1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

The Montilla Wines.

101

The ancient ducal bodegas, with all their grand soleras, passed some years ago into the possession of Messrs. Gonzalez, who are to-day holders of the finest Montilla wines in the country, several of them being,in fact,imique. The principal bodega,erected at the commencement of the last century, at a period when the dukes used to receive their rents in kind, still bears the name of La Tercia,from the circumstance that here one-third of the produce of the land used to be handed over by the cultivator as the landlord's share. The Meclina-Celi bodegas are situated in the market-place of Montilla, which was crowded at the time of our visit with singularly picturesque groups,the women in light-coloured shawls and fichus, the men in the orthodox turban hats,and wrapped up in capacious cloaks with innumerable folds, their trousers slit half-way to the knee,and their leathern gaiters unlaced,so as to display the clean white stocking beneath. The arriving and departing mules exhibited the customary redimdance ofragged trappings. On the opposite side of the market-place rose a group of quaint Spanish houses, flanked by the cold grey walls ofsome abandoned convent,form ing an appropriate background to the animated scene. An old archway, above which is carved the shield of the Medina-Cells, with its many proud quarteriags, leads into the paved courtyard of La Tercia, planted round with orange-trees, and having vines trained up the low white-walled buildings n surrounding it. To the left is the low doorway of the ancient bodega, where casks nearly a couple of centuries old are ranged in two tiers on a venerable framework of massive oak. There is a strange antiquated air about the whole place, which is but dimly lighted by a single small window. Huge spiders have spun gigantic webs from butt to butt, or between the blackened beams of the slanting roof. The centenarian casks are of a dull greenish hue,and their thiu iron hoops are so corroded that it is a miracle how the very slim staves manage to hold together. These casks were evidently the work of coopers ignorant of how more substantial staves than those here employed could be bent into shape.