IX. THE FEASTS OF THE VANDALS 407

Vandalusia, or, as Mr. Ford puts it,¹ I believe more probably, land of the west, send down their sun-browned juice; the ground of Macharnudo on Mr. Domecq’s estate at Xeres itself furnishing the white wine of strongest body in Europe.

178. The power which Mr. Domecq had acknowledged in my father, by making him head partner in his firm, instead of merely his English agent, ruled absolutely at Xeres over the preparation of the wines; and, by insisting always on the maintenance of their purity and quality at the highest attainable standard, gave the house a position which was only in part expressed by its standing, until Mr. Domecq’s death, always at the head in the list of importers. That list gave only the number of butts of wine imported by each firm, but did not specify their price; still less could it specify the relation of price to value. Mr. Domecq’s two or three thousand butts were, for the most part, old wine, of which the supply had been secured for half a century by the consistent prudence of putting the new vintages in at one end of cellars some quarter of a mile long, and taking the old vintages out at the other. I do not, of course, mean that such transaction was literally observed; but that the vulgar impatience to “turn over” capital was absolutely forsworn, in the steady purpose of producing the best wine that could be given for the highest price to which the British public would go. As a rule, sherry drinkers are soundly-minded persons, who do not choose to spend a guinea a glass on anything; and the highest normal price for Mr. Domecq’s “double-cross” sherry was eighty pounds a butt; rising to two hundred for the older wines, which were only occasionally imported. The highest price ever given was six hundred; but this was at a loss to the house, which only allowed wine to attain the age which such a price represented in order to be able to supply, by the mixture of it with younger vintage, whatever

¹ [See A Handbook for Travellers in Spain, by Richard Ford, 1845, vol. i. p. 144.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]