Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-01-25
OUR NATIVE WINES.
4 WHAT A DEALER HAS TO SAY OF
THEIR GROWING POPULARITY.
Foreign Wines and Labels Becoming Un-
fashionable-Ths Use of Drugs In
Aduiteration A Dealers
Prophecy of the Future
[Chicago Herald.l

[Chicago Heraidl
"Are native American wines growing in
favor in ChicagoP asked q reporter OK a
dealer
If greater call for them by their Anne II
can names is an Indication of increasing pop
ularity they are certainly growing in favor,
he replied The fact is Americans are get
ting their eyes open to the fact that for some
years the larger portion OF the wine they
have been drinking from bottles bearing a
foreign label was purely American, and, as a
result the wines are called for in their own
American names There are!enterprising in
dividuals in every section OF the country
who have large factories where foreign wine
is manufactured out of American. The
American wine is thrown into the watts, and
If not up t. the standard in spirit native
corn juice is added For flavor some foreign
wine is added and coloring matter If re-
quired Different favors, you know, are
owing entirely to soil and air. The .lmeri-
can wines usually have a high fruity favor,
and that has been a serious injury to the
market for them Indeed, when intended for
foreign palstes they have to be toned down
and weakened. Our wines do not readily
find favor with Germans They have much
more fruit than the Rhsinish winesL Many
French people who use our native wines
commonly on their tables invariably weaken
them with water.
-Americans are not habitual wine drink
ers, and few can tell a really good wine from
an inferior quality. In Europe every one
drinks wine, and knows the difference.
often hear Americans object to the roughness
of new red wines Now the tannic acid
an = .
BILE and healthy property. It imparts favor
and gives frmness to the wine. Moreover,
it is an indication Of pure wine, for this
property can only be legitimateiy produced
from the skins, pips and stalks Of the grape"
Are drugs used to great extent in the
adulteration of wines, either foreign or
Americana"
Il believe but lirtle in the stories Of wines
composed Of drugs, or by the addition Of
drugs The so-called adulterated wines are
such as are made from the second or
third pressing Of the grapes in these color
ing matter has to be added The coloring
matter has been extracted from the skins
with the tannic acid, to the roughness of
which so many Americans object, and i'm
agine because of its presence that the wine is
impure. These wines which are produced
after the first squeezing are astringent
and therefore have to Re tannified and
made up for drinking. In all the cheap
French wines color has been added All
the finest clarets and burgundies when
new are much rougher than cheap wines Of
the same age. BY the use Of gypsum or lima
new wine is frequently made ready for i'm
mediate consumption, the tartrates being
thus artificially removed. But to take The
tartrates out of wine is to deprive it of life
and the power OF improving with age. Wins
is sometimes prepared for immediate use by
the addition Of spirits and so preventing its
complete fermentation The sweet California
wines are made in this way. Sugar is added
to the juice to keep it from fermentation,
and then sufficient spirit to bring it up to the
standard Many persons complain Of head
ache after drinking the sweet California
wines, and it is produced by the artificial ad-
dition of spirits to the sweetened juice Of the
grape. The health-giving constituents of
wine are destroyed by the addition of either
lime or spirits. There is no more objectiona-
BILE process to which light wines are subjected
than that of sweetening. Women, espec-
tally, are fond OF sweet wines, and the ma
jority do not know that an unswsetened wine
is usually purer and of higher grade. Cheap
port and sherry are always sweet Perfectly
fermented, and therefore dry wine, rarely
exceeds 26 per cent Of proof spirit, and is
then tartareous A well made and healthful
wine is one in which all the sugar has bed
converted into alcohol and all the nitrugen-
Gus ferment has been exhausted. Such win
can never disagree with the human stomach.
1t may not be strong or Of fine flavor. but Il
will keep and be wholesome. nl-made wines
will not keep unless fortified by the addition
alcohol, and are extremely hurtful, for they Of
are imperfectly decomposed, retaining the
exhausted ferment
~Americans and the French like cham
payne sweet and this wine, as prepared by
the European manufacturers, Is simply one
fifth sirup The English do not care for it SO
sweet, and for their market it Is made one
tenth or one twelfth sirup It is difficult to
judge champagne by the standard Of other
wines, for it is to great extent a sophisti-
Gated article. One well-known English au-
thority on wine-growing naively remarks
that 1t is known by the houses by which it
is manufactured greater than by the vine
yards where it is grown All wine that
comes even from Champagne is by no means
genuine There are manufacturers there
who fabricate wines from grapes never
grown in the district which alone produces
the real fruit
Il believe said the wine merchant in con-
clusion, that the day is not far distant when
the red wines of America will supplent the
low grades Of Burgundy and Bords.ux.
Illinois produces from l,000. 600 to 2,OOo, 600
gallons Of wine yearly Virginia, Ohio,
Missouri and New York are all good wine
growing localities The California wines
are more susceptible Of disguise than the
other American wines, and are most impor-
tant factors in the American manufacture
Of ioreign brands There has been very
little native champagne, however, sold under
foreign labels since congress passed the trade
mark law.
In less than q hundred years America
viii be exporting wine to Europe instead Of
importing it, and it will be used here a.
much for general table drink as in France
or Italy. With our varied climate there is
no other drawback to producing as fine wine
az can be made on the face of the earth but
lack of encouragement, and slowly the wins-
growers are gaining that"