In the mid-eighteenth century the wines being exported from the Jerez Region to overseas markets were very different to what we now recognise as Sherry Wine.

Demand for wines of all types grew from the end of the seventeenth century onwards, mainly in the countries of northern Europe, and particularly in Great Britain and Holland - the great maritime powers of the period - and the different wine producing regions had begun to adapt their production systems to meet this demand. British taste began to change: hitherto predominantly inclined towards light, pale wines, it now began to show a preference for stronger ones with more colour and maturity.

In Jerez this transformation of the market caused understandable differences between the vineyard owners and local merchants, which were not easy to overcome. The former wished to find a market for their current year must and clarified wines, which required fortification to prevent them spoiling during long voyages. Naturally, the latter were more interested in meeting market requirements and were demanding different types of wines.

The trade associations of the time, which dominated the local wine industry, were strongly protective of the privileges of local vine-growers and proved to be a restrictive element as far as trade was concerned. The profuse and complex norms of the Vintners' Guild restricted the possibility of ageing wine, considering this to be a speculative practice, thus favouring the trading of young wines whilst at the same time hindering the producers, or "extractors", from selling the type of wine for which demand was steadily increasing.

1775 was the year which marked the commencement of the so-called "Extractors' Action", a law-suit instigated by local producers including numerous foreign traders who had settled in the region. This process concluded several decades later with the abolition of the Vintners' Guild. During this period the Guild's restrictive code of practice gradually disappeared, which in turn generated a movement towards liberalisation and a strong momentum for wine production and trade.

More importantly, this process also helped shape the identity of the Region's wines. The prolonged storage of wines from different harvests together with the need to supply the market with a product which was consistent in quality gave rise to one of the major characteristics of sherry production: the ageing method known as Criaderas and Solera.

Moreover, as the wine was now left to repose for much longer in the casks then the concept of fortification, previously used to stabilise more delicate wines, suddenly changed to become a true oenological technique enabling the wine-maker to decide the type of wines he wished to produce; the addition of grape distillate in different proportions providing the origins of the wide range of sherry wines available today.

This was also the age of the great ageing bodegas. In an attempt to provide optimal architectural conditions for ageing wine whilst embracing the neo-classical aesthetic that was then so fashionable, Gordon, Lacoste, Haurie and other exporters created the great sherry houses that are so impressive even today.

The leading figures behind these changes were in many instances long established foreign merchants already settled in the region, such as Juan Haurie, Oneale, Lacoste, Juan Domecq, Patricio Murphy, etc..., but local growers were also involved in the ageing and trading phases of the business (Cabeza, Menchaca, Rivero, López Martínez, etc.).

Towards the end of the 19th Century, as occurred in almost all European vineyards, the black plague of phylloxera devastated the vineyards of the Jerez Region. An insect imported from America (Daktulosphaira vitifolii) provided the worst blow suffered in the history of wine-growing, destroying the Jerez vines and blocking their roots. The first outbreak had been detected several years earlier on numerous vineyards in other parts of Europe, thus by the time the insect spread to the Jerez Region the only solution to a problem of such magnitude was well known by all: uproot all the vines and replant with American rootstock varieties, resistant to the insect, upon which local varieties of vine were then grafted.

Recuperation of the vineyards was a relatively rapid process when compared to other regions in Europe and brought with it the definitive selection of the grape varieties which are still used to make sherry wines today.

The following years were prosperous ones and in the early decades of the 20th Century improvements in communications and transport allowed sherry wine to expand into international markets. It was during this period, however, that a new problem reared its head, one which had been latent for years but unnoticed by the sherry firms of Jerez: the usurping of the identity of Sherry Wine.

The British were unquestionably responsible for the increased popularity of Sherry throughout the world and not only did they pass on their enthusiasm for the beverage to their numerous colonies around the globe, but in those where it proved possible to produce wine they began to make drinks of certain style which were reminiscent of authentic sherry from Jerez, giving them names such as "Australian Sherry", "South African Sherry" and "Canadian Sherry". The problem of imitations had arisen, and one which unfortunately remains.

These are the years during which legislation begins to recognise such concepts as the protection of intellectual property and propose defence mechanisms against usurpation and imitation. A concept of enormous importance arose in this context: the Denomination of Origin. This was a concept which first appeared in the context of wine production and has since been applied to other food products.

In the latter half of the 19th Century the wine producers of the Jerez Region, true businessmen who were in many ways ahead of their time, had attended a series of international conferences which established the legal framework for the defence of Denominations of Origin. It is not unusual, therefore, that when the first Spanish Wine Law was published in 1933 it made reference to existence of the Denomination of Origin Jerez and its Consejo Regulador, the first to be legally constituted in Spain.