143 / 248
THE OLD WINES AND THE NEW 143
hending the characters and specific qualities of
the wine from one end to the other of a scale
ranging from delicate and light wines to rich,
generous, and dark-coloured wines. Between a
straw-coloured Vino de Pasto and the very fine
Old East India Brown—the sherry which two
decades ago was in enormous demand at such old-
fashioned hostelries as the "Rainbow" in Fleet
Street, ere the reign of gin-and-bitters—there is
a vast difference, both in colour and flavour.
Broadly, however, sherry may be divided into
two classes—-fino^ a light-coloured, delicate light
wine of the Amontillado type, and the oloroso^ a
full-bodied, "highly-developed wine.
The sherry grapes are collected and placed in
large panniers on the backs of mules and con
veyed to the press-houses. The press is of very
primitive construction, and is identical with those
used in ancient history. It consists simply of a
wooden trough about ten feet square, provided in
the centre with a screw press, which is used after
the treading by foot power is done, to get the
last drop of juice out of the crushed mass.
Rather less than a "ton of grapes serves for one
pressing, and the idea that this is done with the
naked feet of the Spanish peasantry is a popular
error. Sherry is not kneaded like German bread.
Men clad in light clothing and shod with wooden
clogs, with nails on the soles and heels, pointing
in a slanting direction, proceed to tread the
grapes in a most methodical manner, proceeding
row by row, each row being of the width of the
nailed sole of the clog.
After the grapes have been trodden over for