Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1898-01-13
A LAKE OF RED WINE,
Greatest Receptacle for Grape Jut
In the World.

Greatest Receptacle for Grape Juice
In the World.
A ripping like Of red wine, hidden
from sun and sheltered from change OF
temperature by great mound Of earth,
half million gallons of sweet grape
juice ripening In subterranean cavern,
artificial though 1t be, Is the new Oali-
fornia style. Ten times might the great
tun of Heidelburg be filed before this
hidden spring would be exhausted, and
the great redwood reservoir in this city
and Its companion at Merced are but
as thimbles to this giants liquor glass
An enormous bottle II Is, and its filling
Is not accomplished though for five days
two steam pumps have forced fourinch
streams of the expressed Juices Of The
Swiss-1talian colony's grapes into II.
Before this great tank at Asti, whose
sides are the rocks Of the Russian river
valley, al previous attempts at the
storage Of vast quantities Of grape
Juice are Insignificant Wooden reser-
eoirs of the same rectangular shape
have taken the place Of the tuns in
which the Joyful juices Of the Rhineside
grapes took on their FUN sweetness and
flavor. Long ago the 6o,0c0-gancu
Heidelberg tun was surpassed. London
boasted tanks twice as large and San
Francisco adds a half to that and Is
still behind Merced, whose great tun
win hold four times the fun of It's hts
toric predecessor.
The fevolutionizing bottle-lake, which
will hold 100000 worth Of grape Juice
for three months before 1t must be
drawn into the aging tanks, was q
creature Of necessity and Is the product
Of ingenuity. For though II is an ex-
cavation, cement lined and covered, its
interior has been glazed SO perfectly
that the properties OF glass are al
there, and the wine should grow old and
mellow as comfortably as in the mar
row walls of man-blown flask.
FIRST an excavation was made IN
a rocky hillside in the rear Of the
winery. Next a wall OF concrete, two
feet In thickness was put In the floor
and sides and built into the cover, the
latter being supported by IS steel
girders. Next the entire surface was
covered with lining of pure cement
and finally this was glazed to the i'm
permeability of glass. The whole has
been buried beneath three feet of earth
ard soon grass will grow above the wine
lake. The object of all these precau-
tions is to maintain the wine at a uni
form temperature.
The cement wine tank is 104 feet long,
"a feet wide and "a feet high. From the !
exterior, however, it appears as a gi-
gaDtic mound. In the center Is a man
hole three feet in diameter, which !
will serve to allow the passage |
of a workman to clean out the cfs-
tern when empty, while two four-inch !
pipes are the medium thro ough which |
the wine is pumped into the reservoir.
It has been so placed, its bottom being
a little above that of the cellar, that !
the contents may be drawn off by gravi-
tation. To this end tunnel, four feet in
diameter, has been built, through which
run six-inch pipes, communicating with
the 25,0o0-gallon wooden tanks in /
which the wine is aged previous to be-
Ing placed in barrels and shipped.
The cost of the wine reservoir was /
reduced one-half from the fact that the
sand and gravel were obtained right on
the spot, the Russian river being only
a few hundred feet distant and contain
ing in its dry bed all of the material !
required. AS 1t was, the cost was 81 800.
There are several advantages to be de-
rived from the construction of the con-
crete and cement cistern. One of these
it is expected will be that the wine viii
be maintained at an even, cool tempera-
ture Another is The equal blending II
5e0,0 gallons of wine at one time.
A third is the saving in insurance. This
Is calculated at the rate of $500 per
annum, which in five years would repay
the cost of construction.
1t was necessity and not choice, how
ever, which led TO the experiment, prob
ably so fruitful in it's consequences.
The grapes of the Italian-Swiss colony
we're sufficient to entirely fill it's cooper
age, and neighboring vineyardists, de-
string to sell their product to member
Of the Winemakers' corporation, some
means had to be devised to care for
these grapes. The crushing machinery
and the fermentation apparatus were
sufficient, but the problem was, what
should be done with the wine? The idea
Of the concrete cistern was broached
and adopted.-San Francisco Chron-
Gle.