1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts ahout Sherry.

a. tropical temperature by carting it to Jerez. Tbe result would seem to justify tbis course,for the wine invariably turns out well. We now drove to High Machamudo,to the vineyard of Senor Domecq. Here the vintage was also finished, and about a _ thousand men were engaged on what is termed the alumbra— that is, loosening the soil and forming a square trough round the stem of each vine, to. enable it to secure the full benefit of the autumn rains. This operation would occupy a fortnight, and as the vineyard is 500 acres in extent, each man would get through his quarter of an acre(ortrough round about 450 vines) in a week,for which he would receive 64 reals, nearly 12s. The total annual cost per acre of a Jerez vineyard varies from.£10 to as much as £18 in certain instances. The labour done will include, in addition to the vintaging of the crop,the various prunings of the vines, the placing of supports to sustain the heavier bunches of grapes,the several operations of loosening and turning over the soil, weeding it,troughing round the vines, and the subsequent filling up of the holes. The vineyards are never manured excepting in the case of newly-planted vines. Over some fifty acres or more of Senor Domecq's vineyard the vmes are not in full bearing; some are very old, while others, planted to renewthose that have died off,have not yet arrived at maturity. Here, as in all the good vineyards, the palomino variety of grape predominates. When the vines are pruned one branch is left with a single knot and a second branch with four or five knots upon it. Senor Domecq has found by experience that the best wine is produced by mixing the bunch of grapes from the branch with the single knot(the juice of which is very sweet) with the central bimches of the other branch,the berries of which,as a rule, are smaller than the rest, have thick skins, and consequently contain an abundance of tannin. The wine thus produced is of high character, and remarkable for fulness and strength. The result of the vintage just concluded gave only 450 butts, of which 385 were fine dry wine, and the remainder Pedro Jimenez and Tintilla—the latter from sweet