd polemic and made him even more successful."

Do the claims stand up? Following extensive consumer research on Tio Mateo, this headache-prone investigator woke up the next morning with no trace of a hangover.