18 



ENVIRONS OF XERES. 



being made from rotten grapes, and asked if there was 

 not great danger of that wine turning out ill. He rephed 

 yes, by the ordinary management of the country, but he 

 had adopted a different system of treatment. He said, 

 that instead of putting a funnel into the bunghole of the 

 cask to prevent the scum from escaping, no sooner was 

 the violence of the fermentation over than he filled up the 

 cask, in order that it might work over and escape. He 

 also racked off his wine into clean casks at the end of two 

 months, or even a shorter period, instead of allowing it to 

 remain in the cask in which it was fermented till March 

 or April, as was the general custom. He says that brandy 

 is added to the sherry wines, chiefly on account of the 

 taste of the English, who are its principal consumers ; 

 but it is also useful in preventing scuddiness, and curing 

 it when it has taken place. Don Pedro perfectly agreed 

 in an opinion which I offered, that if wines were made 

 with sound grapes only, and more perfectly fermented, 

 this scuddiness would never occur. I represented to him 

 the advantage of large vats for fermenting the wine. He 

 acknowledged the probability of a more perfect fermen- 

 tation taking place in large vats, and of the wine being 

 the earlier ready for the market in consequence ; but ob- 

 jected, that where there were 700 or 800 butts to make, 

 it would require so great a number of vats, that it would 

 not be practicable. I explained to him that the fermen- 

 tation would be so much sooner over in consequence of its 

 violence, that the wine might be in general drawn off into 

 casks after five or six days, and thus the same vats might 

 be used many times ; for in consequence of the care that 

 is observed in the vineyards which yield sherry, to have 

 all the grapes thoroughly ripe, the vintage will frequently 

 continue for six weeks, commencing about the middle of 



