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Apart from vintage wines. Ports are of three classes:
Ruby, having Mlness and colour; Tawny, which,
having been slowly maturing in casks instead of
bottles, has lost colour and fullness while gaining
delicacy; White, the favourite rich wine of the
women folk.
VINTAGE PORTS are wines made in one particular
year and shipped to this country when two years old.
They take several years to mature in bottle, and when
ready for consumption should always be decanted
before being served at table. Great care must be taken
when handling these crusted wines to avoid disturbing
the sedimentary crust or deposit.
SPARKLING SAUMUR and other Sparkling
Wines are made in a similar way to Champagne.
Many are sound and very pleasant to drink, but they
do not attain the quality offirst-class Champagnes.
SHERRY is made from white grapes grown in the
district of Jerez in Southern Spain. The wines, as
consumed in this country, are blends of several wines
of different years that have been allowed to mature
separately, until they are uniformly mellow, and in
the blending is the whole secret of good Sherry.
The richer wines are known as Golden, Amoroso or
Oloroso, according to type; the pale, drier wines are
known as Finos, Amontillado being a full-bodied Fino;
much drier and Ughter is the fine Manzanilla—a
delicate wine. A very popular style is the Old East
India and the Old Brown,which are pleasant, full"and
rather rich.
Wine is a living organism and,
being ofa dehcate constitution,
it should be treated with great
care and respect.
Wines whichare notrequiredfor
current useshouldbe binned ina
horizontal position, with labels
uppermost, to ensure that the Wine is continually in
How to Keep
and Serve
WINES