1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts about Sherry.

in with their panniers of grapes the latter were at once thrown into tubs or the neighbouringlagares,and then came the dancing upon them, followed by the building up of the pile and the straining away at the screw, precisely as at Torre Breva, except ing that the combined operations were performed by the same persons instead of by two distinct sets of men. Close by the measuring out of the expressed juice from the grapes was being accomplished by the aid of a metal measm-e perforated at the upper part to allow the must flowing through when it reached the point indicating half an arroba,with the view of ascertaining the amount of mosto yielded by grapes purchased from different rineyard proprietors, and who were to be paid at the rate of 30 reals, or 6s. 3d., per arroba—that is, a trifle over 3^ gallons of must. "When the vintage is prolific the price falls to 20reals, just as it rises in years of scarcity hke 1853,the epoch of the oidium, when manzanilla mosto commanded 100 reals the arroba, or about 6s. the gallon. After visiting several pressing-houses we went over half a score of the principal bodegas at San Lucar,including those of Senores Hidalgo, Marin, Marquez,and Rodriguez,and Senoras Mergelina,de Otajola,and Manjon. The wine bodegainthe south of Spain is not a cellar,buta lofty and capacious store,built on a level with the ground, and entered through a preliminary court or garden. It is commonly divided into from three to five aisles, is well lighted and ventilated, and has about it none of that pungent vinous odour pertaining to the close vaults in which wine is ordinarily stored. Moreover, the rays of the sun are carefully excluded from it by means of shutters or blinds of esparto. Some of these bodegas are sufficiently long to admit of one hundred butts of wine lying side by side in a single row. As the butts are commonly ranged in three, and occasionally four tiers, and as each aisle has casks stacked along either side of it, some conception may be formed of the vast number of butts of wine often housed in a single bodega. Senor Hidalgo, one of the principal growers of San Lucar and the largest holder of manzanillas, including the very finest qualities of this dehcate