1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

24

Lisbon Wines.

"The lion-id crags by toppling convent crowned The cork-trees hoar that clothe the shaggy steep, The mountaiu-moss by scorching skies embrown'd, The sunken glen, whose sunless shrubs must weep. The tender azure ofthe unruffled deep, The orange tints that gild the greenest bough. The torrents that from cliff to valley leap. The vine on high,the willow branch below, Jlix'd in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow."

From Cintra tlie road winds along pleasant green sylvan lanes, and ttence througli the cork woods to Collares, where,to our surprise, not a single vineyard was to be seen. The vines,in fact, are planted some six miles north-west of the village on the- slopes of the hills skirting the Atlantic, and more particularly in the valleys opening to the sea, nigh to the precipitous head land known as the Pedra d'Alvidrar. The vineyards cover an area of aboutthree leagues; butwefoimd the vintage wasalready over, so all we could do was to visit the establishments of" some of the principal growers in the neighbouiing village of' Almocegema. We first went to that of Senhor Francisco da Costa, where everything betokened intelligent care in all the various processes of vinification. Here we were told that the recent vintage showed afalling-off to the extent of one-thii-d or- more,this particular grower having vintaged only thirty pipes in lieu of fifty. The new wine was still continuing its fermenta tion in the adega, in butts of the capacity of five pipes, and- would thus remain until it was drawn off the lees in January., The grape from which Collares is principally produced is known locally as the ramisco, but a white variety of the wine is made- from a mixture of the arinto, castello, and dona branca. Only a small quantity—that is,from fiftyto eighty pipes—of this latter ■wine is produced, the white grapes being usually mingled with the black in the lagar when red Collares is being vintaged., The white wine is pale in colour, soft, fresh-tasting, pleasantly dry, and altogether is not unlike a Grave; whereas the red variety that we tasted here had somewhat the character of a. thin Burgundy. Out next visit was to the lagares and adegas of Henrique-