The San Francisco call., 1895-12-15

t1anked by horseshoe galleries, each ter
minating in si0e pavilions, faces the monu-
ment of the Girondists. and its interior Is
divided into several large halls or galleries
filled with innumerable WORKS OF the in
dustries and industrial arts, the porcelains
of Limoges, the faiences OF Naaurls, the
bronZes, jewels of the greatest houses OF
France and other countries, art furniture,
glassware, etc. The rear part, the beautl-
full facade of which fronts on the river
quai, is styled the '.Palais de la Gironde,
and consists principally of one undivided
immense hall, harboring the most I'M
portant part of the wine and spirits exhibit
of the Worlds Fair.
There are other buildings and sections
within the exhibition grounds also de-
voted to this wine exposition, as for
instance, very large hall filled with Gel
lar appliances, all of the latest improve
ment, sample vineyards planted in all the
celebrated vine varieties known in France,
etc. These outside viticultural exhibits
are by no means lost among all the other
various large exhibition buildings and de-
partments of prominence, such as the
Palace OF Electricity, the Algerian and
other colonial pavilions, the Midway
PIaisance" of the Annamite, Senegal and
Scudan villages, populated by hundreds OF
skillful artisans and artists, the machinery
hall, art exhibits, chemical industries and
many interesting speclaltles such as the
artificial preservation in lncubators OF
prematurely born infants, etc.
4 X X K X
But all these features are overshadOwed
by this unique international wine exhibit
tion. the like of which in completeness
and detail has hardly been seen hereto
| fore.
| The interior of the "Palais des Nins' of
| itself is q beautiful sight in the artistic,
tasteful arrangement OF all these large and
small pavilions, kiosks pyramids, col
umns. From the center of the hall there
rises a graceful monument and work OF
sculpture, an elegant round .'lardlnlere"
| filled with choicest flowers and plants, the
| four pedestals of which support allegorlcal
| bronze figures and ceramic vases, While
the high middle column, with its orna-
mental frieze and dome, IS httlngly
crowned by the bronze statue of The
| Wine drinker," holding a full goblet IN
his right hand.
To the left of this monument are grouped
within very richly decorated installation,
the "Salon d'Honneur" of the wine pal
ace, the most beautiful flowers of the viii
cultural wreath of the wonderful Gironde;
| Medoc, Red Graves, St. Emilionnais and
the white Sauterne wines. Here we
| find under the banner of the agricultural
and viticultural syndicates of Blanquefort
AMI Lesparre (Nathaniel Johnson, presi-
dent), the four foremost ''crus'' ''-Chateaux
Latte, La Tour, Margaux and Haut
Brion; then follows a certain num-
| ber OF second crus OF the Medoc, of
third, fourth, fifth crus, thereafter
the superior bourgeois and the plain
bourgeois of the same country, all COM
prising 100 exhibitors; further the exhibit
| ton made by the agricultural committee"
of the Medoc, collective exhibit Of eighty
contributors of "bourgeois." ARTISAN"
and peasant crus, in their successive
order and rank. Honor be 10 Medoc, to
those wines which any one may drink
without the least hesitancy in all the ex-
cellence of their long noble descent!
| Indeed, they have glorious old history.
AS early as 1902 the wine of Gascony,
which included the Bordeaux crus, held
an important place in the London market.
| Its expectation engaged 1000 sailors and
! pilots continually. Even in the sixteenth
century the precious Medoc products could
not be dethroned in the British Isles by
! the wines of Spain and Portugal, which
then had become general favorites. About
! that time a French ambassador to the
! English court wrote home: "Our white
LOUIS are changed into English crowns,
and If the loss of Dunkirk to the English
| has robbed us of that money the wine of
Gascony will bring it back to u.s." During
| 1130 10000 tuns of Bordeaux wine, valued
at over 1000, 600 livres, were exported, not
only to England, but to Denmark, Elan
ders, Sweden, Germany and America.
| In the ''Salon d 'Honneur" we further
| find the great white wines, the unsurpassed
| Chateau Yquem and ten of the first class
| of the Sauternais; ChateauX Cimens,
Guiraud, Rabaud, ETC., which during the
last five years yielded in total nearly 6,0O0,-
| 600 bottles of precious wine produced from
grapes picked singly and throughout Sc
| lected most carefully.
! ha a1S fn oh
| the other old crus of France, the wines of
Sainct Melyon," which are so strongly con-
| stituted that they will appear in all their
beauty when other Medocs grow weak;
the Saint Emiilon, Bonorol, st. Christophe
des Bardes, etc., here worthily represented
| by eighty exhibits.
| Next comes the collective exhibit of the
celebrated Libournais district (seventy-
three exhibitors) of Fronsac with the gen
| erous ruby crus of the Canon coast and of
| Dordogne (St. Michel, Saillans, Vevac, etc.,
all of old reputation and many others.
There is very brilliant collective exhi-
bition of the Canton de Bourg sur Gironde,
| beginning with the year 1865 and coming
| down to 1894, also generous wines so CO.
| piously produced by the picturesque sites
of this district, with its fertile soil. Many
new extensive plantations have been made
there during the latter years. especially of
the Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet and Verdot
varieties, which thrive so Wellln CallfOr-
MIA, but especially of Cabernet which,
blended with Malbec and Merlot, will
produce wines which mature rapidly for
consummation.
Also in the once phylloxera district of
the Canton de st. Andre de Cubzac, repre-
sented here by $50 exhibitors, the gratis of
the varieties just named have made most
wonderful progress toward the reconstruc-
ton of those vineyards.
For want of space 1 must abstain from
dwelling in detail on all those interesting
various French exhibits, the grand wins of
Burgundy with all their noble names. the
Chambertin, Vougeot, Pomard, Beaume,
Nuts, Montrache (mostly made out of the
black Pinot grape), or the white Chablis
tout of white Pinot or Chardenet), with a
total production in 1893 of 70 900, 900 Ameri-
can gallons, or on the wines of the midi"
(south) Algiers, Tunis, Roussillon, Carig-
name, or all the champagnes- of Rheims,
Epernay, Cote dor. Saumur, ETC., or the
very fine cognac exhibit OF the two Cha
rentes, etc.
In the central part of the north side of
the hall we find the foreign exhibits, by the
side of Spain, Bavaria's Palatinate wines,
Italy's large show, the collections of Por-
tugal Chile, Argentine, Russia, California,
etc. The most interesting of these are the