The morning call., 1894-11-17
NEW HOPE FOR wINE-dROwERs.

The wine-growers of California, after
struggling for several years with the nor
NAL diffic Utilities of their industry, have at
last combined and have organized an as
ISOLATION OF their own TO fight the common.
interests. If they carry out the purposes
of their organiZat ton the price of wine on
this coast will not be determined by the
middlemen. but will be regulated by the;
natural law of supply and demand. i
Ten years ago the aggregate quantity of
wine produced in California was said to
fluetuate between fifteen and twenty mil
lion gallons, and at meetings OF vine-grow-
ers the public was assured that in a yery
little while the crop would not fall short
of 50,000,0 600 gallons. In this year-1S9l-
the yield is estimated. by those who know,
at 100000 The discrepancy between.
promise and performance may be ac-
counted for in various ways. In several
wine districts in Napa, Sonoma and Ala
media counties the ravages of the phyllox-
era destroyed a number of vines and re-
duced the output. When an at empt was
made to pass a law through the Legisla-
ture. modelled on the laws of Germany and
France. empowering State officials to up
root diseased vines, it was defeated Had
that law passed when it was first pro-
posed. and the infected vines been de-
stroyed and replaced with resistant stock.
the districts where the phylloxera had
made their appearance would perhaps now
be on the high road to increased produc-
ton, as similar districts are In France
instead of falling off in product year by
year.
But the phylloxera are not the only cause
of the disappointment which has over
taken the wine industry. The policy of
the wine-dealers has tended to discoura ge
the planting of vines. 1t has been the
rule of the monopoly to get out of our
wines all that there was in them, leaving
nothing for any one else. At the present
time, for instance, thu price fixed by the
dealers for new sound wine-not of fancy
grade-is 11h cents gallon. 1t costs the
grower for cooperage, handling, transpor-
tatlon and other charges about cents a
gallon Thus the net price realized by
him is about 81 cents. This does not re-
pay him for his labor, independent of in
terest on his investment or his mortgage.
Thus every year an increasing number of
persons who own vineyards are letting
them go to waste, deeming 1t unwise 10
incur xpenditures which would practicable
be throwing good money after bad, A few
scientific viDe-growers, who have planted
extra choice stocks and have handled the
juice according TO the rules of the indus
Try. have produced really fue wines and
have made money out of them.
Every one knows that the popular wines
CT the day are the fruito of judcous blends.
Experience teaches the wine-maker that
mixture Of two kinds of good wine will
often be better than either separately.
Thus no blame can be attached to the
wine-dealers for blending the wines they
buy. But the practice has led to mischief.
The California wines which are blended in
this city and sold in the East are rarely
sold as California wines. They are put on
the New York and Chicago markets as
products of the Gironde-St. julien, Ste.
Esteppe. Medoc and so forth. Thus a
grave Injustice is done to our product. es-
peeiaily as The wines sold in New York as
California wine are often decoction made
from dried grapes toned up with chemi-
Gals.
The business of the new Wine-growers'
Association will be, first, to regulate the
price of raw wine by the law of supply,
demand and quality and secondly. to see
to 1t that our wines have chance 10 the
New YORK market by being sold on their
merits for what they really are. The first
object can be obtained here, especially
when the sweet-wine makers and the
small outlying body of dry-wine makers
join the organization. The latter will in