1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts about Sherry.

and upwards),is replaced with the same hind of wine,but a year younger; and the same process goes on down to the bottom of the scale—a course which insures the respective ages of the wine being as far as possible preserved. This system is the one great speciality of the sherry district, and constitutes the principal wealth of the Jerez bodegas. It is not, however, invariably carried out in all its integrity, but is subjected to various modi fications, wines drawn off being frequently replaced, not by wine of precisely the same character and almost the same age, but simply by analogous growths. It should be mentioned that the ' deposit which collects at the bottom of the casks is never by any chance removed,no matter how old the original wine may be. One marked advantage of the solera system to the sherry shipper is thatit enables him to maintain the even character and quality of the wines which he supplies, irrespective of good and bad vintages. Of Jerez sweet wines, or vinos dulces,the principal is Pedro Jimenez, made from the sweet translucent grape of the same name,which is exposed to the sun not unfrequently for a fort night, before being trodden and pressed. To each butt of this wine aboutsix orseven gallonsof spirit are added,while otherwhite wines made from different varieties of grapes have as much as twenty gallons mixed with each butt of must,to check the fer mentation and thereby retain the requisite amount of saccharine. One-third of this quantity of spirit is poured into the cask as soon as a small portion of the must has been filled in, another third when the cask is almost half full, and the remainder when it is nearly three-quarters full. Vino dulce is used to give softness and roundness to old and pungent wines, as well as to the cruder youthful growths,and it is remarkable how very smaU a quantity suffices perceptibly to modify these opposite characteristics. Amontillados that are tiglilyesteemed at Jerez are invariablyfound too dryfor EngHsh tastes, much as the connoisseurs of to-day may affect excessively dry wines. English correspondents often write for the driest varieties,still they rarely,if ever,getthem. "WheneverIreceive