1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

188

Tlie Vineyards and Wines of Madeira.

ttifas are situate close together in the quarter of Punchal known asthe Carmo. In front of the spacious house where the counting- house is installed—a lofty building with tall central tower and overhanging roof, with the customary iron bars to all its lower windows and ornamentalbalconiesto those above—alow archway leads into a paved courtyard, where a couple of bullock-sledges stand waiting in the shade to convey some pipes of wine to the beach.Facingthe doorway,outof which the pipes are being roUed, are the estufas of the firm,a compact two-storied building sur mounted by a capacious compartment with iron sides and roof. This is the Estufa do Sol,in which sixty pipes of wine can be sub mitted to the influence of the sun's rays at one time. In the two stories of the estufa proper,the upper one of which is entered from the rear—where,owing to the sloping character of the ground,it is on a level with the courtyard—some 500 pipes can be stacked, and matured by means of artificial heat, derived, as already explained, from flues passing round the interior of the building. Near the estufa is a small structure containing the packers'implements for the shipping of samples,the brand ing-irons, and so forth. The furnace itself abuts upon the cool shady cooperage on the right hand. Under a large shed in the rear of the establishment, and close to an umbrageous garden, casks of every size, from pipes to octaves, are piled in tiers. Casks are being measured by means of a small tank furmshed with an indicator, and close at hand barefooted men in long blouses are cleaning casks, wdth a number of small round stones in them,by rolling them backwards and forwards with ajerky movement along two stout beams. In the armazem immediately facing the estufas are found Messrs. Krohn Brothers and Co.'s cheapest wines—flight clean Madeiras ranging from.£26 to£30apipe—stored onthetopmost floor; while on the floor below trabalhadores in the customai-y long blouses are preparing a shipment of a full, soft-flavoured, dryish wine for the Dutch market,drawing offthe liquor in largo copper jars. These long blouses,common to the workmen in the Funchalwine-stores,are furnished bythe employers,who by this