474 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 238. 



working on the stern port of the vessel, having at 

 the end in the water a wheel of inclined planes, 

 exactly like the flyer of a smoke-jack ; while, in- 

 board, the axle was turned by a crank worked by 

 the men. The velocity attained was, I think, said 

 to be four miles an hour. I am sorry that I am not 

 able to specify the exact date of this experiment, 

 but it must have been between 1802 and 1805. 

 What Lord Stanhope said about employing steam 

 to work his machine, I do not clearly recollect. 

 He entered into a great many details about it, 

 but I remember nothing distinctly but the ma- 

 chine itself. C. 



AMONTILLADO SHERRY. 



(Vol. ix., pp. 222. 336.) 



The wines of Xerei consist of two kinds, viz. 

 sweet and dry, each of which is again subdivided 

 into two other varieties. Amontillado sherry, or 

 simply Amontillado, belongs to the latter class, 

 the other description produced from the dry wine 

 being sherry, properly so called, that which passes 

 in this country generally by that name. These 

 two wines, although differing from each other in 

 the peculiarities of colour, smell, and flavour, are 

 produced from the same grape, and in precisely 

 a similar manner ; indeed, it frequently happens 

 that of two or more botas, or large casks, filled 

 with the same moid (wort or sweet wine), and 

 subjected to the same manipulation, the one be- 

 comes Amontillado, and the other natural sherry. 

 This mysterious transformation takes place or- 

 dinarily during the first, but sometimes even 

 during the second year, and in a manner that has 

 hitherto baffled the attempts of the most attentive 

 observer to discover. Natural sherry has a pe- 

 culiar aromatic flavour, somewhat richer than that 

 of its brother, the Amontillado, and partakes of 

 three different colours, viz. pale or straw, golden, 

 and deep golden, the latter being the description 

 denominated by us brown sherry. The Amontil- 

 lado is of a straw colour only, more or less shaded 

 according to the age it possesses. Its flavour is 

 drier and more delicate than that of natural 

 sherry, recalling in a slight degree the taste of 

 nuts and almonds. This wine, being produced by 

 a phenomenon which takes place it is imagined 

 during the fermentation, is naturally less abundant 

 than the other description of sherry, and there are 

 years in which it is produced in very small quan- 

 tities, and sometimes even not at all ; for the 

 same reason it is age for age dearer also. The 

 word " Amontillado " signifies like or similar to 

 Montilla, i.e. the wine manufactured at that place. 

 Montilla is situated in Upper Andalusia, in the 

 neighbourhood of Cordouc, and produces an ex- 

 cellent description of wine, but which, from the 

 want of roads and communication with the prin- 



cipal commercial towns of Spain, is almost en- 

 tirely unknown. 



The two sweet wines of Xeres are the " Paxa- 

 rite," or " Pedro Ximenes," and the " Muscatel." 

 The first-named is made from a species of grape 

 called " Pedro Ximenes," sweeter in quality than 

 that which produces the dry sherry, and which, 

 moreover, is exposed much longer to the action of 

 the sun previous to the process of manufacture ; 

 its condition when subjected to the action of the 

 pressers resembling very nearly that of a raisin. 

 Fermentation is in this case much more rapid on 

 account of the saccharine nature of the moid or 

 wort. In flavour it is similar to the fruit called 

 " Pedro Ximenes," the colour being the same a8 

 that of natural sherry. Muscate wine is made 

 from the grape of that name, and in a manner 

 precisely similar to the Paxarite. The wine pro- 

 duced from this grape is still sweeter than the 

 Pedro Ximenes, its taste being absolutely that of 

 the Muscat grape. In colour also it is deeper ; 

 but the colour of both, like that of the two dry 

 wines, increases in proportion to their age, a cir- 

 cumstance exactly the reverse of that which takes 

 place in French wines. German sherry wines 

 are capable of preservation both in bottles and 

 casks for an indefinite period. In one of the 

 bodegas or cellars belonging to the firm of 

 M. P. Domecq, at Xeres, are to be seen five or 

 six casks of immense size and antiquity (some 

 of them, it is said, exceeding a century). Each of 

 them bears the name of some distinguished hero 

 of the age in which it was produced, Wellington 

 and Napoleon figuring conspicuously amongst 

 others : the former is preserved exclusively for the 

 taste of Englishmen. 



The history of sherry dates, in a commercial 

 point of view, from about the year 1720 only. 

 Before this period it is uncertain whether it pos- 

 sessed any existence at all ; at all events it appears 

 to have been unknown beyond the immediate 

 neighbourhood in which it was produced. It 

 would be difficult, perhaps, to say by whom it 

 was first imported : all that can be affirmed with 

 any decree of certainty is, that a Frenchman, by 

 name Pierre Domecq, the founder of the house 

 before mentioned, was among the earliest to re- 

 cognise its capabilities, and to bring it to the high 

 state of perfection which it has since attained. 

 In appreciation of the good service thus rendered 

 to his country, Ferdinand VII. conferred upon 

 this house the right exclusively to bear upon their 

 casks the royal arms of Spain. This wine, from 

 being at first cultivated only in small quantities, 

 has long since grown into one of the staple pro- 

 ductions of the country. In the neighbourhood 

 of Xeres there are at present under cultivation from 

 10,000 to 12,000 arpents of vines ; these produce 

 annually from 30,000 to 35,000 botas, equal to 

 70,000 or 75,000 hogsheads. In gathering the 



