Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-11-01
CALIFORNIA WINES.
4 LETTER IL THE LONDON TIMES
CONCERNING THEM.
Interesting Data About this Indus.
try, Which is of XaIue
to Our ViHe-GrOwerS.

to Our tiHe-GrOWerS.
The following letter, addressed to tn,
editor of the London England Times anc
published in that Journal, will be of deer
interest to all vine-growers in this State
Sir: The communication of Messrs
Gilhey on the +" Vintage of France and
the interesting editorial comments upon il
in the Times of Friday last, will have pre-
pared your readers to expect an explana-
ton of the startling circumstances of SO
large a decline in the consumption OF
French wines in America. Having given
considerable attention to the question of
production and consumption of wine in the
! United States, | am prepared to give YOU
correspondents, as | think, very plain
and cogent reason for the falling off in the
| export of French wine to that country. 1t
is not, as is intimated, the high tariff duty
imposed upon all foreign wines by America,
but israther the growing Importance of Cali
fornia as Il wine-producing country. Ten
years ago the yield of California claret
was only 100000 to 100000 gallons; last
year it exceeded 100000 Ten years ago
there were 5000 to 5000 cases of cham
payne made in the State; last year there
were $4,000 cases. The total vintage of
California last year was from 100000 to
100000 gallons, representing a money
value of 100000. About 100000 gal
Ions of this product is consumed in the
State Of California, which has population
of only about 100000 souls; the remaining
100000 gallons find Il market in the
Eastern, Middle, and Southern States Of
the Union. ! may mention that in South
ern California, there is single vineyard
which has turned out during the last four
years an average of about 100000 gallons
of wine, and 100000 gallons of brandy an
nually, all OF which finds ready sale at
remunerative prices. One half this prod
uct is from grapes grown on the estate,
which has now 7G0 acres of vines in bear
ing, the other half is from grapes pur-
chased from neighboring small vineyards
at price of $50 to SD per ton of 2000tb.
At this purchase price for grapes the wine
costs about zoe. per gallon, and this wine,
at two wears old, sells for SOC. to 75c. per
gallon. This cheapness of price at which
pure and unadulterated California wine
can be, and is sold, fully accounts for the
declining importation of foreign wine,
which from France has fallen from 1872
423 gallons in 1872, to 1928 gallons in
1881, while the total imports from all for
eign countries have fallen from 9,484, l57
gallons in 1872, to 4,570,941 gallons in
1881.
Before the advent of the California pro-
duct, all wine produced in or imported into
the United States was necessarily held and
sold at such high figures as Precluded their
Loe ;uy any save the richer class The cost
of raising grapes in the States east of the
Rocky mountains is from four to six times
as great as it is in the semi-tropic portions
of California hence the wine produced
from grapes grown in the Eastern States,
aggregating as it does some 25,000000 gal
Ions annually, cannot be sold Tor much less
than the imported article, which fact prac-
tically gives California monopoly in the
future wine trade of America
Americans hitherto have not been con-
sidered wine-drinking people, but with
good, sound, unauthorized California wine
at so to 70 cents per gallon, or II to %
cents per bottle, there is an assured future
for an almost illimitable expansion of Cal
ifornia vineyards, especially 50 when it is
remembered that the United States has a
population of over 53000000, the greater
portion of whom are Observation-Disclosures for
no other cause than the hitherto high
prices of the imported article.
If, however, the duty on French wines
was repealed, and they were allowed to
come in free, there is anything but a flat
terinS assurance that America would get
from France much of the pure juice Of the
grape, as ! find in British Nice-Consul
Helmers report on the vintage of the
Rhine and Moselle for 1888 that up to Oc-
tober of that year tie loss of fortune due
to the ravages of the phylloxera amounted
00,000000 and figures are given to
show that nearly 3,500,000 acres Of the
total 6.000,G00 odd acres Of land planted to
vines in France had been wholly or par
italy DESTROYED by phylloxera up to 1888.
The same authority states that the average
yearly consumption Of wine i'll France
amount. f. y gallons for every unit Of its
population, and as the population is over
100000 the yearly home consumption
must therefore be 100000 gallons. This
enormous home consumption of wine III
France only further indicates the immense
possibilities Of the wine-growing interests
Of California, for in the whole United
States, with population of over $1,000,
600, the present yearly consumption of
wine from all sources of supply only
amounts to 100000, which is less than
one gallon per capita.
According to the report OF British Vice
Consul Hayes Sadler, from Ia Rochelle,
for 1882, the average total yearly product
Of all the vineyards of France for the past
ten years to 1882 was only 900 million gal
Ions, thus proving that for the last ten
years the annual home consumption OF
wine in France has been Si,000,000 gallons
in excess of its average yearly total pro-
duct. This, added to lis annual export Of
G0,0O0,000 gallons, proves that some con-
sumers either at home or abroad must buy
and drink large quantities of so-called
French wine that is not made from the
Juice Of the grape; and ii would appear
from the 1882 report OF British Consul
Ward, of Bordeaux, that at least some Of
the spurious adulteration is shipped abroad,
as in treating on this subject he says:
The advance in the prices of genuine
Medoc wine, and the considerable increase
of demand for French clarets in all parts
of the world, have Doubtless been accom-
panied by 4 very great augmentation in
the production and sale of falsifed and
adulterated wine, both at Bordeaux and
other parts of France, and in an equal Il
not in a more extensive degree in ether
countries. 1t may, unfortunately, be stated
as fact that the quantity of adulterated
and falsifed (so-cailed) Bordeaux wine
exported at present annual y-for instance,
from this port itseli-is very considerable
In corroboration of what have stated
in regard TO the growing Importance OF
wine production in California, / cannot do
better than quote the following extract
from the addrcss Of Mr.. Ilovd lows. Presi-