1876 Facts About Sherry by Henry Vizetelly

Tlie Bodegas in the old Moorish Quarter of Jerez. 71

and shippers of sherry,have as many as 600 people at work. In addition to the bodegas of the head establishment,the aban doned convent of San Domingo at Jerez has been turned by them into a bodega for the storing of wines from their own vineyards, which,kept apai-t from other vintages, are shipped to England under their distinctive names. The firm further possess bodegasatPuerto deSantaMaria,SanLucar,Seville,andMontilla. Hot only have they agencies all over Europe, but in South America, British Horth America,and the United States. Their stock comprises 18,000 butts, or nearly two millions of gallons of wine,and their Jerez establishment is certainly one of the greatest in the world. Situated nigh to the establishment of Gonzalez, Byass, and Co.,in the old Moorish quarter of the sherry capital, and crowning a corresponding height to thatfrom which the ancient Alcazar,in all the pride of fresh whitewash,glares down upon the town, are the capacious bodegas of Senor Domecq. Passing through the usual green gateway and paved courtyard,the low arcade of which is closely stacked with cask-staves,a narrow passage conducts the visitor to the escritorio and the rooms, handsomely decorated with encaustic tiles, which are devoted to brokers' and shipping samples. The latter contain some thousands ofimiform bottles,comprising samples of all the wine shipped by the house for several years back, duly dated and classified. Behind is a small floral parterre, succeeded by an avenue of acacia and orange trees, with bodegas ranged along either side, and having at the farther end a gateway crowned by a statue ofBacchus,cup and thyrsus in hand,astride the con ventional wine-cask. Beyond this gateway and extending down the slope of the hill is a beautiful garden,the view from which over the neighbouring plain is bounded by a long sweep of vine-clad slopes and undulating country. The first bodega we enter is the one where wines are prepared for shipment—a vast building of six aisles,between 500 and 600 feet long,120 feet broad,and lofty in proportion, and in which upwards of 3,500 butts of wine are stored ready for exportation.