1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

Some other Jerez Bodegas.

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8to 60 years old, and which are kept up hy means of the three successive stages to which we have already alluded. Traversing the principal courtyard,where we get a ghmpseof a couple of dark-eyed Spanish damsels nimbly knitting beneath a shady green arbour, we inspect the little Lara Bodega, a recent purchase hy the house,and containing 600 butts of young wines, and next visit the Badel Bodega, holding some 2,500 butts, where amontillados and superior rayas—that is, wines of the old Jerezano type—are stored. Some of these latter wines were purchased in 1846, when they were already old, and they certainly are remarkable for their richness and fragrance. In this cellar some old East India sherry of great age and peculiar aroma is preserved. From here we pass through the low, irregularly-built, and somewhat picturesque JPontan Bodega, devoted to sweet wines,including fine and rare Pedro Jimenez and moscatel—some of the soleras of the former not having been refreshed for many years—and then proceed to the grand Bodega nueva,the largest but one in all Jerez, and holding as many as 8,000 butts of wine, including every sweet and dry variety. Here are several soleras of Montilla from the pages known as the Zapateros, which enjoys the reputation of pro- duciag the very finest wine; with other soleras of Montilla, exceedingly light and delicate in flavour,from the Cabra district, where Senor Misa annually secures the produce of a very large vineyard. This bodega also contains di-y and sweet wines of the Ai'cos district, where Senor Misa possesses an establish ment at which several hundred butts o^" wines are vintao'ed annually. Under the spacious exterior arcade of the Bodega nueva, looking on to a long paved court bordered with orange-trees,and where bak staves imported direct from the United States are stacked,a vast niunber of casks rmdergoing the tedious but all- necessary seasoning process are piled. These casks,after remain ing filled with water for from four to six months, are transferred to the large cellar opposite,containing several thousands of butts, hogsheads,and quarter-casks,wherethey are filled up tothe bung-