1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

The Vintaging of Manzanilla.

15

pricHy pear, broken bere and tbere by a dilapidated gateway, eventually lined both sides ofthe road. A dark pine-gi'ove rose on our left hand,and before us the white houses and bodegas of SanLucar,with theirlow-pitchedroofs dominated by half-a-dozen chui-ch towers, spread themselves out in the midst of orange- trees, while the solid square keep of the Moorish castle frowned down disdainfully upon aU. Beyond,the turquoise-tinted Grua- dalquivir flowed placidly on to the sea. Troops of mules laden with panniers of dust-covered grapes, and occasionally carrying a couple of blue-shirted, crimson- sashed,hulking mulateros as well—^for in this oppressive heat every beggar who gets the chance rides on horseback—are pro ceeding, enveloped in clouds of sand, to the different press- houses in the town; and as our vehicle rumbles along the irregularly-paved streets, bordered by the whitest of houses with the brightest of green shutters and balconies, we encounter flies of donkeys can-ying kegs and jars of water to thirsty souls swel tering in the suiTOunding vineyards. Heaps of grape-stalks, on which tawny-tinted,scantily-draped young ui'chins aresprawhng, lie piled up in front of many an open gateway,through which glimpses are caught of casks and screw-presses, wooden shovels and pitchers, and capacious ^troughs in which the grapes are trodden to a steady clockwork movementthat would delight,if it did not absolutely frenzy, a Prussian drill-sergeant. The most extensive vineyards at St. Lucar are those of Torre Breva,the property of the Due de Montpensier, but now rented' by an Englishman, Mr.E.Davies, one of the large Jerez wine- shippers. They are distant a long league fi'om the town,and a drive bordered by flr-trees conducts through the plantations of vines to the house, distinguished by a tall squaa-e tower at one end. Here are no less than 320 acres of vines, not more than 200 of which, however, are bearing at present. Dotting the vineyards are groups of white outbuildings, and starting up in various directions are little huts of esj)arto, perched upon four poles, and to which access is obtained bv aid of a short ladder. These are so many look-out places for the half-dozen