1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

THE OLD WINES AND THE NEW 143 hending the characters and specific qualities of the wine from one end to the other of a scale ranging from delicate and light wines to rich, generous, and dark-coloured wines. Between a straw-coloured Vino de Pasto and the very fine Old East India Brown—the sherry which two decades ago was in enormous demand at such old- fashioned hostelries as the "Rainbow" in Fleet Street, ere the reign of gin-and-bitters—there is a vast difference, both in colour and flavour. Broadly, however, sherry may be divided into two classes—-fino^ a light-coloured, delicate light wine of the Amontillado type, and the oloroso^ a full-bodied, "highly-developed wine. The sherry grapes are collected and placed in large panniers on the backs of mules and con veyed to the press-houses. The press is of very primitive construction, and is identical with those used in ancient history. It consists simply of a wooden trough about ten feet square, provided in the centre with a screw press, which is used after the treading by foot power is done, to get the last drop of juice out of the crushed mass. Rather less than a "ton of grapes serves for one pressing, and the idea that this is done with the naked feet of the Spanish peasantry is a popular error. Sherry is not kneaded like German bread. Men clad in light clothing and shod with wooden clogs, with nails on the soles and heels, pointing in a slanting direction, proceed to tread the grapes in a most methodical manner, proceeding row by row, each row being of the width of the nailed sole of the clog. After the grapes have been trodden over for