1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

Tlie Wines of the Bay of Cadiz.

'87

IX.—The Wines of the Bat op Cadiz, Chiclana, and Teebujbna. The Vineyards of Puerto Heal and Puerto de Santa Maria—A Rival to the Great Sherry Metropolis—Evidencesof Decadence—Duif Gordon and Co.'s Establishment, Garden Court, and Rare Soleras—The Bodegas of Seuor M.de Mora,Superior Einos, Moscatel, Pedro Jimenez,and Jerezano Wine —Cosens and Co.'s Bodegas and High-class Soleras of Manzanillas, Finos, and Amontillados—The Gonzalez Bodegas in an Abandoned Convent—-The Admirable Wines of Seuor Gastelu—The Choice Finos and Amontillados of Mr. J. W.Burdon—Rota, its Vineyards, Market-gardens, and Moorish Remains—Interior of a Rota Wine-producing Establishment—Mode of Making the Sacramental Tent—Chipiona and its Vineyards—The Road to Chiclana—Chiclana famous alike for its Bull-fighters and its Wines— Trebujena. In addition to the many thousand acres of vineyards at Jerez and San Lucar, producing almost all the finer wines,there are others which belong to the sherry district proper. The towns and villages claiming a Phoenician origin that dot the shores of the beautiful Bay of Cadiz are all more or less noted for their wines. The manzaniUa of San Lucar,and the tintilla or so-called tent of Eota,are widely known in England, but the other wines enjoy merely a local renown, and are commonly either mingled with those of Jerez or else boldly shipped as Jerez growths. Puerto Heal,lying equidistant between Jerez and Cadiz, has only a few vineyards, which being in the lowlands their produce, both as regards quantity and quality, is of no great account. It is different, however, with Puerto de Santa Maria,the vineyards of which are not only extensive, but adjoin those of Jerez on their eastern side. The Puerto, more over, ships no less than 20,000 butts of wine annually, or con siderably more than its total production, much of which,by the way, goes to Jerez; consequently it has to draw a certain pro portion of the wine it ships from other districts, including even Jerez itself. Puerto de Santa Maria is in fact a Jerez on a smaller scale.