Pamphlet, Long Island Oyster Tasting, 1951
date: label: date made
content: 1951-02-02
notes: label: Description
content: This pamphlet accompanied the eighty-ninth tasting of The Wine and Food Society, Inc., held at the Hotel Plaza in New York on February 2, 1951. Billed as a “Long Island Oyster Tasting with appropriate White Wines, Beer, Stout and Ale,” the event brought together members of the society, which was founded in 1934.
label: Description
content: The pamphlet includes an essay providing useful background on how oysters are cultivated in various parts of the Sound as well as the effects of bottom soils, minerals, salts, temperatures, and tides on the growth and distinctive taste characteristics of the oysters. As crops cultivated on private oyster beds, Long Island oysters were tended, replanted, and inspected in a way that differed significantly from oysters produced in competing regions, specifically the Chesapeake Bay, where oysters continued to be harvested from natural beds.
label: Description
content: A page in the pamphlet is devoted to the ten different Long Island oysters available for tasting. While all are the same species (Crassostrea virginica), the differences reflect the various waters (or micro-environments) in which the oysters are raised. Guests at the event would have had the opportunity to taste Bluepoints, Fire Island Salts, Oyster Bays, Seawanhakas, Robbins Island Oysters, Seapure, Greenports, Fireplace Oysters, Shelter Island Oysters, or Gardiners Bays. An illustrated map in the pamphlet centerfold shows the various locations where the oysters were raised.
label: Description
content: The wine list that follows is a symphony of whites from the world’s premier winegrowing regions. Thirty-six vintages from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Alsace, the Rhine and Moselle regions of Germany, Italy, Chile, and the United States were available for tasting. The American vintages came from two well-known wineries in California’s Napa Valley—Beaulieu Vineyard (Pinot Chardonnay, Johannisberger Riesling, and Chablis) and Louis Martini (1947 Mountain Pinot Chardonnay and 1946 Mountain Folle Blanche). Known for their white wines, the Wente Bros. in the Livermore Valley participated with a 1948 Pinot Chardonnay and a 1949 Grey Riesling.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Wine
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
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content: Food
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the Wente Family Estate through Christine Wente
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2014.0100.07
label: catalog number
content: 2014.0100.07
label: accession number
content: 2014.0100
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pamphlet
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in x 6 in; 22.86 cm x 15.24 cm