Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-04-20
Sherry That Has Been Stored For
More Than Half q Century.

London Letter in the Boston Herald.
Tie wine vaults of London are not to
be seen every day or by every person.
The other day l was fortunate enough to
secure a Tasting ORDER" and / in com.
pany with one or two others, made a
tour of the St. -Katharine's and London
Dock vaults. I saw over 100000 pack
ages of port and sherry, over 1000, 0OO
of claret and $780, 900 of spirits. They
wereSin vast tons; hogsheads, casks and
barrels, and the total amountin storage
was 260, 600 gallons. In fact, there were
six and half gallons for every man, WON
an and child of the population of Great
Britain. Some of it had been in store
for years. The owners had forgotten
about it and the old and mouldy casks
had rotted away at their chimes and had
been several times replaced. One lot OF
1000 gallons of sherry had been in the
vaults for nearly fifty years. 1t was
brought from the South of Spain by its
owner, who had fallen dead in the vaults.
The wine, along with his other prop
erty, had passed into c%hancery, and the
litigation, which has continued for near
ly half a century, is as far from being
ended, apparently, as when it begun.
LllG LllC Wl1lV lbs uCS1l SloNlllE OIu Glld
valuable and, if sold. now, would prob
ably bring five guineas a gallon.
Let me explain that these vaults are
simply great cellars under the dock
houses. In area they aggregate some
thirty-five acres. They extend under
the Thames on one side and we'll under
Tower hill on the other. They are about
, sixteen feet from floor to roof and are by
no means regular in form, but reach out
in strange passages and alleys in all di-
rections. They are bonded by the gov
eminent and owner can leave their
property in them a long IS they like
without paying customs duties.
A long, narrow flight of well-worn
stone steps that have been in constant
use since 1904. opened before our view,
lights that fiickered tittully, as if in a
struggle to overcome the fumes of the
wines that came up the stone channel
like a breeze from a distillery. 1t was
warm, rich with the odor of the wines,
and musty and mouldy. 4 sniff of Il
wasn't half bad, but you remember the
fate of the Persian aesthetic, who had his
choice of death. '.To die amid sweet
perfumes" he said. So they
chucked him into a hogshead Of
ottar. of roses and he expired in great
agony. At the bottom of the fight O
steps the guide met us, a tall, broad.
shouldered ruddy cockney, who handed
us each a lard-oil lamp, fastened to s
4 straight stick about eighteen inches long
Il He began by asking US if any one was {
i teetotaller. None of us were. "Be
cause" said he, eff you don take a drol
of something on your stomach you'll ge'
screwed because of the smell" He
drew a glass Of sherry for each of us on
OF a big cask near the foot of the steps
It was a heavy, full-bodied wine, with
rich nutty flavor, and an aftermath lik,
leather smells. It had been hung il
leather too late for the regular wine l,ar
vest, but it wa good for all that ant
livery mellowin' to the horgans."
Turning then sharply to the left, tn
vaults spread outbefore us in vast under
ground acreage. Lights twinkled her
and there, mouldy mel were engagedi ii
moving the packages at some places, an,
down the long passage under tn
Thames the polished steel skids for rid
ing q barrel stretched in narrowing per
spectiye, till they joined apparently il
one and flashed on under the line o
lights above them.