1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

The Wines ofJerez—Blending Sherryfor Shipment. 49

an order for the driest amontillado Ihave," remarked the prin cipal shipper of this wine,"Ialways puta gallon or moreof dulce into it before shipping it, because Iknow that if I sent the wine in its natural state I should be certain to have it returned upon my hands." As little as one per cent, of dulce will impart a softness to the drier wines, which otherwise they only acquire after being, perhaps, half-a-dozen years in bottle. So decided is its influence on the finer wines that every shipping house of standing bestows especial care,if not upon the making of its own vino dulce, at any rate in the selection of the dulce which it uses. The larger firms, however, invariably prepare their sweet wine themselves. Vino de color is composed of about nine parts of white wine mosto and one part of what is termed arrope,the latter produced by boiling in a large copper, and for a period of sixteen or eighteen hours,five butts of unfermented must,which thereby become reduced to one-fifth of the original quantity. Great care is taken to skim the liquid during this operation, so as to remove from it whatever impurities may be thrown off. The result is a deep brown bitterish fluid of the consistency of treacle, which, on being added to the mosto, ferments with it in the regiilar way. Yiao de color, as its name implies, is used for imparting colour to young and undeveloped wines,the natural tint of which is pale and sickly-looking. When of high quality, however,it not only givesa pleasant tint to the wine,but imparts a certain amount of character to it as well. Four different classes of dry Jerez wines are shipped to England—natural wines, understood to contain no added spirit; vintage wines, the produce of individual vineyards and occa sionally of specific years; solera wines,such as fino, amontillado, and oloroso; and,finally, blended wines. The natural wines of which Ispeak are not the winescommonly advertised inEngland at low rates under that designation. Jerez wines perfectly free from spirit cannot possibly be sold cheap in England,because they require to be at least five years old; whereas the wines offered as natural are generally young, unripe wines, whose