1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts about Sherry.

sample room,containing some 11,000 samples of wine exported during tlie past five years. The labels on all tbe bottles indicate alike tbe number of tbe invoice, tbe quantity of casks shipped, witb tbe date of shipment, and tbe name of tbe port to which and oftbe party to whom they were sbipj)ed. Tbe advantage of this system is that when a wine-mercbant desires to repeat an order reference has merelyto be madeto tbe invoice, which indicates tbe precise blend of tbe wine,and to tbe sample which has been retained, enabling any alteration that is found necessary to be readily made. We first inspect tbe lofty six-aisled Bodega vieja, containing 3,000 butts of wine in soleras, comprising finos,amontillados, and olorosos. Two thousand of these are finos ranging from 5 to 40 years of age, and passing through four successive stages, while tbe amontiUados and olorosos pass through three, thus enabling the older soleras to be replenished with com parative facility, and insuring a uniform quality of wine. The most noticeable among these soleras are what is termed the 150 fine and the 1/30 gogolio, both very superior wines, bio aguar diente is added to these soleras, the average alcoholic strength of which ranges no higher thanfrom 27 to 28deg.of proof spirit. A different system is followed with the so-called Royal solera, a fine selected and established in 1853 from several thousand butts of dos palmas of the 1846 vintage. This solera, which is of the highest character,is only replenished by dos palmas of vintages folly ten years old. Its bouquet, softness, and delicacy are almost unrivalled, in addition to which its alcoholic strength indicates only 25| deg. of proof spirit. An adjoining smaller bodega, holding 800 butts, contains some of the rarer soleras of the house,purchased five-and-forty years ago, and of acknow ledged antiquity even at that epoch. In this bodega are installed the superb oloroso solera, the non, plus ultra of 1815, the famous amontillado of 1820, and ,the superior palo cortado of 1831, with several other wines in the old Jerezano style of the vintages of 1824, 1843, and 1846. This and other cellars of the house contain 1,600 butts of oloroso soleras, ranging from