Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1882-04-26
LIGHT WINES.
Mr.. j. de Barth Shorb's Talk With a
Reporter of the San Francisco Mer-
chant-He Claims the Palm for Los
Angeles Wines for Lightness.

L
chant-He Claims the Palm for Los
Angeles Wines for Lightness.
During his late visit to San Francisco
Mr. J. de Barth Shorb, of San Marine
was caught by a reporter of the Sar
Francisco Merchant. We Gull the fol
lowing interesting notes from the inter
| view:
"Mr. Shorb says he sees no reason
why the Los Angeles district should not
produce as light and dry wine as the
more northern counties surrounding this
bay, or any part of the State. Mr..
Shorb believes, after having tasted and
handled largely the best of Sonoma and
Napa dry red wines, he can produce
from his San Gabriel cellar aged wines
from Mission grapes, superior in dryness
to anything Napa or Sonoma winters can
produce from the same variety of grapes
He is willing to bring his opinion to the
test and submit his wines to any disin-
terested and competent committee of
wine tasters for comparison with the
best Sonoma and Napa can show
We recently noticed in the Merchant
the incorporation of the San Gabriel
Wine Company. Mr.. Shorb is the Pres
ident and manager of this company, be-
sides being himself one of the largest of
the vineyard and orchard owners, fruit
growers and wine makers of Los Angeles
county. His vineyard property he will
retain and, as we have already noticed,
he has added 1872 acres of new vines to it
this year. His wine-making business he
will relinquish henceforth to the San
Gabriel Wine Company, who will buy
his grapes and to whom he will hand
over his immense stock of cooperage.
The estate of the San Gabriel Wine
Company consists of 1900 acres, almost
every rod of which is suitable for vines
and will be planted next year. The sea-
son was too late to allow of proper cult
Walton, or commencement would have
been made this year The choice of va
rieties has been determined on and MIR.
Shorb says that nine-tenths of this great
vineyard will be planted with cuttings of
the Rouisillon varieties, that is Mataro,
Grenache, Carignan, Charbouo; also Ber-
ger and Zinfandel.
In the center of the San Gabriel Wine
Company's estate is hill rising IS feet
above the plain, and one face of this hill
will be excavated to permit the founda-
ton of the fermenting house to be laid.
A road ascending by an easy grade Il in
LAY, will permit of wagons loaded with
grapes reaching the summit and deliver
ing their loads on level with the
crushers at the top of the building. The
fermentation building will be 26O feet
long by Is feet in width, with two
floors, there being two crushers on the
roof, and the lower, as the lower floors
ill the buildings of the company, being
formed of asphaltum. The distillery,
100 feet by 40 feet, will be located low
enough to receive everything from the
fermenting house by gravitation. The
carrying Or maturing cellar will be
300 feet long by l46 feet wide, two
floors, and have capacity of $500, 600
gallons. The height from floor to cell
ing of the lower apartment will be II
feet, and of the upper Is feet. The dis
tillery will be furnished with. two stills,
column, and two rectifying stills In
designing these buildings Mr.. Shorb has
borne in mind that it takes pound of
force, either human, animal or steam,
to raise pound load, and he has so ar
ranged everything that from the time
the grapes leave the box, or the juice
flows from the crushers, there will be
no expenditure of labor or steam in
pumping. Everything will tend natur-
ally to lower level by gravitation until
the perfected wine is rolled in cask on
to the railroad car.
The San Gabriel Wine Company will
not wait for grapes of their own growth,
but will this year crush the grapes of
Mr.. Shorb's vineyard and all others
they can buy. The company is layeng
out plans for an enormous business, and
one branch of it is new, at least new on
any large scale, in this State. They in
tend to carry large stocks of wine over
several years, and nurse and mature
them until they are ready for the table
of the connoisseur
The jobbers of this city to whom Mr..
Shorb has talked of his plans, approve
the idea, and it will relieve them of the
enormous outlay, cost and labor of car
rying heavy stocks of old wines from
year to year, until they are fit for the
market, or customer comes forward.
Jobbers will then be able to buy wines
in round lots of high class, for any con-
noisseur's table, and distribute them
through the trade as the demand
arises"