Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-01-04
'WiHe-Making M France.

thai carnival which ATTRACTS tD Tie vine
yards throughout this sunny section uI
grape growing fame all the supertuuu,
unemployed labor of the cities. and
makes the landscape re-echo tor the
brief perioi If week or two with Mer.
~ Iests aud laughter, is about drawing
t0 a close. Ii Is indeed a pity that
every bottle OF wine that finds it, way
from these vineyards TO American tables
could not carry With it, in its generous
fragrant fumes, a vision of the soft.
suLHy scenes in which it has heen
formed aud nur;ured. Pictures, which
Claude Lorraine might have envied
might thus be coniurei up to please
and entertain the epicurean eve. Upon
such scene IL was NV fortune yesteT-
day 20 look. NDn cuiri, o0H:igd attire
Corimh"m. and certainly to few Ameri-
cans has fallen the good fortune of q
more thorough inspection Of the pro-
cess of wine-making than that which
vas yesterday vOuchsafed yOur CORES
pendent at the kospilable Chateau Go
DIT, situated in the cnyirons of this
city, and not over three miles distant.
Picture, if you please, wide stretch
OF open, undulating. thoroughly cult.
waited country. In front, the soft blue
waters of the Bay Of Biscay. stretching
away to where Napoleon Vendee aui
Brittany are family visible in the dis
lance; in the rear, ON the one hand the
city surrounded by its grass-grown bat.
Elements, itself half hidden amid IA
wreath of foliage, but With its cathedral
tower, its spires, and its masts of ship
ping traceable in every line against the
eastern sky; on the other, landscape
dotted with chateaus and farm houses,
aud occasionally village. with here aud
there clump of trees, or platoon of
aged willows marking O watercourse;
shining down upon all this peaceful
scene genial October sun completes
the picture and gives to it a richness
and warmth of coloring which no
painter could hope to reproduce.
Where two cart-roads intersect each
other in about the centre of M. Codes
vineyard of one hundred and fifty acres,
the vintagers, motley group Of men,
women, and lads are taking heir noon
day rest as we approach. One cannot
but recall the pictures he has seen of
gypsy bivouac, SO unconsciously rich
in color are the costumes of these fifty
laborers, gathered together mostly at
random by the proprietor, from the
crowds who have offered their services.
Great tubs stand full to OVERLOOKING
with tempting clu3ters of white grapes,
and lad picturesquely clad il red
shirt and flat blue cap, presses them
down with club, mercilessly mangling
them in common mass OF pulp and
juice. Scattered around upon the grass,
stretched at full length, some upon
their faces with their heels high in air,
others upon their backs and sleeping
lie the men, wearied with hav-
ing labored since 4 o'clock in the morn
ing. Most of the women, too, in their
white caps, short skirts and hideous
wooden shoes, lie nestled away in some
grassy nook with great blue umbrellas
over them to protect them
from the sun. A solitary dog keeps
watch ut the outposts, an ill-favored
cur who at our approach beats an ig-
nominous retreat and devotes himself
to the sundry bones and crusts with
which the vintagers' midday meal has
strewn the adjacent sod. A pleasant
scene, one would exclaim; and so it
was. Yet these vintagers, dreaming
away their MONDAY hours, and careless
Of the morrow, have, after all, no easy
task. The stopping posture which the
OF the grapes from the vines.
not over two feet in height, entails, is
not the least wcarisome feature of their
labor. beginning, too, before the sun
rise and working until dusk, they laugh
The eight-hour law, it will be seen, to
scorn. A faithful worker will in day
pick grapes enough to make hundred
and twenty gallons of wine, and that,
too, for wages amounting to only sixty
cents and his board. This is the high
est price paid. The average male vim
;ager receives only forty-ive cents, and
he women receive twenty-five cents per
lay, together with board.
From his vineyard of one hundred
md fifty acres M. Yodet will realize
ibis season two hundred and fifty bar
'iqueS or casks of five hundred gallons
each. This is fair average annual
yield. In fact, in this region, which
las not been attacked seriously by the
Dhylloxera, the crop this year promises
1t least to equal that of 1877. The
greatest care is required in the protec-
ion and nourishment of the vines. No
vine is productive until its fifth year;
on the other hand, some vines bear
heir best grapes at the age of fifty
years. The phylloy era, in anticipation
It least, has proved source of serious
anxiety to vine growers in this Char
,nte Inferieure department. A single
,ne of these insects will, in one season,
reproduce Its kind to the number of
thirty thousand. From the vineyard
1t evening the days vintage is carried
n wagonloads TO the press-house.
There it is first passed through pulp
ng machine very similar in size to q |
Yankee clothes-ringer, which
destroys every vestige of
is original symmetry, and delivers mp
! weltering mass Of stems, seeds, pulp,
md juice. This conglomeration, or 4
mash" as distiller would term it, is 1
,iled upon the floor of press in the
orm of pyramid fattened at the apex,
md then, by either hand or horse-pow-
n, an immense pressure is applied from
Ibove by fiat wooden surface, descend |
ng on spiral. The process is very
4 Al - \ ~