1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

The Wines ofJerez—Blending Sherryfor Shipment. 45

filled to within ten or fifteen gallons of their fuU capacity, is almostinvariahly removedfrom the vineyards to Jerez toferment in the cool and capacious bodegas abounding there. This is all very -well. Still, if some little attention were paid towards avoiding the previous exposure of the butts of mosto, often for one or two days together, to a temperature approachiag fever heat atthe casas ofthe vineyards—where Nature does much,man something,and science nothing at all—as well as during their transport to the bodegas,the fermentation would he conducted under more satisfactory conditions than can possibly be the case atpresent. Inthese bodegasthe mosto remainscompletely isolated —it being disadvantageous to older wines to have new mosto fermenting beside them—with the bungs out of the butts,until the ensidng February or March. When the fermented wine is drawn from its lees into new casks—stUl with a vacant space left in them—a moderate quantity of aguardiente or grape-spirit is added to it. This varies with fine wines from under 1 up to 2 per cent., according to the nature ofthe vintage, and rises up to 3 or 4 per cent,for the commoner wines. The wine, with the bungs of the butts laid lightly over their holes, now enters a transition period, during which butts of wine from the same vineyard, and which have experienced precisely the same treat ment, will develop totally different characteristics, while from 10 to 20 per cent. wiU become bad beyond recovery. The vinos finos, or fine wines, grown on albariza soils, and made from the best varieties of grape, develop to a limited extent into amontillados, and eventually into olorosos, at times attaining this latter stage without passing through the former one. Such as have not undergone this development and remain vinos finos may be described as pale in colour, dry, soft, and delicate iu fiavour, spirituous yet entirely free from heat, and fresh to the taste. The finos passing into amontillados (so called from their resembling the fine old wines of Montilla) are classed as palmas, and the casks containing them have a sign resembling a single or double palm-leaf rudely chalked upon their front, according as they are regarded as single or double

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