1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

20

Lisbon Wines.

From tlie vineyard we proceeded to the casa do lagar, or pressing-house, which had a little black cross painted on the stone lintel of the doorway as a protection against the evil one. The lagar, a square stone trough holding some five or six pipes, was raised afew steps from the ground,on alevelwith which was asmall stone reservoir to receive the expressed juice as it filtered from an opening in the lagar through a wicker basket. Hanging over thelagarwasthe usualcumbersomebeam,bythe aid ofwhich, and of the upright wooden screw fixed in.a block of stone infront, the grapes were pressed after being thoroughly trodden with the feet. The lagar was in course of being filled; and men,clad in short woollen jackets, sheepskin overalls, low round hats with tassels, or blue caps with red embroidered borders,kept arriving with baskets full of grapes and shooting them into the shallow trough,while one of their fellows standing in the centre spread them out with a rake,preparatory to their being trodden. Before leaving Bucellas we visited other vineyards and other lagars of larger dimensions, including one belonging to the widow of Senhor Maria Jesus Coelho, whose steward provided us mth luncheon laid out on the head of a cask, and regaled us with Bucellas of marked etherous flavour some seventeen years old. The largest shippers of Bucellas to England are Messrs. Sandeman Brothers, of Lisbon, whose stores, about an hour's ■drive outside the city, are at the Quinta de Cabo Kuivo—in other words, the Eed Cape. The pleasant villa residence stands in a charming ten-aced garden girt round with corridors of vines, and overlooking the broad waters of the Tagus. A long flight •of steps leads down to the adegas, where ranged on either side are tims containing from six to fourteen pipes of red wines, and pipes of 117 gallons each filled with Bucellas, Carcavellos, and other white growths, vintaged in the neighbourhood of Lisbon. We were most curious with regard to the Bucellas, and tasted some of the preceding year's wines remarkably fresh in flavour with a slight greenish tinge of colour, and inmany respects the coimterpart of a youthful hock. The older wines were rounder and more aromatic ; their flavour, which was more pronounced.