1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

30

Facts about Sherry.

Spanish, girl in light striped dress and nankeen apron,followed us about everywhere, gravely watching our movements with folded arms and inquisitive eyes. At one end of the casa she pointed out to us a little oratory with a covered altar inclosing a painting of the Virgin and Child,the green-and-gold doors of which were decorated with religious emblems. In more pious times a little beU above the roof used to summon the vintagers for some distance around to Sunday mass. Of late years, however,the religious sentiments ofthe Andalusian peasant have sensibly declined under the influence of revolutionary teaching, and the little Ducha oratory, like scores of Rimiln.r ones around Jerez,is no longer applied to its intended purpose. The capataz of the vineyard had, nevertheless, turned it to advantageous account,forfrom the rafters ofthe roof hundredsof huge bunches of selected grapes hung suspended to long canes, with the object of preserving them for table use until as late a period ofthe year as possible. The court in front of the casa de la vina was planted round with the adelfa, or rose laurel, a favourite shrub in the Jerez vineyards, and stiU in all the magnificence of its bloom at this season of the year. Two stately cypresses stood as sentinels at the entrance to the vineyard, on the highest point of which another ofthese funereal trees was planted. From hence a most extensive view was obtained over the broad plain, covered in many parts with dwarf pabns,as well as over the neighbouring olive-groves and the hill-slopes planted with vines, while rising up grandly behind all were the tall peaks ofthe distant Sierra— grey,sombre, and cold in the surrounding flood of sunlight. Hot as the day was, our long drive and the exhilarating atmosphere had so far sharpened our appetites that we were glad to accept an invitation to share potluck with the Ducha vintagers,whose dinner-hour it chanced to be,and better potluck it was never our fortune to fall in with. It consisted ofa ragout o mutton,stewed m olive oiland flavoured with capers and sweet capicums,and was tender as a spring chicken. It was necessary 0 an e one s knife deftly,for forks are looked upon as super-