Winery Notebook
notes: label: Description
content: This notebook contains documentation of winery operations at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (SLWC) in California’s Napa Valley, during its first seasons of activity in the early 1970s. It reflects the basic tasks that were faithfully recorded by founder Warren Winiarski and others as they built operations. The notes, made in ink on loose-leaf paper include technical information on crushing, pressing, fermenting, and racking of the SLV (Stag’s Leap Vineyards) Cabernet Sauvignon. Notes on grapes from other growers are included as well, including Birkmyer Pinot noir and Riesling.
label: Description
content: When Smithsonian researchers discovered this notebook (that smelled strongly of the wine cellar!) among the papers in the Winiarskis’ family archive, they saw its value as a record of operations at the fledgling winery when it produced the 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, the vintage that surprised the wine by placing first among reds at the Paris Tasting in 1976. The notebook also provides a stunning contrast to the highly organized, technical documentation the team observed at SLWC in the 1990s, when GPS and various computer programs had revolutionized the level of detail that could be more easily tracked from the vineyard to the bottle in modern wineries.
topic: label: Subject
content: Wine
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
label: See more items in
content: Food
label: See more items in
content: FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000
label: Exhibition
content: Food: Transforming the American Table
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Warren and Barbara Winiarski
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1998.3058.47
label: nonaccession number
content: 1998.3058
label: catalog number
content: 1998.3058.47
label: accession number
content: 1998.3058
objectType: label: Object Name
content: book, early vintage information
label: Other Terms
content: book, early vintage information; Food Technology; Winemaking
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: handmade (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3.5 cm x 25.5 cm x 29.4 cm; 1 3/8 in x 10 1/32 in x 11 9/16 in