Looking backward into the future - articles published by 'Wines and Vines' magazine

Grape exchange to Fix 1927 Prices". I wonder where all the anti-trust agents were?

"Perold's 'Treatise of Viticulture'" was reviewed by Prof. Bioletti, who proclaimed that it was the first practical book on the subject in English. However, he does "blast" the author for incorporating much myth and non-scientific data in the book. I am very surprised as to how far we came in the subsequent. 20-30 years. I think this is one of the sources of strength of the American wine industry - we relied mostly on scientific data, not old farmer tales. And U.C., Davis can claim most of the credit.

Great gallery of "oldtime" wine men, including F. Cribari, whom I know well and A. L. Cribari, of whom I heard a little over the years.

"According to Dr. Frank McCoy of Los Angeles, it is always a good plan to take a grape diet for a few days during the vintage season, using no other food of any kind but grapes." Yuk!

And so we rocked along with no other thoughts but that prohibition might be forever and how to weather the surplus of grapes coming off the '28 crop. A bit dismal.

Ah-Ha. We have a new cure for the surplus of California wines and grapes. Yep, it is another marketing order, this one to prevent the sale of any California wine until it is older than one year.

This idea contained in the May, 1947 issue. Therein is a letter on the "front" page, from a Louis Viny of American Vineyards Company. I believe that this is the Cleveland, Ohio wine distributor and if so, was later on a Cribari distributor. As I recall, the Ohio wine and wine distributing business was devastated by the sinking of wine prices post WWII. So, Mr. Viny presented his solution, one met with thunderous silence.

"The Independent Bottler Returns." With a vengeance, I might add. My father did not want us to sell wine in bulk, i.e., tank cars, etc. of over a hundred gallons. Because of huge inventory overstocking, we, and many others, had to turn to the bottlers in the late '40s to survive. The bottlers, who had suffered much during the war, were now out in force, getting dessert wines for as little as 25 [cents] a gallon "net, naked F.O.B. Winery", as our invoices used to say. The wine probably cost about 75 [cents] a gallon on a weighted average basis. But the bottlers had been severely rebuffed as wine became short just before and after Pearl Harbor.

Vengeance was sweet!

"Michigan's Monopoly Troubles" is an article about the mess in that state. I guess that it took about 10 years to straighten out.

"Flor Sherry Tasting" was held at the Food Technology Division (now at U.C., Davis) lab in Berkeley. Among the cognoscenti, flor sherry was a big item. Unfortunately Americans, on the whole, don't seem to like it and, secondarily, California at that time, had no market for a premium dessert wine and no money to promote it. When we did, it didn't sell in volume.

"Newest Top Quality Wine" is a Wente Pinot Chardonnay. Wente had a great reputation for white wine.

"Gallon Per Capita Consumption Holds Promise for Future," chortles H.A. Caddow of Wine Institute. During 1946, wine consumption reached one gallon per capita for the first time. I guess it took over 30 years to get to the next gallon.

"Yosemite Cooperative Winery" opens soon. I suppose that this was the last co-op built and I think it lasted pretty quick - 5 years.

"F.I. Manager Discusses Conditions in Industry." This was Walter Taylor and he minced few words. "The outlook for 1947 is not very satisfactory."

"C.V.A. (Roma) Plans Sale of Its Vineyards", says General (ret.) James K. Herbert. Vineyard prices had dropped about 75% during the year and grape prices were not covering the cost of production.

Conditions in the industry were really awful, as I recall. Not only were financial losses beginning to be gruesome, but the cash flow 'stunk' - like trying to sell a carload of wine to meet the payroll!

And it was almost ten years before we started to see real relief.

1967

Nifty cover picture for May of '67. It shows Pres. Johnson with Ed Mirassou, Congressman Sisk, Don McColly and Otto E. Meyer, as Johnson is honored with a plaque in recognition of the President's interest in focusing world attention on American wines.

"New Virginia Dare Labels" for the wine distributed by Canandaigua Industries, is shown off by prexy Marvin Sands and vp Bob Mehan.

"Joe Brocia Dies." Joe was a first rate, one of a kind character and great spokesman for California Products Co., a high proof brandy producer now owned by Sun Maid.

"Beringer Offspring (Frederick - 4th generation - and Mark - 5th generation) Do The Honors" as the winery became California Historical Landmark No. 814.

"Valley Foundry's Peters Family Celebrates Arrival of an Addition." The addition is, of course, a 58,500 sq. ft. of new fabricating warehouse.

SIGNS OF THEM THERE TIMES: In Wise and Otherwise: ". . . since I've been in bars in lots of states, I still have to see my first lady bartender."

National Association of Wine Bottlers sought to overthrow the Grape Products Marketing Order and the USDA threw out the proposed Federal Marketing Order for California grapes.

And the article on "Controlled Fermentation as conducted at Davis (U of C, that is) 1953-1966."

Times do change.

In the May, 1987 editorial, Phil Hiaring fulminates against the California DMV for lumping wine with other alcoholic beverages: "a drink is a drink is a drink" nonsense. Of course, what he did not say was that we wouldn't be lumped with spirits and even beer, if we didn't have a reputation for high-alcohol wines. Right?

"Paul Masson Sets 30th Vineyard Series", i.e., music and plays atop its mountain vineyard in Saratoga. Shut down for some while. Perhaps it will soon open again.

"Al Dunkelberger is new manager at Glen Ellen." Ol' buddy Al is now with a major supplier.

"Eunice Fried to Get Trophy" at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. She was Wine Writer of the Year in 1987, as selected by Wines & Vines.

"Warm weather equals cooler sales." "Wine coolers accounted for 7% of all shipments in 1984, 15% in 1985 and 19% in 1986" say Wine Institute. Yep, most of us thought we had "a thing" going here.

"Growers, vintners want separate commissions". So reports W&V and thus one of the best ideas (in my opinion) to come out of California agriculture goes down the drain. Back in '87, we needed this joint effort badly, methinks.

"Reciprocity passed." That is, New Mexico was the first state to enact the reciprocal wine sales agreement. And to think we still come across people who don't know that New Mexico is in the Union!

"More Seagrams Moves". Too complicated for me to follow, it seems to me to be just another of those shakeups that were so characteristic of Schenley and Rosenstiel.

"Future Arkansas winery banks upon Cynthiana". Which means that the Cynthiana, Vitis Aestivalis, native to Arkansas, will be crushed at a new 150,000 gallon winery near Fayetteville. Interesting idea and I'd like to know how it is doing.

Most of this May, 1987 issue is devoted to the Australian wine industry. Talk about a transformation, here was an industry founded upon and devoted to "Empire Preference", to supply the British Isles with their love, dessert wines - mostly Ports and Sherries. Their own Anglo-Saxon population drank beer and forbade immigration from southern Europe. WWII changed all that. The Empire collapsed and the Aussies realized how vulnerable their greatly-underpopulated country was. So they opened their gates to winedrinkers and zowie, soon there was a market for table wines which the natives couldn't supply. But quickly they converted, and with a vengeance. I guess they now make some of the best of the world-class vintages. Congratulations.

As 1987 unfolded, there was great uneasiness in our industry. Prices were soft and consumption was declining.

In many ways, we should have been swamped with a surplus of grapes, but, for some reason, new markets popped up as old ones failed so that we are now, in 1997, in the midst of a tight grape market. Why this should be I haven't yet discovered, but, for sure, it didn't occur because of poor or even mediocre quality. It behooves us, then, to be sure we continue to make better and better wine.

We all are seeing, in this period of shortages and high prices, some premium varietal wines coming in from foreign countries. Wonder what grapes are being used? Or doesn't anyone care? We put our own people in the slammer for the same fraud. But, of course, the BATF "dassent" question foreigners about their grape supplies; we would upset the State Dept.

RELATED ARTICLE: MAHONEY HELPS OPEN IRISH WINE MUSEUM

Francis Mahoney, owner of Carneros Creek Winery in the Napa Valley, represented the U.S. during ceremonies opening Ireland's International Museum of Wine at Desmond Castle in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland. Mahoney is the only American on the museum's board of trustees.

In addition to recognizing prominent international wine families with Irish roots, such as Mahoney and Anthony Barton of Chateau Leoville Barton in Bordeaux, the museum will feature the story of the castle and the history of Kinsale as a wine port which provisioned ships for the Vintage Fleet traveling from Britain and Ireland to Bordeaux as early as the 16th century.

"It is the perfect time for the wine trade in Ireland to undertake such a venture as they are currently the fastest-growing wine market in Europe," Mahoney said.

Mahoney's parents arrived in California from County Cork n the 1920s. He is on the Board of Governors of the Irish American Partnership and a member of the United Irish Cultural Society.

RELATED ARTICLE: KENDALL-JACKSON PLANS NEW STONESTREET WINERY

Kendall-Jackson planned to apply by April 1 for approval to build an 8,000 ton winery in the Jimtown area of Sonoma's Alexander Valley.

No casegoods storage would take place on site, but all other winery functions, from crushing to barrel-aging, would take place at the new facility. Both Stonestreet Estate wines and some K-J wines would be made at the new facility. Stonestreet is part of K-J owner Jess S. Jackson's Artisans and Estates family of wines. Presently, Stonestreet wines are made at the former Zellerbach winery.

The plan calls for 60% of the 160,000-square-foot facility to be underground. The winery said just six of the total 172 acres on-site would be used for the winery. Most of the fruit would come from the Alexander Valley; as a result, area growers favored the winery addition while some neighbors expressed concern.

In other news, K-J said it plans to add a vineyard, a winery and possibly a golf course or two on 1,200 acres of land it owns on Bennett Valley Road.

Earlier, a plan announced by Associated Vintage Group, Hopland, to expand its Graton facility met with some community opposition. The $5 million plan would increase production from the present 65,000 cases annually to two million. Hearings on the expansion are months away.

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