;i6 Journal of Agriculture. [lo JNIav, 1909. 



are of the usual vat shape, though closed in at the top ; the staves, _ of 

 Norway pine, some 4 inches thick, are held together by hoops more like 

 heavy waggon tyres than those usually driven on vats, for they are of 

 iron about 4 in/x \ in. Though these are the two largest vats there are 

 many others not very much smaller, so that the total capacity of these 

 enormous cellars expressed in gallons must run well into seven figures. 

 Everything is in proportion and excellently arranged. Earthenware pipes 

 a.re fitted everywhere, for the handling of the wine, which is forced 

 through them by electric pumps, driven from the ordinary town circuit. 

 One of these pumps, a rotary one, made locally by the Industria Electrica 

 Barcelona, was very neat. Its cylinder was only about 6 inches in 

 diameter and of about the same length, yet il was capable of pumping over 

 1,200 gallons per hour. 



The cement floor falls slightly to a sink, communicating with a large 

 reservoir, to guard against loss in case of accident through the bursting 

 of a storage vat. A large German filter (Gustav Seigel No. 4. size), 

 capable of dealing with 12,000 gallons per day was at work. One of the 

 most striking features of the establishment was the system of artificially 

 ripening wines by exposure to the sun, in large butts known as Bocoys. 

 This method, also practised in the south of France, has for its object the 

 hastening of the development of the Rancio taste. The scale on which 

 this sun ripening was being carried out was enormous ; no less than 2,000 

 bocoys of over 140 gallons each were enclosed m a single yard, as well 

 as a'considerable number of vats and larger casks. The wines undergoing 

 this jipening process, which lasts sometimes a year or two, were both red 

 and white, though chiefly the former. Red wines are frequently treated 

 in casks of chestnut wood which gives colour to white wine. 



The second bodega I visited was that of Don Magin Pladellorens — a 

 remarkable establishment which has attained its present enormous dimen- 

 sions by gradual additions from a very small start. The owner, as his son 

 was proud to tell me, was not so very many years ago only a working 

 cellar-hand. The stock in these bodegas at the present moment must 

 amount to o^'er a couple of million gallons. One is shown the four original 

 vats containing between them 250 cargas (6,000 gallons) which were the 

 .starting point of this vast business. 



Here, also, did I find a giant vat capable of containing 750 pipes 

 (nearly 80,000 gallons). It was surrounded by smaller, but nevertheless 

 \ery large vatSj and the floor of the cellar in which they were contained 

 Avas formed by the stone flagged tops of large underground storage tanks. 

 The vats and tanks in this particular cellar — only a portion of the premises 

 — contained 6,500 pipes or considerably over half-a-million gallons. Here, 

 again, artificial development of the Rancio taste by exposure to the sun 

 is very largely practised. The main yard in which this sun ripening 

 process was being carried out contained 17 large vats and 6,000 pipes. 

 Wine under treatment remains thus exposed for a couple of years, during 

 \\hich time the casks are regularly filled and occasionally racked. Tlic 

 process is thus one of slow oxidation through the pores of the wood, 

 aided, perhaps, by the actinic rays of the sun. It has nothing in commoii 

 with the direct action of air, in ullaged casks, with or without the presence 

 of -jior on the surface, which is the most striking feature of sherrv 

 maturation. 



These sun ripened wines are probably blended afterwards with wines 

 matured in the ordinary way. Their age and loss through evaporation no 

 doubt renders them somewhat expensive, but this is made up for bv their 



