The herald., 1897-04-26
FRENCH WINES
AS Made With or Without
Grape Juice
CHANCELLOR'S CRITICISMS
CALL FORTH A PROTEST FROM
THE FRENCH
The State Department Makes an I'm
partial Resume of the State
ments of Both Parties
Associated Press Special Wire.


WASHINGTON, April 25.-The prom
ised statement from the department Of
state touching the report on the French
wine trade by United State Consul
Chancellor at Havre, has been completed
and will appear in the May number of
the United States consular reports. The
department briefly recalls the fact that
Mr.. Chancellor in his report of July "a,
1885, alleged that much of the French
wine was not produced in the vineyards
and that $4,000 casks of so-called wine
had been destroyed by the Paris munic-
ipal laboratory, having no grape juice in
it at all. He had also alleged that the
great deficit in the wine crop caused by
the phylloxera had been made up from
a fluid made of raisins, currants, lees
and such materials.
1t is stated that M Hanotaux last De-
cember called the attention of our am
bassador to Paris to the fact that the
Bordeaux chamber of commerce had pro-
tested against the statements of the con-
sui and that an official investigation
had called forth a denial from the munic-
llldl lhupTHIuTN IHdI II Hau utSlTONtn any
such quantity of wine. The statements
were referred back to Mr.. Chancellor,
who replied that he had obtained his in
formation as to the destruction of the 49,
900 casks of wine from a reliable English
journal, but the name of the journal he
was Unable to recall While in Paris in
1887 under commission from the govern
nient of Maryland, he had, investigated
the wine sheds and was there told that
a large number of casks would be de-
stroyed and that this action was not un-
usual. In support of statement that
large quantities of sugar were used in
the preparation of wines from lees, Mr..
Chancellor referred to debates in the
chamber lin the course of which M. VIII
jean had protested against the prohi-
bition of the manufacture of this kind
of wine on the ground that it caused the
consumption of no less than 100, 90 0tons
of sugar yearly.
Having thus laid down the case and
Mr.. Chancellor's defense of his state
ments, the state department prints the
following statement made by the French
embassy here under date of March 8
last: 1.-THE attention of the French wine
merchants has been called to a report
entitled, Wine Making in France pub
lished in consular report No. $50, Sep
tember, 1895, by C. w. Chancellor, Unit
ed States consul at Havre, France, and
containing some incorrect statements
which might cause prejudice to French
commerce and which it seems desirable
to rectify.
"First-Mr. Chancellor having prob
ably in mind the decrease of wine pro-
duction from which France suffered DUR
ing long period, says that large guam
titles of wine contain no grape juice.
Statistical information shows that over
four million acres of vineyards were
partially infected by the plague during
the last twenty years, two millions of
which were already planted up to 1895.
On the other hand the production of
wine has been in the last two years ex-
ceptionally abundant
"Second-Mr. Chancellor, referring to
information published in an English
journal and reproduced in American pa
pers, added that the French government
recently destroyed $4,000 casks of adul-
terated wines.
From an official inquiry 1t appears
that there is no rectrd at the municipa,
laboratory of Paris of such destruction.
The occasional seizure and destruction
of small quantities Of adulterated winds
are rather to the honor of the French
government, which thus protects the
health of its citizens. Measures have,
besides, been taken for the purpose of
prohibiting over-alcoholization of wines
and the addition thereto of water or Of
any element whatever of adulteration.
'It may be added that, according to
medical inquiries made by highly COM
petent consumption of French wine, is
beneficial to public health. The official
statistics in this regard are worthy of
attention; they show that drunkenness
is less frequent in wine-consuming re-
g;ons. Out of 100 cases of public GeEnk-
enness, punishable by the law of 1873,
twenty-nine cases were recorded in the
northwest of France and thirty-four in
the north, where spirits are mostly con-
sumed, while nine cases were recorded
in the center. five in the southwest and
only four in the south, where the use of
wine among the laboring classes is gen.
eral."