Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-01-31
Gra,e e,ulsure,


its importance all other industries OF
this State. The present is an excel
lent time to set new vineyards, and it
is question what sort of vines to
plant for wine-makiog. Some years
ago the HERALD published a little
plea for the Mission vine. That short
paragraph has been copied into all the
prominent papers Of this coast. Re-
emily Mr.. Albert Sutliff, an editorial
writer on the San Francisco Chronicle,
while visiting in France, wrote to our
esteemed metropolitan contemporary
some letters on vines and wines. In
one of those he takes occasion to
quote the views of the HERALp with
very positive endorsement, alter his
experience in Europe. We take the
liberty of reproducing our own words
with the endorsement ofthe Chronicles
correspondent appended, as follows:
The vines are small and so trimmed
and trained that each cluster has its
share of sunlight. The clusters
are small and compact and the
grapes are round, hard, scarcely
larger than wortleberries, and of u de-
licious flavor. They are absolutely
harmless. There can possibly be no
better remedy for disordered diges-
ton. There is nothing in California
that resembles them except the Mis-
sion grape, which is also OF respecta
BILE antiquity. 1t may be that in the
last rests the problem OF fine wines for
which California is searching, it is
more like the grapes not alone of the
Champagne, but OF Burgundy, than
any other cultivated in the State.
Speaking OF the Mission grape, l
found something very much to the
point in the Chronicle few days ago,
copied from the Los Angeles HERALD.
1t brings up the whole question OF
what c California viticulturists are justi-
fed in expecting from imported vines.
The vine is sensitive to changes OF
place and condition. Changed from
one part of France to another where
the climate is much the same, it pro-
duces an entirely different wihe. In
Burgundy, if transferred to another
hillside, the quality is entirely
changed.
"What can you expect" said an
experienced employe in the Epernay
establishment wich | visited, from
any particular variety of vine, when
| if you take it from here and put it
over ther,"- "-indicating locality not
half mile distant-'the wine made
from it is not OF the same kind or
quality at all?' M. de Venoge told
me that he had himself seen grapes
from vines OF the champagne that had
been transplanted to California.
They were large and fine looking. but
had quite lost their characteristic
taste. l give a paragraph from the
the article in question from the Los
Angeles HERALD.
[ people here twenty years ago, knew that
| the Mission grape was capa BILE OF being CON
verted into wines OF all sorts ana of the
noblest qualities. Some of them have seen
| bottles of white, dry wines made of this
| grape opened that sparkled like champagne,
| that was as clear Us crystal spring, with
a bouquet the most delicate and flavor like
nectar. Cucamonga wine was famous a
| score of years ago. The Anaheim people
made white wine fit for the table of any
connoisseur before a foreign grape had
been crushed in the county. For the sweet
wine family all know that the old-timer has
no superior in the whole vine family. For
port, angelica, sherry and for brandy there's
nothing like it. AS it is discovered that our
Zinfandel possesses too much acid and will
| not become smooth, and tha at other foreign
| grapes fail to produce ideal wines, growers
| are learning TO look with favor on the
| pioneer grape of the country. A revulsion
III favor of the Mission grape has already
set in"
am compelled to dissent, at least
in part, from one conclusion OF the
writer, that in which he attributes the
excellence of the Mission grape to the
similarity of the climate of Spain to
that of California. The fact is there
is no resemblance between the climate
OF Spain and our own, except along
the Mediterranean and parts OF the
Atlantic coast, from which it is hardly
probable the Mission grape came.
From what have said in regard to
transplanted vines in the Champagne
and in Burgundy, it is evident that a
difference in wine may come from
the same stock without any diff
ference of climate at all. The
Mission grape came to California
from Mexico, an may therefore have
a purely American pedigree of two or
three hundred years. The good
qualities of this vine are therefore
probably to be attributed to its long
descent rather than to resemblance
between the climates of Spain and
California, which as regards the for
mer country are purely local. The
other remarks OF the Herald are just
and worthy the attention of every
viticulturist in California. When the
ideal wine Of California is found it
will probably be Of new type totally
distinct ffom the product of any other
wine-making region OF the world And
as we have such a variety of soil and
climate there should be not only one
type, but many.