1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

100

Facts about Sherry.

XI.—The Montilla Wines.—Conclhding Eemaeks.

The Tovm of Montilla encircled by Sierras—The Birthplace of el Grand Capitan Gonzalo of Cordova—The Castillo and Palacio of the Dukes of Medina-Celi—The ancient Ducal Bodega of La Tercia—Its Centenarian Casks and Grand Solera—The Teatroand Tres Naves Bodegas—^The Press- house, its antiquated Press and huge Tinajas—Vineyards of the Sierra de Montilla and the Moriles District—System of Vinification—Fermentation ofthe Mosto in the Tinajas—Kemovalofthe Wine in Goatskins—Vineyard Value and Price of Grapes—The Wine-growing Districts of AguUar, Monturque, Cahra, and Lucena—Concluding Remarks upon Sherry in general. Moee tLan a hundred miles eastward of Seville, and in the famous province of Cordova, is the weU-known wine growing district of Montilla, one of the numerous appanages of the grand dukedom of Medina-Celi. Montilla, walled and fortified in olden times like all the surrounding towns,stands, like them,on the crest of a steep hill encircled on all sides by distant sierras. The Castillo is at the eastern extremity of the town, and to reach it you climb the narrow, winding, pre cipitous, ill-paved streets leading up to the principal church, passing on the way the humble white-walled little house where the great ancestor of the Dukes of Medina-Celi—el gran capitan Gonzalo of Cordova—was born. IVom the terraced courtyard in front of the castiUo a splendid view is obtained over the surrounding vineyards and forests of olive-trees, so symmetrically planted that when viewed from a height they present a perfect diaper pattern,regular asthe squares upon a chess-board. The Castillo itself—a building erected at different periods—is flanked by a couple of battlemented towers, while the large haU which forms the principal portion of the edifice has been converted into a bodega. The Dukes of Medina-CeU. never resided at the castfllo, but at the so-called palacio, a singularly plain but roomy edifice facing a large square on the other side of the town, and in close proximity to the unpreten tious little alameda where the Montillanos are accustomed to assemble on summer evenings.