1875.] oS7 [Delraar. 



$125 to $225 per butt. About three-tenths consist of good sherry, worth 

 from $235 to $350 per butt. The balance, one-tenth, consists of superior 

 sherry, worth from $350 to $1,000 per butt. 



The best wines come from the district between Port St. Mary and 

 Jerez, the low grades from other parts of Spain. The grapes are pressed 

 with the feet, cased in sandals of esparto grass, and the wine has an 

 earthy, tarry flavor, which is only removed from it after doctoring. The 

 spuiious compounds contain some of this wine, to which are added Ger- 

 man potato-spirits, water, molasses, litharge and other adulterations. It is 

 these two last grades of wine that the British chiefly sell and Americans 

 buy. Indeed we buy from the British if even we buy in Cadiz ; for there 

 a large portion of the houses engaged in the trade are English. The 

 wines are entered at our custom-houses as containing less than 22 per 

 cent, of alcohol ; while they really often contain 40 per cent. 



There are four substances generally used in the manufacture of sherry. 

 First, gypsum ; second, a coloring substance ; third, a sweetening sub- 

 stance ; fourth, a spirituous substance. It has already been stated how 

 these adjuncts are supplied to the low grade sherries ; it only remains to 

 state what substitutes for those mentioned are used in the preparation of 

 the medium grades. 



First, gypsum ; second, color-wine, or wine boiled down to the consis- 

 tency of sugar-house syrup ; third, sweet wine, or wine made from 

 raisins ; fourth, brandy. Wine made in this manner is tolerably palata- 

 ble. Most of the "crack" dry sherries belong to this class. They are 

 entered at our custom-houses as containing not over 22 per cent, of alcohol. 

 They really contain from 32 to 36 per cent. 



The only really pure sherry wine is Amontillado, but as every sort of 

 trash is called Amontillado, it is difficult for any one but an expert to 

 distinguish the genuine article from the spurious. However, it is pretty 

 safe to say that little or none of it comes to the United States. 



Amontillado is not always the product of design. The quantity made 

 in Spain is quite small, and the wine often the result of accident. To 

 make this wine, the fruit is gathered some weeks earlier than for other 

 sherries. The grapes are trodden by i>easants with wooden sabots on 

 their feet. The wine is then allowed to ferment for two months or more, 

 when it is racked and placed in depositories above ground. Of a hundred 

 butts but two or three may turn out Amontillado. This Amontillado is 

 neither the product of particular vineyards, nor always the result of a 

 careful or special mode of treatment, but the unaccountable offspring of 

 several modes of treatment before, during and after fermentation. Fair 

 Amontillado (by no means the best) is worth in Cadiz $1.50 to $2 a bottle. 

 It probably cannot be purchased in the United States at any price. There 

 is not a drop of spirits added to it, and no sherry wine containing foreign 

 alcohol can be Amontillado. 



I am assured by the Spanish Consul at Philadelphia that a very cou- 



