Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-12-20
LoNDoN's Mn VAULTS.
Choice Liquors Preserved In the Cellars OF
the Metropolis-Grapc Juice and Brandy.

The total floor area at the vaults at
I the London docks is a million super
fetal feet, and in this space 5000
pipes of wine can easily be stored, and
then room found for $4,000 casks of
brandy. The various vaults are built
in the form Of n crypt, The largest OF
these-the cast vault covers four
acres of ground, and as we take u
light, a small oil lamp fixed 10 the end
of a piece of wood some eighteen
inches long, Il guide informs us that
there are in this cellar alone twenty
one miles of scantling wire, or NINA.
ture railway lines, over which the bar
rels are rolled.
The roof for yards and yards is COW
cred with beautiful species of fungus,
the growth of which is due TO the
fumes of the wine, a peculiarly which
is all the more noticeable, as where no
barrels find a temporary resting place
no fungus grows aloft. Ii is us light
as feathers, and takes the most elab-
crate and artistic forms. Small hill
locks, gigantic punches Of grapes, long
ropes, which a puff of the breath will
snap in two, while such delicate de-
signs are 10 be found here US TO make
the lover of lace envy the patterns.
In the midst of all this mushrooms
grow, and III the season a good crop is
always secured.
The Drawing Room covers nearly
an acre. This is a private vault, scru.
pulously clean, the sawdust carpet
unspottcd. 1t is rented from the com
pany by a well known firm of wine
merchants. and as we examine a cask
marked The Duke" We learn how
testing is managed. The bung of a
barrel is never removed for testing
purposes. but the attendant hast to bore
II small hole in the cask, and the wine
flows into the dock" glass. The
faster having satisfied himself as TO
strength, the flow is stopped by the
insertion of a small stick of wood.
Every hole has TO be accounted for,
and the total must correspond with the
number of tasting orders issued
from the owners Office. Sometimes a
whole barrel runs away in tasting.
The brandy cellar covers about seven
acres of ground and some q, 900 casks
are resting there just now but during
the Franco-German wal the author
tiles contrived to provide accommoda-
ton for ~, 600 casks. All the brandy
was driven out of France; its value
was SIS, 600, 900, and an official who
helped to receive the barrels at the
time has made the interesting calcula-
ton hat if they had been placed in a
line they would have stretched for
thirty-four miles. There are casks of
brandy here-profusely decorated
with cobwebs-over twenty years old.
One Of the gangways is nearly a guar
ter Of a mile long, and in the midst of
this huge cellar runs the 10Y tank,
into which all the sluice, snow and
mud Of winter is poured.
The waiting floor" where brandy
is improved by mixing one quality
with another, contains some of the
largest spirit rcceptacles in the world,
gigantic yellow tubs symmetrically
made, on each of which is painted it,
holding capabilities. Here is one which
requires 10000 gallons Of liquor to I'll
it, another takes 5000. others 2.440
l,4j0. l,500 and $50, something like
thousand gallons of brandy running
through the taps every day.
The mixing process has ceased at the
moment of our visit, but ii is wills
pered that in another corner of tAC
docks n large quantity of GIN is about
TO he converted into ''sweetened." The
'swectening' barrel, holding the mod,
est quantity of 500 gallons into
which the gin in its unsweetened state
is 10 be pourcd-is Oh one floor. Above
il, Immediately over its huge mouth,
is an opening some yards in length
and four inches deep by nine inches
wide, and into this a rivulCt of GIN is
flowing from the interior of five large
casks which uru omptying themselves
into the barrel below. As soon as these
are empty others take their place. and
the vat filed, the sugar in a liquid
state is added, the whole mixed TO
gether, and shortly afterward it is
bottled, sent abroad and approved OF
as the choicest Cream of the Valley
A word about the bottling depart
ment. As fast as the wine is put into
bottle IL goes out for export, tho
average number of dozens, sealed.
labeled. capsuled and packed in case:
every day being 400. \ good packer
can case a hundred dozen bottles be
tween S and IL o'clock in the morning
In the cellar below the bottling room
where, by.the-bye, 600 dozen bottles
can be placed side by side Of the floor
the barrels are kept and although thu
cellar is lighted with gas, ffty-foul
lamps arc needed for dark days, min,
of these being Days" Here in ont
corner are the wax pans, the merchant
not only having TO provide their owl
bottles and labels, but wax into tn,
bargain. 1t takes five minutes TO mel
! a pam of wax. II is placed in a copper
pat, heated over a gas stove, and v'her
melted is placed in a receptacle con
tanning a small spirit lamp, which
! keeps the wax in a liquid state. anC
finally the case is locked. -Londor
Tid-Bits.