1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts ahout Sherry.

many of Ms pictures of Andalusian life. After crossing the flat and uninteresting plain wMch borders the Moors'famous"river of delight," the road, skirted by trees and aloes and bustling with country carts and mules laden with flrewood, winds round one of a series of bold, cultivated hills, where in the month of November beans and barley were sprouting up around the gnarled grey trunks of thousands upon thousands of ancient olive-trees. The flrst vineyards are sighted just before we reach the summit of the hill after passing through CastiUeja de la Cuesta, where a bronze bust and a gilt tablet over a restored antique doorway in the village high street indicate the house where the truculent conqueror of Mexico died in disgrace and indigence. Some little distance to the right, and encompassed by plantations of vines and olives, is the straggling village of Grines. Here, as soon as it was known that we had been inquiring for el Senor Alcalde, symptoms of disquiet at once manifested themselves,for it was thought we were Government functionaries connected with the detested conscription. The alcalde, who was discussing with the baker the regulation price of bread as our vehicle came to a halt in front of the village ayuntamiento,informed us that Gines had only between one and two hundred acres of vineyards, all planted piincipally with the garrido species of grape, and yielding ordinarily 400 butts of wMte wine,valued at the time of being drawn oft the lees at from £A 10s. to £,& per butt when taken from the bodega. Wefound that this price only slightly varied at other places in the neighbourhood—notably Yillanueva, Espartina, and Salteras—having among them acouple ofthousand acres of vine yards interspersed between vast tracts of olive grounds, and producing in favonrable years some 10,000 butts of wine,instead ofthethird of that quantity,wMch resulted from the vintagejust concluded. The prevailing soil in which the vines are planted is reddish clay, indicative of the presence of oxide ofiron,while the subsoil is chalk,and hence a certain character in the better-class growths of this locality. The vintage in the neighbourhood of Seville ordinarily commencesabout the middle of September,and