1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

Concluding Remarlcs.

105

detect the slightest indication of any more acid flavour in the latter than in the former. AtSanLucarthe grapes are gathered earlier than at Jerez, and consequently not quite so ripe. This hasthe effectofimpartingto young manzanilla acertainfreshness of flavour,•which is, however, equally apparent in -wines made ■with or "without gypsum. With regard to the sulphuring which sherry is said to undergo,Iam able to assert that the practice has almost ceased at Jerez, where the shippers as a rule decline all offers of wines that have been sulphui-ed. Ihave come to the conclusion that it is impossible to have sherry good and at the same time cheap. Even the commonest .gro-wths require to be kept for three or fom- years before they are suitable for drinking, and the nursing of sherry in a bodega for four years simply means doubling its original cost. The •wine in its youth is liable to constant perturbation, and under such conditions is of com-se a most imwholesome beverage. Disturbing it in any way, sending it jolting upon bullock-carts from one bodega to another, subjecting it to the motion it must necessarily encounter during a sea voyage, and exposing it to great changes of temperature—all of these things tend to revive a fermentation that has not thoroughly completed itself. My own opinion is that there is something radically "wrong in the mode of fermenting -wines in the south of Spain. It takes place, Ibelieve, at too high a temperature, in vessels too small for the purpose, with the must not sufficiently exposed to the action of the atmosphere, and subjected, moreover, to frequent great changes of temperature and other disturbing influences. If properly fermented in the flrst instance, so fine and robust a ■wine as a first-class Jerez gro"wth—the produce of a magnificent grape, gro"wn in an exceptionally suitable soil, under the most favourable climatic influences—ought not to require spirit added to it to enable it to travel even during the years of its youth. A cheap sherry, no matter the district whence it comes, whether fromMoguer, Seville, or even La Mancha—for certain shippers go as far afield as the country of Don Quixote for their -wine—must necessarily be a young, undeveloped "wine.