1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

Tlie Wines of the Bay of Cadiz.

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not merely Puerto de Santa Maria, but also of Jerez and Cadiz, with fiTiit and vegetables. Of this we soon have evidence in the troops of mules and donkeys which we meet laden with their canastos of tomatoes, sweet capsicums, ruddy pomegranates, young green peas, and spring radishes as large as ordinary carrots. The first view of Eota is somewhat picturesque. To the right is an abandoned bodega and an ancient mansion with an elaborate escutcheon above its richly-ornate doorway. To the left is a quaint little chapel standing among weeping willows and cypresses, while in front the iU-paved calle principal of the little seaside town presents a long vista of one-storied, white- walled houses with the conventional barred windows, and gargoyles projectingfrom theirlow and occasionally overhanging roofs, along which rows of pumpkins are laid to dry. Rota boasts the remnants of some Moorish ramparts which defended it on the side facing the sea, and a fine old Moorish castle with weU- preserved battlements and towers; also a remarkably curious church, originally a mosque, with an elaborately-sculptured choir worthy of any cathedral; and some handsome chapels, the walls and dome of one of which are covered with painted tiles of singularly fantastic design. On visiting one ofthe largest wine-producing establishments, an almost windowless house, with a massive square tower in the Moorish style,one observed the customary lagares ranged under a low arcade, with the usual well in the centre of the court, and piles of dried grape-skins heaped up around. Rear the lagares stood an antique-looking screw-press, used in the making of the tintilla—the well-known sacramental Tent—for which Rota is so celebrated. The grapes, a small dark red variety, after being exposed to the sun for eight days, are passed through a sieve to separate them from their stalks. They are afterwards thrown into a large butt stood on end, and when this is almost three- parts full six arrobas or twenty-one gallons of vino de color are added to them. A man now gets carefully into the cask, which by this time is very nearly full, and turns over the grapes with