60 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 



think you would have an Amontillado ; that is, if you 

 allowed the grapes to be as ripe as they are allowed to be 

 at present, dried them in the sun, and assisted their 

 natural dryness still further by adding gypsum. (By 

 the bye, may the gypsum not contribute, by absorbing the 

 existing acid, to produce scuddyness?) But if, as is the 

 practice at San Lucar, you make the vintage before all 

 the grapes should attain the perfect ripeness they do at 

 present, and were less particular in depriving them of 

 moisture, then I think you would have a wine something 

 between the Manzanilla and the Amontillado ; not so dry 

 as the latter, but adding much of the mellowness and 

 richness of Sherry to the lightness of the Manzanilla. The 

 latter is, in fact, the natural wine of the country on the ordi- 

 nary soils. If the produce of the albarizas were treated 

 in the same manner, you would have a wine of the same 

 character, but probably surpassing it in quality as much 

 as the real wines of the Chateau Margaux and Haut 

 Brion surpass the ordinary growths of Claret. Add to 

 this what 1 cannot but think would be a certain, and to 

 the merchant the most important, result, you would have 

 a wine as ripe in eighteen months as it now is in three or 

 four years. There are two or three other little points, 

 about wliich I should like to inquire. Domecq said, a 

 number of his grapes had rotted this year, in consequence 

 of the wet weather and luxuriant vegetation. This he 

 would prevent in similar seasons in future, by stripping 

 off the leaves to give the grapes sun and air. Pray is this 

 practice not generally known in the country ? In the 

 south of France it is a regular part of the labours of the 

 vineyard, unless in remarkably dry seasons. Another 

 query is, do they never take the top off the branch after 

 the grapes are formed? — I should like to know Pedro 

 Domecq's ideas about the agua pies. In many seasons. 



