The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1891-05-02
THOSE BANQUET WINES.
SAN Francisco Deals Stunning Bio,
to California.

The San Francisco 4 l0 yesterday pub
lished the following as it's leading edito-
rial. It should be read and remembered
by all Californians:
General Barnes, in a reported inter
view, 10 account for the snubbing of Cali
fornia winners and vineyardists, offers
an excuse which does not excuse. He is
reported as saying:
1--WE have had great difficulty with the
question, both in respect to native and
foreign products. Each producer and
manufacturer has considered his product
the best and maintained that it should be
put on the menu with the name of pro-
ducer and manufacturer appended. At
least eight or ten different brands have
been in competition for this sort of gratll-
itOus advertising"
Granting all this, what excuse is there
for putting every brand of French cham
payne known to the trade on the bill,
with the name of the house or firm which
introduces it? No doubt the dealers in
the foreign wines contended for an eX-
elusive chance at this ''sort of gratuitous
advertising" but in the end they all got
just what they wanted and California got
what is Of no value atall to her wine inter
est. The General is perhaps not to blame
for falling to see the point, for it is not in
his line. He says that ''the committee
has put on the list all the we'll known
brands, without undertaking to act as an
advertising medium for the agencies"
But this is just what the committee has
done: it has advertised the brand, and
that is all the agency wants. It is useless
to pretend that the committee has put
California on a level with her competitor,
France. If this were true the brands
would not be fixed to the French wines.
but they would appear i'll this form,
champagne (French)." and France
would be penned up i'll a parenthesis as
California is.
In behalf Of the committee, General
Barnes says There will be plenty of
California wines at the banquet, and who
ever calls for them will get them" The
same is true of California water and bread
and meat, but the committee which gra-
tuitouSly advertiSes, on q costly menu for
an historical occasion, nine French wine
/ houses, does not seem to comprehend the
fact that no California wine-maker cares
whether a mOuthful of his wine is drank
at that banquet, nor does the French
dealer care whether a cork of his wine is
pulled there. The whole thing was done
and undone in printing the wine list. The
menu is All elaborate book, an edition de
L,tce. in fact, and there would have been
no jealousy amongst the California wine
men if a page in it had been given to
their vintages. Every leading maker in
the State could have had at least one wine
III such list. y page would have held
every established California brand, and q
page should have been given to them.
Every French wine house that is adyer-
tised i'll this beautifully engraved and
printed souvenir menu will have one. and
it will advertise to its trade that its brand
was used at the great banquet given to
the President of the United States at
San Francisco, California, and the wine
drinking world will say, ''Ha! hal! that
1 settles it. Caliiornians dare not offer
! their own brands to the American Presi-
dent" It puts our whole wine interests
/ at q distinct and humiliating disad-
vantage. That interest has struggled and
wrought and hoped, and more than any
I thing else it has lacked local loyalty and
encouragement. Those who are not
sacrificing and tOiling to build up so i'm
/ poTtant an industry cannot be expected
/ 70 feel the pinch in the fortunes of those
who are.
/ To such as are unfeeling in this matter,
! we say, in perfect seriousness, that this
/ affair OF the banquet wines is costly
/ blow ut this industry. 1t is something
/ more than snub, something colder than
neglect, something less endurable than
/ bad taste. 1t is a direct commercial dam
/ age. When one reflects how easily it
/ might have been avoided by carrying
! into practice some Of the loud professions
/ about loyalty to American products,
/ there may be some room for real i'm
! patience. The foreign rivals Of Califor-
! MIA have carried off the benefits Of an
/ American occasion, and that is all that
! can be said about it. BY its own people
/ this State has been sent to the rear, de-
NOTED and given the second fiddle.