1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

The Vintaging of Manzanilla.

17

but entirely open in front. Passing through the gateway, and stumbling in the dim light afforded by an occasional lamp fixed against the wall, over a nidely-paved courtyard, we found our selves beside a row oflarge, stout wooden troughs,some 10 feet square and a couple of feet deep,raised about 3 feet from the ground,and known in the vernacular of the vineyards as lagares. The bottoms of these receptacles were already strewn with grapes lightly sprinkled over with yeso (gypsum), which, if spread over the whole of the bunches, would not have been greatly in excess of the amount of dust ordinarily gathered by a similar quantity of grapes conveyed inopen baskets on the backs of mules from the vineyards to the pressing-places in the towns- At Torre Breva the sixty or more arrobas of grapes (l,5001bs.) required to makeeach buttofwinewere havingfrom 21bs.to 41bs.of yeso sprinkled overthem,or about halfthequantitywhichwouldbe used in a moistseason. Iwas assured that at last year's vintage here not a single ounce of yeso was employed in the manufacture of upwards of 700 butts of wine. Of the supposed virtues and drawbacks ofthis employment of gypsumIshall speak by-and-by. Eising perpendicularly in the centre of each of the four lagares to a height of about seven feet is a tolerably powerful screw, which is only brought into requisition after the grapes have been thoroughly trodden. Acouple of swarthy bare-legged pisadores leap into each lagar and commence spreading out the bunches with wooden shovels; and soon the whole eightofthem, in their short drawers, blue-striped shirts,little caps,red sashes, and hob-nailed shoes, are dancing a more or less lively measure, ankle-deep in newly-crushed grapes. They dance in couples,one on each side ofthe screw,performing certain rapid pendulum-like movements which are supposed to have the virtue of expressing the juice more satisfactorily fr-om the fruit than can be accom plished by mere mechanical means. Their saltatory evolutions ended,the trodden grapes are heaped up on one side and well patted about with the shovel,like so much newly-mixed mortar. Ihis causes the expressed juice to flow out in a dingy brown rgid stream through the spout fixed in front of the lagar into