The morning call., 1893-10-03
HOW CALIFORNIA WINE SUFFERS.

Some prospect is now held out that Cali
fornia wines at Chicago will be passed in
judgment by competent experts inste ad OF
being dealt with in almost haphaZard
fashion under Mr.. Boyd ThatcAer's plan.
Mr.. Oldham, the gen tleman referred 10 In
the dispatches. is wine merchant in Lon
don of great experience in handling all
kinds of wines, and he has Intimate ac-
quaintance with the best qualities Of Cali
fornia vintages, which he has. in no small
degree, been instrumental in introducing to
the English trade. 1t would be very salts
factory if with Mr.. Oldham there were as
ISOLATED three or four other European con-
noisseurs, who not only can tell wine in
its existing condition. but form an opin-
ion of its prospects for improvement some
years afterward. A verdict so obtained
would not be official, yet it ought to carry
more weight than the plan officially
adopted.
Que matter connected with California
wines should be dealt with in Congress.
Viiiculture suffers from a species OF fraud
peculiarly crafty, and 1t is not too much to
say that as long as it persists the best
wines we make are liable to be sold, not as
the product of this State, but of European
countries. The modus operand was de-
scrlbed plainly in a recent article In The
CALL. Ours is not in the general sense u
wine-drinking country, and consumers
have the notion that foreign vintages are
the best. Some undoubtedly cannot be
surpassed. Genuine Johannesburg, TOkay,
Rudesheimer or very high-class claret and
Is urgundy cannot be eXcelled, try as we
may, but then there are ten times the guam
titles of the so-styled finest wines sold that
are produced and the consumer simply pays
for HE whistle and is imposed upon. But
in the case of California 1t is not mere
matter of adulteration or misrepresenta-
ton. 1t is an application of the scriptural
practice against which warning is given Of
putting new wine into old bottles-Califor-
MIA wine into European bottles.
If bottled wines of high quality were i'm
ported the dealer could not escape pay
melt of the corresponding tariff duty. and
ne would only have his average profit per-
centage. The trick is to procure foreign
bottles, foreign cOfks, foreign cases, and
foreign labels. and then find the wine for
the bottles In California. This avoids any
customs impost, and the wine. to say the
least. is not bad-probhbl very much
better than most of the imported brands,
unless they are undubltably high class,
which Is far from being guaranteed. This
is papderiDg to the taste for foreign wines
with vengeance. The trade is regularly
supplied almost with shiplOads of empty
cases and bottles which are only too truly
fabricated in Germany and France, and
when filed with good wine from this State
mature and wholesome and not likely to
excite suspicion, but rather to provoke
boasting that no such qualities can be
produced in Amerca-it is an easy matter
TO persuade buyer that as the bottles,
labels and corks are undeniably of foreign
origin. so must the contents come from the
wineclad slopes of the Rhine, the Moselle
or the Garonne.
Clearly this is all wrong and execrabe
II should be punishable thus TO impose on
the American people, but without fresh
legislation the evil cannot be checked
Anybody may import empty bottles and
cases stamped as of foreign origin. 1t is
the use to which the importations are put
which constitutes the fraud. Any bad
wine is called Californian; any good Cali
fornian is liable to he palmed of as for
eign. The reputation the State gets there
fore is very mixed. Dealers understand
these tricks perfectly well; it is the public
who do not, and unscrupulous men do OF
want them to know too much. Some Of
our vineyard proprletors have found a
good market for choice wines, but they are
handicapped by the imposition of the
blending gentry, who profess to dabble
in the wines of all countries and are
adopts in the coniurer's trick of pouring
out many liquids from one source. 1t is
time this detestable traffic should be ended.
and our delegation in Congress should see
TO it, Why not prohibit altogether these
importations of empty cases, bottles, la
bells and corks? There can be no honest
nnrnnsp in the trade