The Damage Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Thudichum Caused For Sherry

In his criticism of sherry, Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Thudichum was careful to omit details of experiments he had previously performed at Jerez, but Henry Vizetelly, in his excellent book, \"Facts about Sherry,\" told all about them:

\"In common candour the author of this incredible misre­presentation ought not to have withheld from the public his qualifications to speak so confidently on the subject. He should have told them that he had visited Jerez under the auspices of certain shipping houses to whom he offered, if not to repeat the miracle of Cana, at any rate to produce amontillado by purely chemical agency.

\"He said that he was provided with considerable funds for the purchase of scientific instruments, which he was incom­petent to use, and that he resided at Jerez in style for a period of three months at the expense of his principal patron, during which time he lost him half his vineyard\'s produce through the so-called amontillado which he professed to fabricate turning out such vile stuff that it could only be employed for rinsing casks with, while a further experiment which he made in the bodega of a second shipper resulted in transforming the wine into vinegar.\"

The public, knowing nothing of the motive which prompted these attacks upon sherry, naturally grew alarmed and for a time the subject formed a common topic of conversation at all dinner-tables, where by the lady at your side you found sherry generally declined with thanks. Middle-aged gentlemen, too, perfectly hale and hearty on their daily pint of sherry, fancied that perhaps for them a day of reckoning might be near.

Local reports of his activities suggest that he danced round the vine press muttering incantations and sprinkling powder from his waistcoat pocket over the grapes. When The Times reviewed his book, they made their opinion quite clear:

\"We have heard with pleasure that a recent attempt to chymicalize the making of wine in Spain, although undertaken with much confidence, and carried on under conditions favour­able to success, has resulted in a failure which was indeed signal, but which, in the interests of the public, we cannot bring ourselves to call disastrous.\"

So much for Thudichum! To his credit, though, he eventually saw the light and in 1893 published a very valuable book, A Treatise on Wines, their Origin, Nature and Varieties with practical directions for Viticulture and Vinification. It is still well worth reading.

The wine merchants, to preserve their trade in the face of such attacks, started importing odd wines which they advertised as free from these defects. It is strange to think of a vintner actually attacking sherry, but James L. Denman did so in a series of pamphlets, and tried to substitute Greek wines \"which have neither been plastered nor fortified.\"

One of these was alarmingly described as \"resembling Amontillado with a dash of hock.\" Perhaps that was how he made it. He was also an importer of \"Aragonese Sherry.\" In his favor, it should be said that his attacks were largely the results of an ill-informed but perfectly honorable preoccupation with purity. Others advertised wines that were free from spirit, but just how free was not stated.

Local reports of his activities suggest that he danced round the vine press muttering incantations and sprinkling powder from his waistcoat pocket over the grapes. When The Times reviewed his book, they made their opinion quite clear...