392 COFFEE. 



the grapes are ripe they are picked and conveyed in panniers, 

 slung upon the backs of mules, to the press-house, where they are 

 thrown into large wooden vats, known as " lagares," eight or ten 

 feet square and about two feet deep, slightly raised above the 

 ground. 



After being slightly sprinkled with gypsum to prevent exces- 

 sive fermentation of the juice, they are here trodden with the 

 feet. When sufficiently crushed they are shovelled to one side and 

 a fresh layer of grapes is spread over the bottom of the " lagare " 

 and again trodden until crushed, this being continued until a suf- 

 ficient quantity ha,s been accumulated to put under the press. 

 Here they are built up in a compact mass, somewhat the same as 

 pomace at a cider-mill, and a flat wooden slab being placed on 

 the top, the screw is brought down with sufficient pressure to ex- 

 press the juice. This treading and pressing of the grapes is gen- 

 erally done at night, the vintage being a very busy time, usually 

 lasting altogether a little more than two weeks. After most of the 

 juice has been expelled from the grapes, the stalks are separated 

 from the pressed grapes and the skins again subjected to a severe 

 hydraulic pressure ; but the product of this pressure is kept separ- 

 ate from that first expressed, and is usually distilled into spirits. 

 The grape-skins are also sometimes distilled direct and the refuse 

 used for fertilizing purposes. 



The juice of the grape, or new wine, called " mosto," yielded 

 by the first pressure, is first strained and then put into ordinary 

 butts or casks holding about one hundred and eighteen gallons, but 

 only filled to perhaps three-fourths of their capacity. This is so 

 as to afford room for fermentation. The casks are then sent to 

 the "bodegas," or wine-cellars in Jerez or the outlying towns 

 nearest the vineyard, where the bungs are loosened and the wine is 

 left to ferment. These are really not cellars, but immense one-story 

 warehouses built upon a level with the ground and covered with 

 a substantial roof of earthen tiles ; each " bodega " has four or 

 more aisles, along each of which is ranged a double row of casks, 

 usually three tiers high. Some of these " bodegas " are of im- 

 mense size, holding as many as five or six thousand casks. In 

 February or March succeeding the vintage, the fermented wine is 

 di-awn from its lees into new casks and more or less grape spirit 



