re rapid on account of the saccharine
nature of the _mout_ or wort. In flavour it is similar to the fruit called
"Pedro Ximenes," the colour being the same as that of natural sherry.
Muscate wine is made from the grape of that name, and in a manner precisely
similar to the Paxarite. The wine produced from this grape is still sweeter
than the Pedro Ximenes, its taste being absolutely that of the Muscat
grape. In colour also it is deeper; but the colour of both, like that of
the two dry wines, increases in proportion to their age, a circumstance
exactly the reverse of that which takes place in French wines. German
sherry wines are capable of preservation both in bottles and casks for an
indefinite period. In one of the _bodegas_ or cellars belonging to the firm
of M. P. Domecq, at Xeres, are to be seen five or six casks of immense size
and antiquity (some of them, it is said, exceeding a century). Each of them
bears the name of some distinguished hero of the age in which it was
produced, Wellington and Napoleon figuring conspicuously amongst others:
the former is preserved exclusively for the taste of Englishmen.

The history of sherry dates, in a commercial point of view, from about the
year 1720 only. Before this period it is uncertain whether it possessed any
existence at all; at all events it appears to have been unknown beyond the
immediate neighbourhood in which it was produced. It would be difficult,
perhaps, to say by whom it was first imported: all that can be affirmed
with any degree of certainty is, that a Frenchman, by name Pierre Domecq,
the founder of the house before mentioned, was among the earliest to
recognise its capabilities, and to bring it to the high state of perfection
which it has since attained. In appreciation of the good service thus
rendered to his country, Ferdinand VII. conferred upon this house the right
exclusively to bear upon their casks the royal arms of Spain. This wine,
from being at first cultivated only in small quantities, has long since
grown into one of the staple productions of the country. In the
neighbourhood of Xeres there are at present under cultivation from 10,000
to 12,000 _arpents_ of vines; these produce annually from 30,000 to 35,000
_botas_, equal to 70,000 or 75,000 hogsheads. In gathering the {475} fruit,
the ripest is invariably selected for wines of the best quality. The wines
of Xeres, like all those of the peninsula, require the necessary body or
strength to enabl