SHERRY WINES. 



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have also another very extensive cellar, though not equal 

 to this in dimensions. Their ordinary stock of wine is 

 said to be 4000 butts : this is kept in casks of various 

 sizes, containing from one to four butts. These casks 

 are ranged in regular rows ; in some parts of the cellar, 

 to the height of four tiers. They are called soleras, and 

 are always retained in the cellars. They contain wines 

 of various qualities and ages — from one to fifty years. 

 The wine merchants of Xeres never exhaust their stock 

 of finest and oldest wine. According to the price at 

 which the wine expedited to the market is intended to 

 be sold, it contains a larger or smaller proportion of old 

 wine. But it is only in wines of a very high price, that 

 even a small portion of their finest wines is mixed. 

 What is withdrawn from the oldest and finest casks, is 

 made up from the casks which approach them nearest in 

 age and quality, and these are again replenished from 

 the next in age and quality to them. Thus a cask of 

 wine, said to be fifty years old, may contain a portion of 

 the vintages of thirty or forty seasons. 



The more respectable of the wine merchants of Xeres 

 never ship wine for England till it has attained the age 

 of two years ; that is, till the bulk of the wine has 

 attained that age. But according to the price it is pro- 

 posed to bring, it contains a larger or smaller mixture of 

 a more or less expensive wine. The higher qualities of 

 sherry are made up of wine the bulk of which is from 

 three to five years old, and this is also mixed in various 

 proportions with older wines. Thus, from the gradual 

 mixture of wines of various ages, no wine can be farther 

 from what may be called a natural wine than sherry. 

 But, besides giving the wines, as they are prepared for 

 the market, mellowness and richness, by the addition of 



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