1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts about Sherry.

horse, ■whoselargeheadandthick archedneckindicatedthe ancient Andalusian breed, and a dropsical old donkey who is contentedly munching his chopped straw. Ascending an adjacent flight of steps, we find ourselves in an annexe of the vast extraction bodega, where wines destined for shipment are kept. The annexe is used for the washing of old casks by rocking them backwards and forwards ■with a couple of long chains inside, after they have been filled with water. Leaving this department we enter the many-aisled shipping bodega, containing some 5,000 butts of wine of aU descriptions, which are being got ready for shipment as required. On one side a gang of men are engaged in raising casks to the third or upper tier, by means of an im provised tramway incline. In another aisle some half-dozen cellarmen are making up five-and-twenty butts of Eoyal Pale, while at the north-west side of the building others are emptying casks of ordinary ■wine into a receptacle communicating by pipes ■with the vats in the blending cellar below,whencebutts of newly- blended ■wine keep arri^ving by means of a powerful steam-lift at the rate of a score in as many minutes. As we leave this bodega on our left hand is a gallery containing thirteen enormous tuns of vino dulce, four of them holding no less than thirty-two butts, or nearly 3,500 gallons each. To the right we have the shippmg ofSce, with the testing and the shipping samples rooms, the latter containing some thousands of bottles, on each of which is speci fied the mark, price, and destination of the ■wine shipped, the date of its leaving the bodega, and the name of the vessel it was despatchedby. After traversing a corner of the shipping cellar we enter another annexe of that gigantic bodega. This is a longbuilding, ■with a galvanised iron roof attracting the heat, and thereby helping to mature the commoner class of wines stored beneath it, which ordinarily remain here for three or four months. iJIumerous apertures in the sides of the building allow a full current of air to sweep through it, causing an evaporation of 2 per cent, during the three months, or double what it would be in any ordinary bodega. In front of this annexe is a laige