The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-07
HIGH PRICED VINEYARDS
IFrom the WASHINGTON star1

IFrom the Washington Star
To the owner of even the most vaIu-
able landed property on this continent.
mining property alone excepted, the
news that Prince Albert of Prussia has
purchased the Wilhelm vineyard at the
rate OF $500 an acre viii have seemed
a gross exaggeration, if not worse.
There is not anywhere within the Unit
ed States an agricultural property for
which any such price would be paid.
Nevertheless, two foreign members of
the wholesale wine trade in New York
and one man prominently connected
with the California wine industry, when
asked about the credibility of the re-
port, saw nothing eXtravagant in it.
California vineyards, it is true, have
never been bought or sold at very high
prices as vineyards; the wine produc-
ing industry of that state has general
~ begun with the cultivation of what
had been virgin SOIL and little of it has
changed owners since it began to be
used for it's present purpose But the
first remark, in the case of both the
foreign experts, was: The Johannes
burg vineyards would sell q good deal
higher than that
Both the johannesburg and the Mar
cobrunn wine lands, in the latter of
which the Wilhelm vineyard lies, are in
the Rheingau-the small district from
which the cream of the famous Rhine
wines comes. The johannesburg vine
yards are mostly the properly of Prince
Metternich to whose ancestor, the fam
Gus diplomat of the congress of Vienna.
they We're presented by his imperial
master, Francis Joseph of Austria. To
understand the enormous values of
these lands on a basis of simple arith-
metic, it is only necessary to know that
the average production of an acre of
Rheingau vineyard being about two
hundred gallons, a half stick of
Rheingau wine, 'SteiDberger Cabinet,
of the vintage of 1893, sold for 1880
marks, or about "a 200 A half stick
contains $50 gallons that the nrO6Iinf
in this particular case of less than one
acre for one year brought in rs per cent
of the price of one acre in Prince AL
bert'S recent sensational purchase. But
even this achievement was less aston
iShing than that of the vintage of 1868
from the same vineyard, 100 gallons of
which brought more than $4,000
Everybody knows that the quality of
the wine made from the same vines
varies with the year. It is not so gen
orally understood that wine is to some
degree a work of art, and varies in ex
cellence with the skill and care exhibit
ed in the making of it.. This fact is
one of the most hopeful topics for those
interested in the production of Ameri-
can wines, which, it is said by those
qualified to predict is certain to i'm
prove in quality as the men engaged in
the industry gather experience. Still,
the grape itself is admitted to be the
principal factor in the production, and
there is no end to the mystery of the
influences which combine to make one
little patch of grape producing land
sevenfold more valuable than another
bit next to it. In the Rothschild vine
yard, for example, near Bordeaux,
wagon road of very moderate width is
all that separates the finest spot in the
vineyard from tract which is COM
paratively valueless. Both these pieces
of ground enjoy the same aspect and
exposure, and. apparently, are of the
same chemical composition. 1t is easy
for any grower to tell at a glance what
land is unfit for grape growing, but,
beyond saying that grapes can be grown
on it, no grower, theoretical or practical,
can say anything as to the probable
piece of land will produce. This uncer-
tainty, leaving, as it does, the grape
growing and wine making art after all
these centuries in a stage hardly be-
yond empiricism, gives the industry
some of the excitement of gambling.