Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-10-13
Grape Crushing.

The season of wine making has fair
~ commenced, and the whirr OF the
| crushers is heard in the land. Grapes
are unusually plenty and wine making
| is dull, so the price rules low, most of
the wine makers buying at three bits
hundred.
Prominent among the grape crush
ers is Don Mateo Keller, on Alameda
street, near Also, who has forty pick
ers engaged and six teams running
constantly, loaded with the product of
his own vineyards. Five men feed
the steam crusher, and it takes in all
about twenty-five additional men to
take care of the juice. The daily pro-
duct of his crushing is 5000 gallons of
juice, and this amount he expects soon
to increase. Next week he will buy
grapes from other vineyards, and keep
ten teams at work steadily, with a
helping force of 100 men additional.
The total product of Mr.. Keller's sea-
son is estimated at 5OO,0O0 gallons.
Mr.. Bernard, at the old stand of the
Los Angeles Associates, is also busy
crushing. He expects to barrel about
| 300, 900 gallons of wine, and is reputed
to be careful and experienced wine
| maker.
Mr.. Pelanconi, whose establishment
is also on Alameda street, crushes
grapes by the primitive method, viz:
tranping them out. This establish
ment is not dependent on the fluctua-
tions of steam engine, Is not subject
to the weakness of machinery, Is not
liable to the annoyance of boiler ex-
plosion, but is as perpetual as human
muscle, the nearest power to perpetual
motion that man will ever use. About
score of neat, clean-limbed, stout
muscled Indians do the heavy work
and seem to enjoy it. Just imagine
the delight to these living grape
crushers as they stamp out the lus-
cious fruit of the vine. They seem to
love it, and, as the butcher delights to
see the fresh hot blood squirting from
| the throat of the slaughtered animal,
so these muscular grape crushers seem
| to revel in the ruby fluid which runs
from the tramping floor. These grape
trampers seem to be as stolid as Indi-
ans usually are, as they step on the
| crushing floor in their bare feet and
legs, with pants rolled up above the
knees. At first the movement of those
crushing pedals is slow and monoto-
nous, but as the operator sees the
grape juice slowly flowing under his
| descending feet his movements are
| accelerated and he soon tramps''with
frantic energy, the blood red juice
dripping from every toe and perspira-
ton running from every pore. His
energy is only equa,led by the wild
physical exertion seen at a Louisiana
Voodoo meeting or colOred camp
meeting, as brother or a sister comes
through the wilderness. This is the
kind of exertiOn which we observed
in our visit to Pelanconi's establish
ment day before ye esterday. About
twenty Indians, with bare feet, and
three whitemen with boots on, stood
in square tray and trod out the
grapes with wild energy, accompany
| ing the work with hoarse shouts, and
shril yells. When the exhausted ap-
pearance of the operations showed that
the crushing was well done, the per-
spring trampers rested, and the
stems were picked out. The pulp and
skins were then shoveled intoa small
| er tray where three bare-footed opera
tors mashed them to finerjelly. This
mode of making wine may be objected
to by some of our thoughtless readers,
| but the most scientific writer's say that
by it the temperature Of the human
body raises the temperature of the wine
and fermentation takes place more
quickly and more thoroughly. This
| is the process, so we are informed used
| in Italy, Spain and France from which
countries we get most of our high
priced wines. 1t is also believed that
this was the process followed by Noah
when he made wine and brought the
curse on Ham. Wine was made In
Palestine by this method, in Apostolic
| times, and we bave no doubt that all
of the Scriptural wine went through
the process of tramping by human
feet. We see no reason why this wine
should not take preference over the
common machine-made wine, and are
pleased to learn that Mr.. Pelanconi's
wine has always taken high rank In
the market. Having seen this pro.
cess, the simplest in the world, we de-
sire to endorse it. The trampers are
all picked men and take great pride in
their work. 1t may be repugnant at
first thought, and delicate Miss Nc
Flimsey may elevate her retrousse
nose at the idea Of drinking the oily
Angelica, the generous Claret, or the
fragrant Madeira made at Pelanconi's,
but we can assure her that as the best
sugars are refined with blood and
bones, 90 the wines with the finest
bouquet may be the product of grapes
crushed by the pedal extremitles of
muscular oopper-colored aborlgines,