Jean Haurie Nebout
Jean Haurie Nebout (1719 – 1794) was a French-born wine merchant and entrepreneur who settled as a refugee in Jerez de la Frontera around 1740. He and later relatives such as Pemartín, Domecq and Lacoste revitalized the sherry trade in the 18th century.[1]
Biography
He began with a small shop selling bread, silk and cloth in Plaza Plateros, but in 1745 joined his friend Patrick Murphy Burke’s winery founded in 1730 near San Blas and San Ildefonso streets,[2] the forerunner of today’s Bodegas Fundador. When Murphy died in 1764 without heirs, Haurie inherited the business—likely buying out partner Jean Lacoste—and expanded holdings to include vineyards at Macharnudo, Carrascal and Almocadén,[3] as well as cooperage workshops. By the late 1700s, his exports topped the Jerez region: in 1798 he shipped 143,461 arrobas of wine compared to 114,820 by Jacob Gordon and 64,717 by Pedro Beigbeder.[4]
Haurie pioneered a vertically integrated, liberal agro‐industrial model. He pressed for aging and blending sherry to suit foreign tastes, year-round sales and free pricing—practices forbidden by the local Winemakers’ Guild, which imposed minimum prices, limited storage and mandated young wines only. In 1772 he led a petition by small growers to dissolve the guild; in 1773 he formally sued the Guild and in 1778 secured a royal decree ending its restrictions across Spain. This breakthrough anticipated the 1834 abolition of guilds by decades.[5]
As a respected burgess, he also served as a local representative (Defensor del Pueblo), improving orphan care, prison conditions, court delays and billeting rules. In 1791 he brought five nephews into the firm—Juan José, Juan Pedro and Juan Luis Haurie Puzzein, Juan Carlos Haurie Laborde and Pedro Lembeye Haurie—renaming it “Juan Haurie y Sobrinos.” After his death in 1794,[6] nephew Juan José took charge under the terms of Haurie’s will, which dissolved the partnership after 25 years or upon the death of four partners. His legacy laid one of Spain’s earliest capitalist foundations in the sherry trade.
References
- ↑ https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Haurie_Nebout#cite_ref-1
- ↑ https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Haurie_Nebout#cite_ref-2
- ↑ https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Haurie_Nebout#cite_ref-3
- ↑ https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Haurie_Nebout#cite_ref-4
- ↑ https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Haurie_Nebout#cite_ref-5
- ↑ https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Haurie_Nebout#cite_ref-7
External links
- “Juan Haurie, the Shrewd Entrepreneur,” Diario de Jerez, 2014
- “Rise and Tragedy of the Haurie Family,” Diario de Jerez, 2013
- Real Academia de la Historia: Biography of Juan Haurie Nebout
- “Spanish Brandy Created by a Béarnais,” ABC Sevilla, 1969
- “Bodegas: Juan Haurie,” Jerez-Xérès-Sherry blog, 2015