1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

Some other Funchal Wine-Stores.

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means escaped a rise of wages demanded on the plea of great wear and tear of clothing. On the ground floor of this store are butts of brandy,and wines fresh from the estufa waiting to be flned previously to leaving for some spacious armazens situated in an adjoining street. These latter comprise a ground floor and two upper stories, each forming a vast apartment lighted by large windows at either end, and with rows of stone pillars dividing it into three aisles. Here the firm receives its purchases of mosto, which are deposited in the store on the ground floor of the building. On the occasion of our visit we found a gang of sweltering boracheiros delivering skins of mosto, which they had that morning brought down from the mountains. As these were beiQcr emptied into the pipes,a store clerk now and then mea sured off the contents of a certain number of them,chosen at random, and tested the amount of saccharine by means of a saccharometer,in order to satisfy himself that each skin con tained its full baril, equal to between nine and ten gallons,and that the mosto had not been tampered with e?i route. The price of the mosto ranged from IBs. to 21s. per baril—twelve barils being equivalent to a pipe. The more sturdy ofthese boracheiros during the height of the vintage will make two and even three journeys down from the mountains to the town and back again in the course ofthe day. In those rare parts of the island where the roads are good,mosto is brought downfrom the hills in casks on bullock-sledges. All the wine,however, grown on the north side comes in, not in the form of mosto, but, in the ensuing spring,as vinho em limpo,orfermented wine,by sea,when owing to there being no mole or pier at Funchal it is landed in a very primitive fashion. The boats anchor at some short distance from the shore,the casks are slung overboard, and man after manof the crew,after stripping and religiously crossing himself, plunges into the sea, and, placing his hands on a cask,swims behind it until hereachesthe breakers,wherethe pipes are placed on cor9as and drawn upthe steep beach. The year of our visit new winefrom the north of the island realised from <£7 to£8per pipe.