1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

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Facts about Sherry.

proportion, and -wliicli an enterprising elephant wonld find it difficult to hreak throngli. At the first Tineyard, named"la •vina enfrente de la venta de la Cuchara"—ia other words,"the -vineyard facing the Spoon -wineshop"—-where the vintage -was at -its height, we found the crop was estimated tohe much larger in proportion than at any of the -vineyards on the hills and slopes. This little plot of two-and-twenty acres, planted chiefly -with the mantuo-castellano vine, produces in good years as many as 100 butts, or upwards of four and a-half butts per acre, of good white wine. Here, as elsewhere, we found very little yeso or gypsum being used,owing to the extreme dryness of the season. Another small vineyard which we visited belonged to Senor Campo. It was planted -with mantuos intermingled -with palo mino and other varieties, and showed evidence of very careful cultivation. The soil, of red earth,had the merit of retaining the moisture long after it had filtered through the chalky sod of the hdls. An old-fashioned lever press was in operation here, which, although of no great power,required a couple of men to work a -windlass, whde three others set the lever in motion a waste of labour which has its counterpart in the system of ploughing prevalent throughout Andalusia,^ The plough, which is of the rudest construction, is worked with a couple of oxen, and at least three,and frequently half a-dozen,or even more,of these primitive implements -will follow one another in the same farrow to insure the sod being sufficiently turned,and yet even then the furrows are only a few inches deep. After visiting other vineyards of the plain which promised scarcely the same satisfactory crops as those we had already in spected, we drove in the direction of the Cartuja, a fine old Carthusian monastery,which,in its day,wasby far the wealthiest, as it was unquestionablythe grandest,inthis partofthe country. Towards the latter part of our route the vineyard slopes of Mont Alegre,terminating in an abrupt point kno-wn as the Gabeza de la Azena,together with those of Buena Yista,shut in the view on either hand. Thevineyards formerly beffingmg to the monas tery are some distance off in a northerly direction, and retain at