8 



ENVIRONS OF XERES. 



own estimate and that of the vinador, the whole weight of 

 the fruit might be from 14 to 16 lbs. on each. All the new 

 varieties, he said, \vere of the variety called Uva de Rey. 

 There was a dunghill of fresh horse-duno- collected outside 

 the vineyard ; and though we were uncertain whether we 

 understood each other's meaning, we supjx)sed him to say 

 that they manured each plant annually. The plants had 

 each from two to four mother branches, according to 

 their strength, and had almost invariably been pruned 

 down to one or two spurs on each. 



In the cellar there were four presses, w^hich consisted 

 of nothing else than large wooden troughs, about eight 

 feet square, and from twelve to fourteen inches deep. 

 This is the general size ; and each will contain, at one 

 time, as many grapes as will yield a butt of wine. 

 A coarse wooden screw stands in the centre of the trough, 

 which is worked by a lever not more than five feet long 

 in all, so that each arm is only two and a half feet. In 

 some of the casks which contained the juice that had been 

 last pressed, we observed a vessel, like a very wide funnel, 

 fixed into the bung-hole. The object of this is to return 

 into the cask ail the froth and wane which is thrown up 

 in the fermentation ; for, in this part of Spain, all the 

 wine is fermented in butts, with only the bung-hole open. 

 By this means all the yeast, which the French are so 

 anxious to get rid of, is returned upon the wine — to feed 

 it, as they say. The consequence, of course, is a renewal 

 of the fermentation whenever there is a change of wea- 

 ther, or the cask is put in motion. The wine continues 

 in the butt in which it is fermented till March, when it 

 is racked off the lees. This is the almost universal prac- 

 tice of the country. 



In the course of our ride we passed a flock of sheep. 



