1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts about Sherry.

his hands and stirs them about with his feet as well as with a wooden shovel; the result being that they are partially crushed and thoroughly saturated with the vino de color. The mixture is left in the same casks for six weeks or longer, during which time it ferments and acquires great depth of colour from the skins ofthe grapes. The latter are now emptied out and placed under the press on mats of esparto, and,the final juice having been extracted and mixed with that which has already fiowed from the fruit, the must is poured into other butts. A common red wine is made at Eota somewhat after the same system as is pursued with respect to the tiutilla, the main difference being that ordinary white wine is used instead of vino de color. About a thousand butts of white wine are vintaged annually at Eota from the same species of grapes, but according to the process of vinification prevalent in the other sherry districts. The Alcalde of Eota, whom we found sitting in a little ^vine-shop kept by his son and surrormded by a veritable court of muleteers, waggoners, and market-gardeners, informed us thatthere were some 2,200 acres of vineyards in the Eota district, more than one-fourth of which are the property of the Due de Montpensier. They produce a considerable q^uantity of grapes for table purposes in addition to 1,400 butts of wine, not more than 120 of which, however,are tintilla of Eota,or sacramental Tent. Chipiona, picturesquely situated a few miles farther along the shores of the Bay of Cadiz, amid the same remnants of Moorish battlements and towersas characterise allthe towns and villages hereabouts, produces a few hundred butts of white wine annuaUy, all of which find their way either to Jerez or San liucar. It is, however, more especially noted for its splendid moscatel grapes, which are grown on the sand so close to the seashore that every patch of half-a-dozen vines has to be sur rounded by its dwarf fence to prevent the wind from the sea blowing away the soil and leaving the roots of the vines bare. The wine-producing district of Chiclana lies on the other side of Cadiz, and is reached from Jerez by railway to San Fernando,