| Centuries
of trial and error have gone into the making of these fermentation
chambers: the right wood, the right thickness, appropriate calking,
and so on. After all, these containers had to be sturdy enough to
be dragged by oxen along the roadway, to be pushed into the ocean
by swimmers, and to be hoisted onto deck and rolled around as much
as possible. They had to resist heat and cold, heat and cold,
could not leak or lose too much wine through evaporation, neither
could they be too airtight. |
 |
| If
it were at all possible on Madeira's steep and rocky terrain
some of the wine was put into wine vats and pulled by cattle
drawn bullock carts. |
|
