Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-29
LAKE OF RED WINE.
A Cfstern which VIII Hold 5OO,OoO
Gallons of Grape Juice.

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
rippling lake of red wine. hidden from
sun and sheltered from change of temper
ature by a great mound of earth. hall
million gallons of sweet grape juice ripen-
ing in a subterranean cavern. artificial
though il be- is the new California style
Ten times might the great tun of Heidei-
berg he filed before this hidden spring
would he exhausted. and the great redwood
reservoir in this city and its companion
at MERGED are but as thimbles TO this
giants liquor glass.
An enormous bottle it is, and its filling
is not accomplished though for five days
two steam pumps have forced 4-inch
streams of the expressed juices OF the
Swiss-Italian Colonys grapes INTO H. Be
fore this great tank at Astf. whose sides
are the rocks of the Russian river valley.
all previous attempts at the storage of vast
quantities of grape juice are inSigntflcant.
Wooden reservoirs of the same rectansu-
lar shape have taken the place of the tuns
in which the joyful juices of the Rhineside
grapes took on their full sweetness and
flavor. Long ago the 50.O00- gallon Hedel-
berg tun was surpassed. London boasted
tanks twice as large, and San francisco
adds half to that and is still behind Mer-
ced. whose great tun will hold four times
the full of its historic predecessor
The revolutiOniZing bottle-lake. which
will hold s10O.nn0 worth of grape Juice fey
three months before il must be drawn into
the aging tanks. was a creature of neces-
sity. and it is the product of ingenuity
for, though ii Is an excavation, cement
lined and covered. its interior has been
glazed perfectly that tae properties
of glass are all there and the wine should
grow old and mellow as comfortably as in
the narrow walls of a man-blown flask,
First. an excavation was made in a
rocky hillside In the rear of the winery
Next a wall of concrete, feet In thick
ness. was put in the floor and the sides
and hrrtIf int fla l1tf lCirt t-
supported by fifteen steel girdcrs. Next.
the entire surface was covered with a lin
Ing of pure cement. and finally this was
glazed to the impermeabiity oc glass. The
whole has been buried beneath 3 feet of
earth, and soon grass will grow above
the wine lake. The object of all these
precautions is to maintain the wine at u
uniform temperature.
The cement wine tank is 10i feet long,
si feet wide and 81 feet high. From the
exterior. however. 1t appears as n gigan-
tic mound. In the center is a manhole 3
feet in diameter, which will serve to allow
the passage of a workman to clean ont
the clstern when empty. while two 4-inch
pipes are the medium through which the
wine is pumped into the reservoir. 1t has
been 50 placed Its bottom being a little
above that of the cellar that the contents
may be drawn off by graVitation. To this
end tunnel feet In diameter has been
built, through which run 6-inch pipes. COM
muniCa;ing with the -. .G0t- gallon wooden
tanks in which the wine is aged pre-
vious 10 being placed in barrels and
Shipped.
The cost of the wine reservoir was re-
uuced one-half from the fact that the sand
and gravel were obtained right on the spot
the Russian river being only a few hum
ared feet distant. and containing in its
dry bed all of the material required. As it
was, the cost was $500. There are sew
erai Advantages to be derived from the
construction of the concrete and cement
SiStSrh- one OF these. it Is expected. will
be that wine will be maintained at an even
cooi temperature Another is the equal
blending of 100000 gallons of wine at one
time third is the saving in insurance
TnlS Is calculated AT the rate of 81 500 per
anndm. which in five years would repay
the cost of construction
III was necessity and not choice. how
ever. which led to the experiment proba-
py so fruitful In its consequences. The
grapes OF the 1talian-Swiss colony were
Eufncient TO fill.entirely its cooperare and
nelshborlnS yineyardists, desiring to sell
Their products to member of the wine
makers corporation, some means had to be
devised 10 care for these cranes The
crushing machinery and the fermsntatinn
apparatus were sufficient but the problem,
was what should be done with the wine
The IDEA of the concrete cistern was
preached and adopted.
only forty-fiye days however rem.ino5
Tor its execution. a large number of la
porers was therefore employed, and thew
by working day and night. were enabled
10 complete the task in exactly the tir,e
showed; Forty-fve days after beginning
the tank it was done and only ops i5o,,.s
delay was caused in the picking and crnSb
ing OF the grapes. Thursday last the nro-
cess OF ming the gigantic receDtacIe with
wine was begun Pumps were SET To work
oii poth 4-lhch pipes. and by Saturday
day night the immense o1Iantitr ns ,,t,,o
VIII De IN place.