1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

The Bodegas of San Lucar de Barrameda. 21

II.—The Bodegas op San Lhcae de Baeeameda.

Wine-making at San Lucar—The AVine Bodega of the South of Spain—Senor Hidalgo's Wines and Vineyards—Manzanilla Soleras—Mode of Bearing the Wine—The Manzanilla Grape—Gipsy Concert at San Lucar. Hating seen manzanilla made in the vineyard I was anxious to ascertain whether any different mode of viQification was practised in the town,and, with that view, visited several of the pressing-houses in San Lucar de Barrameda, where, judging from the constant procession of mules with baskets of grapes from the surroimding vineyards which day after day threaded the narrow streets, a considerable quantity of wine was evidently being made. These mules are generally encumbered in regular Spanish fashion with more or less useless trappings, and if the wholeofthem are not adorned with bells the leading mule ofthe team will certainly be furnished with these jingling appendages. Hot unfrequently, too, their flanks will be fantastically branded over with rude arabesques,indicative of their past or present gipsy ownership,and all of them will be duly muzzled with bands of esparto to check the poor brutes' well-known propensity for ripened grapes. After being kept awake all night by the mosquitoes, which, as a rule, are prompt in acclimatising strangers, who discover to their cost the so-called mosquito-curtains to be a delusion, a mockery,and a snare, I started on my expedition shortly after the sun had risen, but that irrepressible luminary was already darting his flerce rays down the narrow side streets of San Lucar, rendering sweltering pedestrians like myself covetous of the little band of shadow to be found on the so-called shady side of the way. I was glad enough to dive into the cool com'tyard indi cated by my guide, where the pressing of grapes was going on under a low,slanting roof, supported on open arches,judiciously provided with large movable blinds of esparto to keep out the sun, and faced by a couple of shady acacias, which rose up majestically beside an old-fashioned well. As the mules ambled