, 1888-12-08
LoNooN,s WINE VAULTS.


The total floor area at the vaults at
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 rs, 900 casks of
brandy. The various vaults are built
in the form of a crypt. The largest of
these-the east vault overs four
acres of ground, and as we take our
light, a small oil lamp fixed to the end
of a piece of wood some eighteen
inches long, our guide informs us that
there are in this cellar alone twenty
ture railway lines, over which the bar
rels are rolled.
The roof for yards and yards is COW
cred with a beautiful species of fungus,
the growth of which is due to the
fumes of the wine, a popularity which
is all the o noticeable, as where no
barrels find a temporary resting place
no fungus grows ahoft. 1t is as 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 to be found here as to make
the lover of lace envy the patterns.
In the midst of all this mushrooms
grow, and in the season a good crop is
always secured.
1.-THE Drawing Room" covers nearly
an c This is a private vault, scru-
pulously clean, the sawdust carpet
unspotted. 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 has to bore
u small hole in the cask, and the wine
flows into tho 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 q
whole barrel runs away in tasting.
h brandy cellar covers about seven
acres of ground and some 81, 900 casks
are resting there just now; but during
the Franco-G German war the author
tiles contrived TO provide accommoda-
ton for ", 900 casks. All the brandy
was driven out of France; its value
was SIS, 900, 900, and an official who
helped to receive the barrels at the
time has made the interesting calcula-
ton that 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 quar-
ter of a mile long, and in the midst of
this huge cellar runs the snow 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 receptacles in the world,
gigantic yellow tubs symmetrically
made, on each of which is painted its
holding capabilities. Here is n which
requires 10, 900 gallons of liquor to fill
it, another takes 5000, others 2,440,
1,450, 1, 500 and $50, something like a
thousand gallons of brandy running
through the taps every day.
The mixing process has ceased at the
moment of our visit, but it is whis-
pered that in another corner of the
docks a large quantity of gin is about
to be converted into "sweetened." The
''~sweetening" barrel, holding the mod
est quantity of 500 gallons = into
which the gin in its -unsweetened state
is to be poured-is on one floor. Above
it, Immediately over its huge mouth,
IS an opening some yards in length
and four inches deep by nine inches
wide, and into this q rivulet of gin is
flowing from the interior of five large
casks which are employing themselves
into the barrel below. As soon as these
nFSa nTnntu rtharr folya fhnt- p1anA a,l
the vat" filled, 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 it goes out for export, the
average number of dozens, sealed,
labeled, capsuled and packed in cases
every day being 400. A good packer
can a q hundred dozen bottles be-
tween 8 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 the
cellar is lighted with gas, fifty-four
lamps are needed for dark days, nine
of these being 'Davy's." Here in one
corner are the wax pans, the merchants
not only having to provide their own
bottles and labels, but wax into the
bargain. 1t takes five minutes to melt
a pan of wax. 1t is placed in a copper
pan, heated over a gas stove, and when
melted is placed in a receptacle con-
tanning a small spirit lamp, which
keeps the a in a liquid state, and
finally the case is locked.-London
Tid-Bits.