The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-08
HEIDELBERG TUN OUTCLAssED.
BY Great Cistern at Asti, CaI.-WouId
Float Yacht.
Los Angeles Letter in the Chicago Tri-
bune.

Float Yacht.
Los Angeles Letter in the Chicago Tri-
bune.
Every traveller in Europe knows
about the famous big tun of Hedel-
berg. But the largest wine cistern in
the world is at Asst, Sonoma county,
California. 1t is 81 feet long, "a feet
wide and rs feet high. When it is
filled with wine, as it usually, is, it
holds 100000 gallons of juice. 1t is by
five times the most capacious ever
built. 1t takes two steam pumps seven
days to fill up the cistern, and it takes
four days for all the wine to run out
through the great pipe which leads to
the foot of the hillside below. 1t would
take $50 freight cars to carrysthe en-
tire contents of this great lake of wine.
The big cistern as Asti is ten
times as large as the tun of Heidelberg.
The cistern has been built to con-
serve the wine until a proper time for
marketing. The wine is held in it for
months, and is then shipped to all parts
of the world. The cistern was carved
out of the solid rock and lined with
cement two feet thick. 1t took 1000
barrels of the best Portland cement
and 5000 barrels of gravel and sand
to line the surface of the tank. Fifty
laborers worked day and night for fiji
ty-fiVe days, and soon after its compile
ton a wedding party of eighty-five
danced and made merry in it's capa-
cious interior, with room to spare.
Shortly afterward a grand ball was
given in the huge inner vault, and 100
persons attended.
When filled with wine the contents
have at the very least a net value of
$3.50, 000-that is, figuring the wine at
the rate of 80 cents gallon. but the
product when clarified, bottled and
shipped to all portions of the world
brings all the way from so cents to S.
a gallon, according to age, quality, etc.
When the wine leaves the tank it in
cludes some of the most expensive
brands of California wine on the mar
ket. When the cistern was first built
the idea was. of course merely to hold
the wine, but it was found, to the de-
light of its creators, that the wine
which came from it was deliciously
blended and mellowed.
The building of the receptacle for
this lake of wine was difficult. The
huge well was carved out of granite,
and after the concrete sides of the in
terror had been smoothed they were
coated with a glass like finish, which
prevents the grape juice from absorb
ing Objectionable odors or fiavors.
Around the sides big steel girders were
placed and on these rest the sectional
cover of the lake. Not a ray of light
can penetrate into this vast quantity
of wine. After the wine has been
placed in the cistern, the cover on the
top, which is three feet in diameter, is
Theoretically sealed, and the wine, be-
ing below the surface of the earth,
suffers no changes of temperature nor
can any foreign matter gain admission
to it.
This big cistern is the property of
the Italian-Swiss colony, and is three
hours travel by rail from San Fran
cisco. 1t is in the heart of the wine
belt, which describes a circle through
the coast counties about San Francis
co. The building of the cistern is
the result of a marvellous growth of
the wine industry in California in the
last five years. 1t would take sixty
tanks of this size to contain the states
best yearly output. Were all this
wine put into one great tank, it would
float five battleships like the Oregon,
allowing a space of fourteen feet be-
meath the hull and seven feet on each
side. not counting the extra floating
surface that would be gained by the
displacement of the bulls.
The wine industry in California
gives employment, in its branches, to
1900 persons. Over 100000 acres of
land are planted to grapes. All thu
members of the families in the wlne-
raising districts, as a general rule,
participate in the breadwinning. Lit
tie tots years old. may assist their
parents, and often one will come upon
these healthy little rascals who are as
ruddy as children of B&cchus. The
grapes are usually raised in small
vineyards and sold to the great win
cries. The largest wine vineyard in
the state embraces 5000 acres. The
growth of vines for wine making is a
scientific process. and, strange to say,
although French, Italian and Spanish
vitlculturists have come to the wine
country Of California, they are not, as
a rule. so successful as their American
neighbors Far more skill is required
In pruning and budding the vines than