1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts about Sherry.

tlie road on tlie left just before we reach Chiclana, which,inter sected by the little river Lirio, lies on the slope of a steep hill. Chiclana is equally noted for its bull-fighters as for its wines, having given birth to more celebrated toreadores than any other town in Spain, notably those famous rival matadors,Francisco Montes and Jose Eedondo—^better known as el Chiclanero— with whose exploits all Spain rang during the early years of the reign ofthe ex-Queen Isabella. Not merely the cities but all the towns hereabouts have their bull-rings, where spavined horses are annually gored by hundreds,and bulls slaughtered in scores, amidst frantic exclamations of delight on the part of the sanguinary audiences which these sickening spectacles never fail to attract. On the other side of the hiU,crowned by a little chapel on the site ofa former hermitage, are the Chiclana vine yards, producing in favourable years about 4,000 butts of passably good wine, which finds its principal market at Jerez, where it is mixed with the ordinary Jerez growths. The few samples we tasted were all fresh in flavour and possessed con siderable body, and, although invariably young, seemed as if they would develop a certain amount of character. One otherinsignificantwine-producinglocalitycompletes what may be regarded as the real sherry district. This is Trebujena, a neglected,shabby-looking little town perched on the summitof a hill some fifteen miles due north of Jerez,and shut out in a measure from all intercourse with surrounding localities. To reach it one has to cross a vast imcultivated plain called the lilanos of Caulina, at one end of which the Jerez racecourse and cricket-ground are situated, whilst crowning a little hillock at the other are the ruins ofthe Moorish castle of Melgarejo. The quantity of wine vintaged at Trebujena is comparatively small, and its quality is ofno marked character.