1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

^ Facts about Sherry.

■y The TV^ines op Jeeez—Blending Sheeet poe Shipment. System of Vinificatlon at Jerez—Vinos Finos and their Development into Palmas—Cause of Amontillado—Genuine Brown Sherries—PalosCortados and Olorosos—Varieties of Eayas; Entre-finos, Bastes, Eedondos, and Ahocados—Maladies of the Jerez Wines—The Eearing of themby Seasons andhy Soleras—Vinos Dnlces j Pedro Jimenez—Vino de Color—Classes of Jerez Wines Shipped to England—namely,NaturalWines, Vintage Wines, Solera Wines, and Blended Wines—Blending of Sherry in the Cosens Bodegas—The Process in all its Details—The Grand Finos, AmontiUados, Olorosos, and Pasados of Cosens and Co.—Establishments of the Firmat Jerez and Puerto de SantaMaria. Two distinct kinds of wine are made at Jerez—namely, tlie dry and tke sweet—and to a limitedextent a tkirdvariety known as vino de color. Witk respect to tke dry wine asIsaw it made in scores of vineyards, tke grapes, wken of a good variety and from a good vineyard,kad previously keen carefuBy looked over, all decayed kunckes or kerries keing tkrown aside. Tkey kad also keen exposed to tke sun for a moderate time kefore keing trodden and pressed. Beyond tkis tkere was no difference wkatever in tke vimfication—wketker tkis was carried onm tke vineyard or tke kodega—of tke very finest and tke commonest wines, wken produced from a first pressure of tke fruit. Every one cruskes tke grapes in tke same primitive way, usesmuck tke same old-faskioned kind of press, and ferments kis mosto under tke same unscientific conditions. In tke majority of instances gypsum is sprinkled over tke grapes eitker kefore or after tkey are partially trodden, tke vineyards wkere tkis sukstance is not employed keing comparatively few. Tkere is not tke smallest disguise akout a practice dating kack to very remote times, and ky-and-kyIskaU skow tkat tke adkerence to it ky tke wme- growers of tke present day is unproductive of tke sligktest karmful result. Tke mosto, after its transference to casks, wkick are never