way of assimilating the colour, except by an addition of dark or of pale wine, which would distinctly alter the flavour and character; and so the operation must be recommenced.

This proves how impossible it is for any sherry shipping house to continue to give satisfaction, without possessing or having the use of a large capital; for nothing but age will give sherries the flavour and peculiarity which this alone imparts. There are a few very rich firms in Xerez, one especially; others, possessed of insufficient capital, connect themselves with a capitalist, who purchases from the growers or others, and nurses the wine in his own bodega for two or three years, until it is merchantable. He then arranges with houses to take it into their stock, or otherwise, for its sale; or he may have a mortgage upon all or part of the houses' stock. Such firms must of course, there as here, carry on their business at a disadvantage.

There is not much difficulty in describing the trade of the few old firms; for it consists simply in buying the best new wine, and nursing it until ready for shipment to any part of the world.

There are a few houses at Port St. Mary, also, whose trade is probably equally simple; but, until some years ago, there was a prejudice against the wines from that place.

By reference to old documents, I see the letter of a Xerez firm in 1812, urging its customers to avail

themselves of the advantages then offered, of importing. One of these was the fall in the freight of a butt, about 91., and in the rate of insurance, from 12, to 7 per cent., and, if under convoy, to per cent.

3

Now, and for a number of years past, the freight of a butt is about 17., and the insurance about 7s. 6d. per cent., making the total import charges less than 21. per butt.

It may be added that steamers are now running weekly between Spain and Portugal, and this country, enabling importers to get whatever they require, in two or three weeks, instead of formerly waiting often two or three months.

I remember my old master, who was in Xerez till driven away by the French in 1806 or '7, telling me that when he left, every acre which could produce real sherry had been appropriated. I dare say this was almost correct, for it is well known that an immense quantity of the white wine put on board ship in the Bay of Cadiz as sherry, is not Xerez wine, but that much of it is brought from Malaga, and other places on the coast; shipped in vessels loading for England and other countries, and arriving with a bill of lading identical in every respect with that of true sherry. There are also quantities grown between Xerez and San Lucar, and on every piece of ground that will produce anything approaching to sherry. Some very nice wine is also made on the hills about Cordova, which has been found to

diminish the dead heaviness of much of the present sherry.

On the road to San Lucar is a large extent of vines on a red, sandy soil, on which I was told some wine was grown, which I remembered to be in such demand in 1825, that one of the partners and myself were kept very busy while the run upon it lasted. It was so pale that it was called Rock-water sherry, and was therefore supposed to be very light. On the contrary, it was poor and thin, with little sherry flavour; and a large quantity of spirit was added, to enable it to be shipped very young, to meet orders.

Three or four times I have seen the fashion for dark brown, for brown, for gold, and for pale, change. The browns are coloured usually by juice of the grape, boiled before fermentation, to a thick consistency; this, when kept to a great age, gives not only colour, but softness and richness. Sherry acquires a slight colour by age, but it is usually coloured by the addition of a little of the boiled mosto, or must.

Sherries were shown to me, in one great bodega, for a butt of which it was declared (how truly, I know not) that 1,000l. would not be taken. It is not for a moment pretended that the wine is worth any such money, but it is valued as a curiosity and ornament to the bodegas, as a painting may be to a dining-room. It has, however, a very substantial value, because the addition of even four or five gallons of such sherry to ten butts of very fine, worth

1007., may so greatly improve them that each will bear the charge of 1201.

These wonderful wines are known as the Napoleons: because it is stated that when the first Emperor Napoleon was in Spain, in 1808 or 1809, he honoured the wine and the proprietor by condescending to approve of a butt of this description,

RESIDENCE AND BODEGA AT PORT ST. MARY.

as his soldiers did of the less recherché kinds, by drinking them all up! This, by the bye, is an awkward historical fact against the reputed ages of some of these wines. But even in 1844, there was a long interval since Napoleon's visit; and there could not be a moment's doubt of the great age and original fine quality of some.

In these, one catches the true old Xerez flavour, which is very powerful; and can discover the peculiar bitterness, which is a characteristic of great age. In fact, there is far too much of it to be pleasant; and a fine old kind with a few gallons of a rich kind added, is much more agreeable than the original.

Notwithstanding what I have already written, it may perhaps make the whole process of sherrymaking still more intelligible if I transcribe my notes made on the spot.

Blank & Co. have beautiful stores called, here, bodegas: the whole, with cooperage, stables, dwelling houses, and small garden, enclosed within a high wall. The bodegas themselves consist of various buildings containing about 4,000 butts, each store having wines usually about the same

age.

They have only one vineyard of their own, about two miles from Xerez, on a low sandy soil, producing very inferior quality. They bought it for the purpose of making their own brandy, but they generally ship the wine off as a cheap kind. When the When the grapes are gathered, they are put into a vat, sixteen feet square, and four deep, where they are trodden by men, and the juice is allowed to run into a large tub, from which the butts are filled, and then rolled into an adjoining bodega. bodega. Here they remain to ferment, and, except being racked from the lees, are kept in the same casks for two or three years, when

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