48 THE VINE AND CIVILISATION. 
Sherry is not wonderful when the care in the growth is con- 
sidered ; a bottle of very superior Sherry fetches 70 to 80 cents 
on the spot, though the common, ordinary wine of the country 
is but 12} cents. The varieties of Sherry depend a good deal 
upon the species of vine used, the class of soil in which it 
grows, and care taken in the management of the fermentation. 
All Sherry wine is by nature of a pale colour; the darker 
shades are conferred by age or by boiled wine, called arropeé, 
which afterwards mixed with the pale wine makes the brown 
Sherry of different shades so much esteemed. The pale 
Sherries are the pure wines, containing nothing but the ad- 
mixture of a couple of bottles of pure brandy to the butt. 
‘The wine called Amontillado is a drier wine than the com- 
mon Sherry. ‘To make this the fruit is plucked two or three 
weeks earlier than the other sorts. The white grapes are trod- 
den by the peasantry with sabots on their feet; the wine is 
then allowed to ferment for two months or more, then racked 
into casks, and stored above ground at Port St. Mary or Xeres. 
These wine stores or bodegas are immense warehouses con- 
taining Sherry wines of all ages and qualities. Forty years 
ago when the writer visited Xeres, the bodega of Mons. Domec 
was the principal, and had the pleasure of being taken round 
by the courteous proprietor himself, and shown and tasted 
wines from the oldest casks, one claiming to have furnished 
Sherry to Pitt the English statesman, and another cask that 
had supplied Napoleon Bonaparte. In this large warehouse, 
covering an acre of ground, scores of men were busily occupied 
in racking off and preparing the wine for shipment to foreign 
markets. 
‘Strength and durability are characteristics of all Sherry 
wines, and a good age is required to impart to them the proper 
flavour and that mellowness so grateful to the palate. 
