1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

How Port Wine ie Made.

49

loxera yielded as many as tliree liundred pipes of high-class ■wine. It occupies the spurs and slopes of a mountain, one side of which bounds the Dom-o, and the other the Rio Torto Talley. Scattered over the heights above are the white cottages of the ■village of Valen9a, the vineyards of which produce a considerable quantity of first-class wine. The buildings of the Quinta do Seixo, which is entered through an imposing ga^teway, sur mounted by the annoiial bearings of its owner, are very exten sive. The casa isboth commodious and well arranged, and has a certain air of pretension about it, while the lagares and the adega are on a scale proportionate to the extent of the sxuTOund- ing vineyard. On the left bank of the Rio Torto ai-e the capa cious lodges, in which the wine vintaged here and in the surrounding districts is stored until it is ready for shipment at the adjacent so-called port of Bateiras, situate at the junction of the Rio Torto -with the Douro. The vintage at the Quinta do Seixo was at its height, and a considerable number of hands were engaged init. From the roomy terrace where the casa and lagares are situated one looks do^wn upona long flight of descend ing ten-aces of -vines, dotted over -with a score or two of vintagers, singing melodiously in a loudish key the favourite ditty of "Marianinha"—

"Mariana diz que tern Sctc saias de riscado— Desengane o sen amor, E nao o ti-aga enganado. "Mariana diz qne tern, O men. bem,

Sete saias de fild— Mentirosa Mariana Que naC tem Nem uma s(5."

Ringing clearly through the mountain air the words sound rather pretty in the origioal Portuguese, and one is disappointed at finding that they possess so little sense. The inanity of the song is not, however, its only drawback, the impropriety of some of the remaining verses having moved the Oporto authorities to interdict their being sung, nevertheless the song enjoys a wide-