lo Oct., 1908.] 



Yiti culture in Europe. 



583 



Those used at Montilla contain fronr. three to four butts (over 300 

 gallons). Their lower part is buried in the earthen floor of the cellar. 

 The mouth is large enough to enable a man to get in to wash out the 

 vessel. A lid made of wooden boards is used to close them. 



Tinajas are made at a place called Lucena, some 25 miles to the S.E., 

 where their manufacture constitutes an industry of some importance. They 

 -cost from 75 to 100 pesetas each {^7) to jQa reckoning the peseta at par). 

 After the first racking, which takes place in early winter, the wine is 

 transferred to butts, in which it is reared on the solera system in exactly 

 the same wav as in the Bodegas of Jerez. 



TINAJAS, IN WHICH Tilt WINE OF MOMTLLA IS FERMENTED. 



It is Stated by Montilla growers that wine fermented in Tinajas is 

 superior to that fermented in wooden butts. Probably better control of 

 temperatures is responsible for this preference ; in the same way that we 

 find cement fermenting vats more satisfactory than wooden ones in Northern 

 Victoria. Montilla is situated inland of the coastal range of mountains, .so 

 that temperatures are more extreme than near Jerez. 



There being so little difference between this district and Jerez, where 

 T spent some time, I resumed my journev after a short sta\ and reached 

 Manzanares at an early hour the following morning. 



Manzanares. 



La Mancha is the name given to a portion of South Central Spain. It 

 is made up of the province of Ciudad Real, and portion of Albacete. It 

 is best known, out of Spain, as the region in which Cervantes laid the plot 

 of his celebrated romance of Don Quixote. To this day one is shown, near 

 Tembleque, the windmill which this legendarv hero is supposed to have 

 charged. These mills are a familiar feature of the landscape in this wind- 

 swept, treeless region. 



La Mancha forms part of the central plateau — the level portion situated 

 between the Sierra Morena and the Montes de Toledo. The former range 

 separates it from Andalucia. The soil varies a good deal ; it is usually 

 stony, in some places very much so, far more than one would expect on such 



