1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

The Bodegas of San Lucar de Barrameda. 23

aromatic wine, has, in addition to 1,000 butts of vino de color, usually stored in his bodegas no less than 5,000 butts of manza- nilla divided into fifteen soleras in various stages of progressive development, from the pale, fresh-tasting, and remarkably fragrant young growths,to wines in their fifth and sixth year,and regarded in fine condition for drinking,including also a wine ten years of age, accorded a medal for progress at the Vienna Exhi bition, with older wines which, although manza.nillas, had developed much of the oloroso and amontUlado characters belonging to the Jerez growths. The windows of his bodegas, which are placed rather high up,face the sea, to admit of a full current of cool sea air passing through the building when the wind blows from that quarter. Although this conduces mate rially to the evaporation of the wine, which, under ordinary circumstances, amounts to as much as 4 or more per cent, annually, Senor Hidalgo considers that any extra loss in this respect is amply compensated for by the marked improvement which the wine undergoes. Senor Hidalgo's wines are all the produce of his own vineyards, the most important of which, Miraflores la Baja, occupies some slopes a few miles distantfrom San Lucar,and yields 300 butts of manzanilla annually. Another vineyard in the same direction is La Punta del Aquila, while a third in the neighbourhood of Chipiona,a little seaside village lying between San Lucar and Eota, goes by the name of Santo Domingo. At San Lucar,as at Jerez,the system of what are technically termed soleras—^in other words, the building up of new wines on the foundation of older ones—prevails. As the older wines are drawn offto supply ordersthe deficiency createdinthe butts is made good by the addition of wine of the same character but a year younger,the place of which is supplied in a like manner by stiU younger wine, and this process is continued all down the scale. Manzanilla, it should be remarked, does not develop the endless variety oftypes which the finer wines of Jerez are known to assume, and, as a general rule, the wines in the San Lucar bodegas, although of the highest character, are not ofthe same