1872 Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (Mixellany)

Sherry. 27 caprice, a butt of wine from the general vintage will assume the Amontillado flavour. Brandy added to Amontillado would ruin it, hence, coupled with Montilla, a fine wine grown near Cordova and Manzanilla, so called from the Spanish word for camomile, the flavour of which it yet partakes of. This trio is unapproachable as presenting fine, dry, pure, and healthy wines. All Xeres wines are, when unmingled with arrope (the Arabic word for boiled must), of a pale colour. The difference in the colour of Sherries is principally owing to the peculiar choice of the different palates to please which they are prepared. They are in general coloured with arrope, which is thus made: a butt of ordinary Sherry is boiled down to about one-fifth of its bulk, acquiring a deep brown colour, and according to the various tints or flavour desired; arrope is next added, with Brandy and Sweet Wine also, if required. Sherries should be judged by their taste, not by their colour ; a pure wine will soon pro- claim itself. Sherry, when pure, contains less free acid, it is not so stimulating as most wines, and agrees well with most constitutions. Dietetically speaking, it is becoming the wine in most general use in England. It is also much used as a pharmaceutical agent, for the extraction of the