1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

Some other Jerez Bodegas.

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where a thousand casks of amontillado alone arecommonly kept almost ready for shipment. Although,of course,the firm supplies every class of sherry, amontillado has been its great specialty for upwards of thirty years, when the founder of the house first commenced to ship this wine, unknown up to that period in England. The soleras of amontillado of remarkable age and character stored in this bodega are distinguished by their finesse. At the farther end of an adjacent spacious court are several smaller cellars stored with various kinds of sherry, while an immensenumber of butts of common wine are stacked beneath the adjoining colonnade. In one of these bodegas, containing only selected soleras, we tasted some wonderfully fine amontillado and a rare old brown sherry the solera of which had been founded by the grandfather of the three brothers who compose the existing firm. When the Prince of Wales was at Jerez in his youthful days hetasted the G-arvey wines of that epoch,and gave the palm to this particular specimen, which at that date, Itrust, was neither so potent nor so pimgent as it is now. An adjacent five-aisled cellar contains a large stock of young, n clean-tasting Montiha wine, which appears to constitute an important feature in the business of the firm, who have an establishment at Lucena,in the heart of the MontUla district, where they make some 1,600 butts of this wine annually from selected grapes, principally of the Pedro Jimenez variety, purchased of the neighbouring growers. Passing from here through various small courtyards, and glancing at some hand some English mares,the beginning of a breeding-stud, we enter a long narrow cellar where samples of fine MontiUa, ranging from eight to twenty-five years old, were submitted to us. All were pale, delicate, and fresh-tasting, while some more matured specimens had acquired that marked etherous flavour and bouquet characteristic of these wines, which assimilate closelyto the amontillado type. Haurie Hephews claim to be the oldest existing firm of shippers of sherry. Its foimder was a native of France, and