1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

Wines of the Seville and Moguer Districts.

97'

is conducted mucL.tlie sameas througliout the Jerez district,the only difference being a slight variation in the mode of crushing the grapes. There are no means of pressing these in the vine yards,the lagares and presses being invariably adjacent to the bodegas in the different villages. After having been trodden in capacious stone lagares on a level "with the floor of the press- house,the grapes are piled up in a broad heap and bound rormd "with long bands of esparto, a cumbersome screw-press "with a huge heavy beam, some twenty feet long and four feet in diameter, being employed to extract the remaining juice. The "vintagers are paid at the rate of seven to eight reals (18d.to 20d.) per day, and,as at Jerez, are invariably of the male sex, women in Spain never being allowed to take part in the vintage, although they assist largely at the subsequent olive harvest. Grapes had been sold,we found,in the Seville district at from 3 to 4 reals, or ^^d.to lOd.,the arroba of 25ilbs. The answers we received to numerous inquiries as to the quantity of yeso used in making the Seville wines agreed in stating that this amounted to di^lbs. to each butt of mosto. Generally this mosto is dra-wn off the lees by the purchaser, who in a majority of instances adds a small percentage of spirit to it. When,how ever, it is drawn off by the grower, spirit is only added in the event of the wine getting out of order. At different bodegas we tasted several young unripe wines and also wines ranging from five to six years old. The latter had an agreeable bouquet, and were of a soft, light,pleasant flavour,which we found became much more spirituous in -wines of greater age. These so-called Seville wines are scarcely consumed at aU on the spot; they are, however, commonly drunk at Sevflle itself, and considerable quantities of them are purchased by the Jerez shippers mainly to serve as the basis for cheap sherries. Messrs.Gonzalez and Co. have a large bodega at Seville, which,like other establishments of the same nature, was formerly an abandoned convent; and here they store a large stock ofthe better class of Se-vflle "wines. San Lucar la Mayor,some eight miles from Salteras,like all the to"wns and villages hereabouts,is perched on the summit of