Wild Spain Part 25

The scene around Jerez at vintage time is a busy and picturesque one--the narrow sandy lanes alive with gaudily-trapped mules bearing panniers of grapes to the wine-presses, and creaking bullock-carts conveying newly-pressed "must" to the Jerez bodegas. The vineyards themselves are thronged with vintagers--all of the male s.e.x, for in Andalucia woman's right to take any part is altogether ignored.

The vintagers work in gangs of ten, each under the direction of a _capataz_, dexterously lopping off the bunches of grapes with their ever-ready _navajas_, or bowie knives. The bunches are thrown into "tinetas," square wooden boxes, each holding some twenty-five pounds of grapes. As these are filled the men hoist them on their heads and march off to the _almijar_ or court adjoining the presshouse. Here, after all blighted and decayed grapes are removed, they are then spread out to dry in the sun, and remain thus exposed for from one to three days, when they are ready for the press.

The long wooden troughs, or _lagares_, having been partially filled with grapes, a couple of swarthy bare-legged fellows in striped s.h.i.+rts, and leathern shoes studded with broad-headed nails, jump into each _lagar_ and, after spreading out the bunches, commence footing it ankle-deep among the crushed fruit, while the juice pours forth through spouts into casks placed to receive it. The men dance with a rapid swaying movement which is held to express the juice from the grapes in a more satisfactory manner than can be accomplished by any known mechanical appliance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xVII.

IN A JEREZ BODEGA.

Page 328.]

After being trodden, the grapes are finally subjected to the action of a screw, which is fixed over the centre of each _lagar_. The pile of half-crushed fruit is enclosed in a band of esparto-matting, and the handles of the screw being turned, a wooden slab descends, and the remaining juice pours forth through the interstices of the esparto, and is collected in the b.u.t.ts beneath. These casks, as filled, are hoisted upon bullock-carts, and sent jolting away to the Jerez bodegas.

The _vindimia_, or vintage, is always an animated scene, whether on the gently undulating vine lands of Andalucia, or in Portugal, on the steep terraced slopes of the mountains which shut in the wild Alto Douro. Afar across those Lusitanian glens resound the musical chant and characteristic sing-song ditties of the Gallegan peasantry--like _cicadas_, they sing and answer each other from hill to hill the livelong day, the happy, despised, bond-slaves of the Peninsula, who, at vintage-time, flock from their rude barren province of Galicia to revel in abundance in the Alto Douro on a couple of testoons, say, tenpence a day, supplemented by an allowance of oil, a few salted sardines, rice, and stock-fish, and of _broa_, or maize-bread, and the accommodation of mother-earth to sleep upon, with a roof overhead through which the star-light and the silvery rays of the harvest moon gleam in at a hundred c.h.i.n.ks and crevices. A happy lot, these Gallegans, happy in the possession of content, happier far than their more impulsive brethren, the socialistic peasants of Andalucia, of whom we have just spoken.

PORTUGAL.--THE VINTAGE IN THE ALTO DOURO.

Fain would we pause here for a few moments among those rugged hills of the Douro, amidst which, long ago, we first witnessed the spectacle of _vindimia_--a sight which has left a deep and pleasing impression.

Everywhere on the terraced slopes are scattered groups of vintagers, whose not unmusical voices fill the still air. Heavy bullock-carts go creaking discordantly up and down the dry boulder-strewn gullies which serve as roads; droves of nimble little donkeys, with pig-skins full of wine strapped across their backs, or bringing bread for the people employed in the vineyards, wend their way along zig-zag bridle-paths; farmers with wine-samples and pedlars with their packs on mules, equipped with jingling bells, jog leisurely along the mountain roads; groups of buxom women, with bright-coloured kerchiefs tied over unkempt tresses, and bare brown legs, dexterously detach the bunches and fill them into baskets, the men meanwhile lazily smoking under the shade of some olive-tree till their burdens are ready. Along the mountain-paths file strings of st.u.r.dy Gallegans,[62] each bearing upon his shoulders a huge basket (_jigo_), crammed with grapes. The _jigo_ weighs nearly a hundredweight, and the shoulders of the bearer are protected by a woolly sheep-skin. These burdens they bear to the _lagares_, where, when the great stone trough is filled, a gang of men step in and commence a sort of devil's dance, treading out the rich juice, which, after many hours'

fermentation, pours in purple streams to the _tonels_ below.

Within the sombre shade of the _lagares_ that strange dance proceeds, at first briskly, amid laughter and song, to the squeaking notes of fiddle and guitar, the rattle of drum, and the chaff of the women who gather round the open verandas; but as the hours roll by and the air grows heavy with the exhalations of fermenting "must," the work begins to tell, and the treaders, all bespattered with purple juice, move slowly and listlessly. In vain the fiddle strikes up anew, the fife squeaks, the guitar tinkles, and overseers upbraid. After some eighteen hours of this tread-mill exercise in an atmosphere charged with soporific influences, music has lost its charm, and authority its terror. The men, by this time almost dead-beat, languidly raise first one purple leg and then the other, working on far into the watches of the night. Thus has wine been made since before Homeric times.

The wine district of the Alto Douro, whence comes our port wine, is a singular region, extending some thirty miles along either bank of the river, but chiefly on the north side, in the province of Traz-os-Montes, and having a varying width of five to ten miles. The whole _paiz vinhateiro_ consists of grey and arid-looking mountain-sides, divided by deep gullies and ravines, and all so steep that their soil of friable mica-schist, more like bits of broken slate than fertile earth, can only be cultivated by means of terraces roughly built up, tier above tier.

Mountain after mountain has its sides thus scored with terraced lines like Cyclopean staircases, and on particular slopes as many as 150 may be counted rising one above another, the effect of which is most peculiar. Here and there a gleaming white _casa_, with its grove of orange and cypress-trees; or a water-mill, shaded by oaks and chestnuts, breaks the monotony of the landscape. Below, the yellow Douro courses swiftly, bearing picturesque boats, high-prowed and long-hulled, impelled by a white cloud of sail, and steered by a huge oar worked from a pivot in the stern-post, while far above the zone of vineyards rise mountain peaks in jagged outline.

Grapes are growing by the wayside, hanging from every crag or tree to which a vine can attach its tendrils, and, perhaps most picturesque of all, from the _ramadas_ or trellises. These _ramadas_ roof in the courtyard of cottage or farm, and even span the village street. As one rides through the hamlets which nestle in the valleys of the Douro, the heavy purple cl.u.s.ters, six or eight pounds in weight, hang temptingly just overhead--temptingly to the stranger to raise his parched lips and s.n.a.t.c.h a mouthful of the juicy spheres. Partridges, too, appreciate the luxury of a grape-feast, and in the evening, at this season (September and October), their call-note is ubiquitous. But it is terrible work to follow them amidst the tangled vines and crumbling terraces under the fierce afternoon sun; and a better chance of sport will be found at mid-day on the heather-clad ridges above. Thither, after their morning feed, they retire to enjoy a siesta, and with the aid of a good dog will afford excellent sport till towards 4 P.M., when they return to the lower grounds. There is a cooler breeze on these heights, and a superb panorama of the wildest region of Lusitania, bounded by the Serras do Gerez and Maro and the highlands of Traz-os-Montes. There handsome Swallowtails (_Papilio machaeon_) curvette around on powerful wing, and among the s.h.a.ggy heather, rocks, and rough straggling woods, one may chance upon a slumbering wolf, the _bete noir_ in the winter of the Douro goatherd; though nothing ever fell in the writer's way more formidable than a black fox, for the destruction of which was awarded the premium fixed by law--300 reis, fifteen pence! It is a land of insects, from the singular mantis and merry gra.s.shoppers of many hues, to the scorpion, and centipedes of enormous size. As evening falls the air rings--the earth seems to vibrate--with the rattle of mole-crickets and cicadas, and the gentle tinkle of the tree-frog: glowworms sparkle on each dark slope, and by the feeble light of fire-flies we have to pick a devious way along miles of broken rock and hanging thicket, by what in Portugal pa.s.ses for a bridle-path.

Twenty years ago the Alto Douro could only be reached on horseback, crossing the Serra do Maro by the Pa.s.s of Quintella. A pleasant ride it was, nevertheless, in September, by Cazaes, traversing the valley of the Tamega to Amarante, famed for its peaches and "vinho verde" (green wine, so rough as to bring tears to one's eyes); thence up the slopes of the Maro, and through the granite defiles of Quintella, which look down upon Pezo da Regoa and the valley of the Corgo. It was here--in the _Baixo Corgo_--that the port wines of three generations ago were vintaged; now all the most valued growths come from further east, beyond the Corgo (Cima Corgo).

The return journey in those days (now there is a railway) was by boat, down the Douro, seventy miles, which was accomplished in one long day.

Hour after hour we glide down the rapid current, through green vineyards, all resonant with the long-drawn songs of the vintagers. Now the cliffs close in, and we pa.s.s through a gorge, whose sides rise a thousand feet sheer from the water, overgrown with ma.s.ses of broom, heath, gorse, and a variety of evergreen shrubs wherever a ledge or cranny afford hold for their roots. Gigantic aloes with broad spiked blades and towering stalks stud the rocky declivities, and the cactus, wild fig, and other sub-tropical forms of plant-life lend character to the scenery. Amidst these crags a pair or two of the handsome black and white Neophrons may generally be seen.

Dangerous during times of flood are the snag-set rapids of the Douro, as many a little cross or inscription, cut on the impending rocks, bears witness. That rude mark indicates the spot where some poor fellow has lost his life, perhaps a whole boat's crew; and our men, as we pa.s.s each memorial tablet, remove their hats and cross themselves with simple piety.

At intervals we pa.s.s picturesque cargo-boats, upward bound, and laboriously making their way against the current, motive power being supplied by a gang of watermen hauling on a tow-rope ash.o.r.e. Where the path becomes precipitous, one sees the string of bare-legged men walking, as it were, down perpendicular rock faces like flies on a wall, each hanging on by the sustaining rope. As already mentioned, there is now-a-days a railway to the Upper Douro, and much of the picturesque river life of twenty years ago is a thing of the past.

SPAIN.--THE VINTAGE IN ANDALUCIA--(CONTINUED).

But we have wandered far from our original subject, and must now leave Portugal, and return to the Andalucian vintage. We are not going to enter into the technical details of wine manufacture, which have been fully described in special treatises; suffice it here to say that from the wine-press, the _must_ (or juice) is run direct into casks placed beneath, and in which, almost as soon as made, the process of fermentation begins. In this state the young wines are removed on bullock-carts to the bodegas of Jerez, or San Lucar, and there remain till January, when fermentation is complete; the wine is then placed in clean casks, and so left to mature. The contents of each cask, however, are kept distinct and separate--that is the wine-juice that ran from the _lagar_ into one cask is not mixed or blended with another.

And now follows one of the most curious circ.u.mstances known in nology. The wines thus made--the uniform produce, be it repeated, of a single vineyard, gathered the same day, pressed in the same _lagar_, and subjected to identical treatment--develope wholly different characters and qualities. Some of the casks prove to be wines of the highest grade and value; others indifferent, some coa.r.s.e, and some even vinegar. Then amongst those casks which have developed into the wines styled in Jerez _finos_ (_i.e._, soft, dry, and delicate, with a fresh, pungent flavour), there is found here and there one which has acquired the rare and highly valued _amontillado_ character.

This singular inequality in development appears to be merely a matter of chance--of caprice in fermentation; and is quite inexplicable and uncontrolled by any known laws or causes. Some years ago an attempt was made to bring the light of modern science to bear on the old rule-of-thumb methods of "rearing" sherry. An English scientist of high standing essayed the task of a.s.suring an approximately equal development of all the wines grown in one year and one vineyard. The result, however, was unsuccessful; or if an approximate level was attained it was, unfortunately, the level of mediocrity, or worse; the wines operated upon were destroyed, and the savant left Spain under a cloud.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xVIII.

IRRIGATION BY WATER-WHEEL (_NORIA_).

Page 334.]

Although the vine is almost ubiquitous throughout the south of Spain, and the production of wine practically unlimited, yet there are only two districts which yield the specific wine ent.i.tled _sherry_. These two districts are the amphitheatre of hills which surround the city of Jerez de la Frontera, and a small area of 1,500 acres in Montilla called Moriles. It must also be remembered that there are differences in the grape as well as in the soil. The vine has several distinct natural species, as distinguished from mere varieties (whether artificial or climatic), and the character of wine is largely dependent on the vine producing it. Vast quant.i.ties of wine are grown in adjacent districts, good genuine wines, sound and wholesome, but the two localities named stand out in marked prominence. The area of the choice _vign.o.bles_ around Jerez is some 12,000 acres, divisible into four cla.s.ses according to geological formation.[63] The average yield of the fine vineyards being two and a half b.u.t.ts per acre, it follows that the total annual production of first-cla.s.s sherry is some 35,000 b.u.t.ts, or thereabouts.

In addition to the above quant.i.ty, there are also grown, as above stated, large quant.i.ties of wine in the adjoining districts. These, though pure and genuine, are but of second rank. From what we have already written, it will be apparent that in this land of the vine (and the same remark applies to Portugal), there is nothing so cheap as the grape. There is therefore no temptation to seek subst.i.tutes for this, its commonest product, or to employ other materials in its place.

Viticulture abstracts from the soil a smaller proportion of alkalies and other mineral const.i.tuents than either corn or root-crops: hence the exhaustion of the soil is slower and the vine can be cultivated on land incapable of yielding any other crop. An acre of vines on sandy soil will cost but one-half the money to cultivate, and yield three times the weight of fruit that an acre of the _afueras_ will produce.[64] It is a curious fact that these sandy soils never yield, even phenomenally, a cask of fine wine. These better wines require years of keeping to attain the perfect development of maturity, while the others, being of a lighter description, are as good at first as they ever will be, although in appearance and flavour the grapes of the sandy soil may even seem the best. These facts serve to explain the difference in cost which must exist between the produce of the two cla.s.ses of vineyard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A VINEYARD AT JEREZ.]

So much for the wines of Jerez; but sherry, though in British eyes it looms the largest amongst the wines of Spain, and is, in fact, of the greatest intrinsic value, yet represents a mere drop in the ocean as compared with the whole produce of the land. Spain overflows with wine.

Hardly a village but has its vineyards and its vintage-time, when the very earth becomes encarnadined, and when the chief care of the peasantry is rather to find casks, goat-skins, or other receptacles wherein to store their redundant crop, than wine to fill them withal. In traversing many a hundred dusty leagues of the wildest parts of Spain, we seldom failed to replenish our wine-skins with good, rough, red _vino del pais_, grown on some neighbouring slope; racy of the soil, refres.h.i.+ng, and delicious after hard work under a torrid sun, and at an average price of two pesetas the arroba, or about one-third the price of "small beer"!

One soon grows to like and appreciate these rough red wines of Northern and Central Spain, whose generous fulness and refres.h.i.+ng asperity are so requisite in this hot land. After a course of several months of the Riojas and Valdepenas of Spain, how thin tastes that first bottle of the Bordelais--price two francs--at the breakfast-buffet of Hendaye!

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER x.x.x.

SOME FURTHER NOTES ON THE GREAT BUSTARD.

HIS NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS.

Is the Great Bustard polygamous or not? We have watched these birds in early spring-time, following every movement, and at quarters close enough, with the binocular, to distinguish the very feathers: we have inquired of the best and keenest bustard-shooters on the Spanish plains--men who ought to know--and yet are unable to give a positive opinion. The best ornithological authorities are also silent on the point, or treat it in doubtful terms.

The Andalucian Bustards may be divided into two cla.s.ses:--(1) Those which inhabit the undulating corn-lands extending from Jerez and Utrera eastwards--by Marchena and Osuna--to Bobadilla and the borders of Malaga province, which race is _stationary_ throughout the year; and (2) the Bustards of the marisma, or flat delta of Guadalquivir and other great rivers, which seasonally s.h.i.+ft their ground.

The corn-land Bustards (as we will call them for distinction) are altogether a finer and heavier race than those of the marismas, scaling commonly twenty-nine, thirty, and thirty-one pounds--some huge old _barbones_ exceeding even this great weight; while birds of the semi-migratory race run from twenty-four to twenty-six or-seven pounds, rarely reaching twenty-eight, and show less of the magnificent ruff-development which, in spring, characterizes the old males of the campinas of Jerez.

All the year round these latter are to be seen on the same grounds.

During the months of February and March they are in bands of from five to fifty, males and females together, though some of the former already begin at early dawn to "show off" and to indulge in those ferocious-looking rehearsals preliminary--in appearance--to a pitched battle, but which always seem to end in smoke. Round and round, in slow majestic circles, revolve the rival _barbones_, each with trailing wings and tail expanded, fan-like, over his back, the bristling head carried low, the neck swollen out to abnormal thickness. Now, on that stately parade, they meet; the champions stand face to face--intent on mortal combat. One almost fancies one can hear the rustle as they shake out their wings and set every feather on end--each striving to daunt and demoralize his opponent by a display of apparent bulk. But the issue is disappointing; only on three or four occasions have we seen battle actually joined, and then the scuffle only lasted a few seconds.

It is, nevertheless, a magnificent spectacle to watch, perhaps, ten or a dozen of these huge game-birds, all "showing off" under the early rays of an April sun, and set off amidst the green corn and flower-spangled herbage--each as he slowly struts round, "echando la rueda," displaying alternately the swollen gorget and yellow-barred back, then the white underparts.

This state of affairs continues during March and into April; rehearsals, but no actions--at least we have seen none. The males really appear to show off rather one to another than to the females, which, though not far off, exhibit no more visible interest or concern than does our grey hen under similar circ.u.mstances. About the 20th of April the hen lays her two big greenish eggs amidst the growing corn, and disappears; but even this circ.u.mstance has no appreciable effect upon the other s.e.x, who continue for weeks their complacent performances in spite of the fact that the females--for whose behoof these displays were presumably inaugurated--are no longer present to admire, as they have now commenced the duties of incubation.

During the earlier period of this courts.h.i.+p, and at the time when pairing presumably occurs, it is extremely rare to see a _single_ male a.s.sociated with a circle of females--as is the case with black game.

Each band is composed of mixed s.e.xes, females preponderating. We have often seen _two_ males along with five or six females, but never _one_ alone; another band consists of three males and seven females; a third of five and thirteen; a fourth of ten and thirty, males and females respectively; but _none_, as just stated, are formed of a pair, or of a single male with his harem, as one would expect if the species were polygamous in the ordinary sense.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

After incubation has commenced the males remain in separate packs during summer, and take no share in domestic duties.

Turning now to the Bustards of the _marisma_, we must first explain that there are no bustards in the marisma proper--_that_ is the home of the Flamingo. But here, for the sake of convenience, we include the whole of the plains, some pasturage, some arable, which, _together with_ the _marisma_ proper, form the delta of the Guadalquivir; and especially those parts known as the Isla Mayor and Isla Menor, so-called "islands"