Looking backward into the future

The February, 1924, issue of the-then California Grape Grower (Wines & Vines after Repeal) centers mostly on the up-coming annual meeting of the Grape Growers Exchange. This was a sound idea but I don't think it ever got off the ground. In my opinion, two things mitigated against its success; one was the traditional suspicion most all farmers of my grandfather's and father's generation had for any kind of organization that was not 100% owned and controlled by farmers--and even such were subject to a wary eye; the second was the appearance of the principal spokesman and president, one Mr. E. M. Sheehan. The latter might have been a wonderful father, tender husband, worshipful son, upstanding citizen and astute businessman but he looked like a stuffed shirt and "high binder", as my uncle Fiore would say. I sincerely hope I do him no injustice as I know him not at all.

Anyway, the annual meeting took place on July 8th, and the organization was alive for another year.

Fine article on Carignanes. Much praise for its home wine-making assets and good shipping qualities. The author states that the vine was introduced into France in the 12th century and implies that it was well known in Spain several hundred years before. If so this makes it one of the oldest vinifera varieties around, no?

The Drys are still throwing garbage-statistics about as if they were facts. Item: "Wayne B. Wheeler (whom I seem to vaguely remember but I could have him mixed up with the Wheeler of Wheeler & Woolsey--old time (ugh) comics), a notorious Dry, says, "home wine making has been a failure. Like home-brewing, it was taken up as a fad, but quickly abandoned". As editor Stoll points out, if such is true, then what happened to the 30,000 cars of "juice" grapes shipped east the previous fall? Wheeler goes on to say, "To products such as this (Raisinade, Grape Gold Syrup, etc.), the vineyards of California look today."! It is this kind of nonsense that began to erode the foundation of the Prohibition Party and began to make the Drys look foolish. Not that that they had any monopoly on untrue "facts"; our industry, prior to prohibition filled the media with such stuff as claiming beer to be "liquid bread" and red wine a "blood builder". The Neo-Prohibitionists are still throwing out unproven "facts" such as the fetal alcohol syndrome and "all wine and other alcohol is detrimental to one's health". As far as I can tell no such absurdities have been promulgated by the Wine Institute and I know that John De Luca and Nancy Light are very careful to put out only provable data.

The editorial was on the danger of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly and the ban by Sec. of Ag. Wallace on further entry of Almeria grapes (from Spain, I suppose). Sounds familiar, doesn't it. Ah, yes; several federal courts have apparently established the precedent that the "home-brewer" is immune from interference by state and "government" agents unless it can be shown that the intoxicating liquor is or has been sold from the private dwelling. Not surprising, the above mentioned courts were located in NYC and Chicago.

These were significant legal frontiers; we could now sell the concentrate, juice and grapes and give the closet winemaker almost certain assurance against seizure, PROVIDED, he neither sold nor transported the wine. And no, he could not take it to his next-door neighbor! Another small chip chiseled from the Dry wall. This would continue at a slowly accelerating pace; and notice how the administration &/or courts kept trying to pacify the big-city immigrant vote and the Southern rural vote.

The February, 1944, edition seems to be part of the E.B. Wienand "flavor"--a bit whiny, pessimistic and somewhat defensive. There are articles about the efforts of the Drys to dry-up more of the country. Their goal is to dry up 66 more counties this (1944) year; if successful, that would mean that 1/3 of all counties in the country would be dry. W&V is also frightened that the Senate is investigating the take-over of the industry by the big distillers; Wienand seems to think that such take-overs, are good for our industry. So did I, at the time. I felt that the infusion of new capital, slick, modern merchandising methods and men, would pole-vault the industry to new highs. All it did was to provide the distillers with something to sell (distilling was stopped in October of 1942) and to run up the wine inventories, and to run down the wineries and their products into the ground as soon as the war was over. Not all, of course, but many. It seems to me that Italian Swiss Colony was greatly helped by National Distillers. And where would Paul Masson have gone without Seagram and Otto Meyer? But Roma? Cresta Blanca?

Big article on Widmer's modern and new (old one was destroyed by fire) grape juice plant. All for "Defense", so they had priorities for equipment.

Three-page article by a C.L. Chapin, V.P. of Repeal Associates, Inc. Mr. Chapin raises the alarm against all Dry organizations and points out that these forces have successfully infiltrated all temperance associations and turned them into aggressively Dry organizations. He also points out that they have tightly organized themselves, possess earnest zeal, long experience and "slick smartness". All of which was true. What none of us really did see is the mood of the country. Aside from the Bible Belt--where drinking was (except for the gentry) inelegant, quick, and sinful, most of the country seemed quite solidly Wet.

We now have an even more sophisticated and slick smart assortment of Drys so we must always be on the watch.

Which reminds me; I see by the paper (actually a magazine--the Smithsonian) that the battle for Tarawa took place 50 years ago. Seems impossible. When I was a kid, just thinking about WWII and my probable involvement therein, 50 years previously was the time of the Spanish-American War. Ancient history. And now I remember what must be ancient history to most Americans.

The February, 1969 issue is the Vineyard edition, anti in it, then editor Irv Marcus does a bit of exploding over the use of word "manufactured" as applied to wine. There are many words that rile me, sometimes the way they are used and sometimes their very use. In the latter category, "clearly" comes to mind only because it is so over used, as was "smart" in years gone by. But as for "manufactured" "fortified", "flavor" (as in, what flavor, do you want; white or rose), I no longer get riled. I was a firm believer in Leon Adam's dictum that we should never refer to port, sherry, etc., as fortified wines but always as "dessert wines". Why? Because, Oregon among others, had made a big deal about the evils of fortified wines. It seems that if there was ever an event involving an intoxicated person, the papers always seemed to say that the subject was drunk on fortified wine, if of course, it appeared that he was drunk on fortified wines.

"Big Vineyard Buy in Napa Valley" as Sicks' Rainer Brewery and Robert Mondavi announce the purchase of the To Kalon Vineyard and other property.

Cliff Gibson retires from Weibel.

R. T. French Co. acquires Widmer's Wine Cellars;--and down the tube it began to go.

Austin, Nichols & Co. merged with Liggett & Meyers, Inc.

Joe Pitto, of Ball Glass Co. dies. Joe was a fixture in the industry and it was sad for me to read of his death.

Isham Railey, Asst. Regional Commissioner for ATTD (Alcohol, Tobacco Tax Division of Treasury Dept.) is to receive the ASE's (the-then American Society of Enology) Merit Award for his contributions to the industry. Isham was a wonderful man, a true gent and a most valuable bureaucrat. He knew the industry inside and out--from his standpoint. I remember one time when I had to answer to a $30,000 "offer in compromise". I made a call to my uncle Fiore, who knew him well. The reason for the fine was that our dry vermouth tank started to leak. Rather carelessly, I did not inform the ATTD that I was going to move the vermouth temporarily into our B.W. (bonded winery) for repairs to the tank. It was crushing season and the repair was not on a high priority, and so an inspector caught us in the mortal sin of storing vermouth with other wine in the B.W. instead of in the vermouth dept. For this offense we were assessed X$ for "rectifying", Y$ for not following regulations and Z$ for some sort of penalty, for a total of $30,000. I was young, just out of the war and I felt the error was slight, the "offer in compromise" silly and the inspector not doing his job (by being overzealous in his administration of the law), and finally that he must have been alerted to this error by "person or persons unknown." And I told the inspector (whom I knew rather well) such in no uncertain terms. So up to "San Fran" did my uncle and I traipse to visit with Isham. When ushered into Isham's rather large and awesome office, he had two other ATTD men with him. He asked my uncle if we had an attorney coming (oh yes, I forgot to add that I had told the inspector that as a tax payer, I should report this gross maladministration of regulations to proper authorities!) and my uncle chuckled and said, "no, no; no need for such a conference." And then Isham asked if only we two were to represent the company; when we said yes, he dismissed the others and we sat down and got right to business. In ten or twenty minutes we had resolved the matter with a warning in our file.

The '66 crush was about 1.5 million tons and, yes, wine made from grapes crushed in January '69 could be labeled as vintage of 1968--something I never knew.

Big article on mechanical picking. In '69 and '70, we picked by hand in our New York State operation. Then a fellow offered to pick our crop by machine for a fee. After taking out a few vines and setting aside a few acres for hand-picking only, we never went back to hand-picking. What a Godsend. Especially when the only picking labor was neighboring housewives.

As I've said before, we usually had to pick the grapes either frozen or green. You can imagine how hand-picking was with frozen grapes.

Editor Philip Hiaring, Sr., welcomes the opening of the Wine Museum in San Francisco in the February, 1974 issue. It was a fine exhibition of wine art and history. Its closing was sad but was a reflection of financial state of the industry and Seagram's involvement in California wine, with the retirement of Alfred Fromm and Otto Meyer. Too bad, as I figured to visit this place often and carefully when I retired.

Justin Meyer, formerly with Christian Bros., opens Silver Oaks Cellars in Napa.

"Wisconsin Drops Wine Tax Stamps." It is hard for me to believe that some states were still requiring tax stamps on wine cases so late in this century. Federal tax stamps were eliminated about 1952, or so I recall.

"N. Carolina Votes Dry". Well not completely; just that liquor-by-the-drink was rejected by the voters. Imbibers would still have to brown-bag it when going to a restaurant. Unless, of course, they belonged to a private club where they could keep a bottle or two in their locker. Heh, heh.

"Gallo Has Strawberry Wine". We were in the midst of the Special Natural Wine boom.

"Masson Ad Campaigns"; theme is "Nothing Good Happens Fast". Ugh. How is that better than "No wine until its time"? Seems silly as to how smart execs can be conned into spending more money for less. I believe the Gallos (and now Canandaigua) have used a solidly good commercial for several years.

"Bardenheier Sangria Bows". If Bardenheier had started their wine campaign 20 years earlier, would they have succeeded?

Wise & Otherwise has some nice praise for the various winery news letters such as Chas. Krug's "Bottles and Bins" and also complains about the use of the word "domestic" as applied to California wines. Especially by Californian wine companies. Amen.

W&V tallies the new grape plantings and comes up with 34,550 acres for the whole state, of which the Central Coast will plant 15,000 and S. San Joaquin Valley 11,000. Pretty adventurous--these CA farmers.

"Pennsylvania Advised to Eliminate Retail Monopoly". The advisors were an independent accounting firm. Lots of statistics. No results--period.

"A Winemaker In Vermont Who Uses No Grapes". Sounds like an ad for a prohibition drink. Besides, why develop a skill for this sort of stuff when we have ample supply, if not a down right surplus, of grapes? Well, the answer is that in New York, the northeast and Quebec there is almost a constant oversupply of apples (whilst at the same time the stores featured Washington State apples; eastern farmers never cease to amaze me), Frank Prial, no wine snob, said that the product "is surprisingly dry, well balanced wine once you get past the bouquet, which--is much the same (surprise) as cider".

MEMORIES: I don't know how it was in other parts of the country, but around the big cities of the east, many farmers supplemented their depression income by having family-style dinners in the big farmhouse. The cost was modest, the food usually delicious and the outing a treat for the ex-rural folks--such as our family-living in the big cities. These were real working farms so the kids had lots of room to run, animals to investigate and usually some sort of a crop to pick. Of course, when it rained, it was miserable, but when it snowed it was usually extra fun.

Rod Strong has a piece in this issue which evokes the same kind of nostalgia. A vineyard and winery operation with only muscle power. Plowing with horses, pumping by hand, crushing by foot, lighting by candles and racking by gravity. I am just old enough to recall some of those operations. Pleasant memories, but the realities are not so pleasant.

Phil The Sr. has a great editorial on the need for cooperation among the various segments of the grape industry, to wit: Wine, Table grape, Raisin and now the Fresh Juice and Concentrate market. If we could only get a marketing order to cover all these, methinks that we could do a lot to overcome the massive advertising advantages of the beer and soda-pop people.

Myron Nightingale is now "emeritus" at Beringer where Ed Sbragia takes over as winemaster. With Myron now harvesting the Great Vineyards in the Sky, it leaves only Chas. Crawford and Lou Martini as Living Legends of the Great Class of '41 of UC-Berkeley, now doing business at UC-Davis.

John Senkevich, ex-Schlitz, resigns from Geyser Peak as the Trione Family takes over.

Horace Lanza dies. Mr. Lanza was a pioneer vintner, one of the founders of the Wine Institute and a big, BIG supplier of juice, concentrate and grapes to the eastern market during prohibition. His companies--California Grape Products Co. and Fruit Industries had offices in NYC during prohibition and were the envy of my youth. My dad would take me to these places from time to time during the course of a business day (Saturday, in those times), They were marvels of light, newness, and "Klass" to my eyes compared to the cramped, dark, little quarters in the old, old section of NYC, 'way downtown on Gansevoort street, in the midst of a slum. When I asked my dad why we couldn't have similar offices, he merely replied that we didn't need them, "fancy" offices did not make any money. But he sure changed his mind in a hurry as prohibition started to unwind.

"Joseph E. Seagram & Sons is marketing a 'no-alcohol' wine." It's named St. Regis.

National Register of Historic Places lists the old Paul Masson Mountain Winery at Saratoga, Calif. Now in the hands of a developer, its future seems uncertain. Which is a shame, but it does illustrate the state of the industry. However, this is not the first time its future has been uncertain. Before Otto Meyer and Alfred Fromm took charge, the beautiful old premises were derelict.

In his Wise & Otherwise column, Phil Jr. reports as to how UC-Berkeley has bred a "super mite" that loves the taste of the spider mite--the little guy that loves our vines especially in dry weather. Haven't heard much of it lately.

"Ivie, Guild Part Company". Robert Morris Ivie was a good buddy and I had some good times with him. Cooks Champagne, I guess, is his monument. While others, such as brand manager, Mary Thompson, and V.P. Joe Rollo, did much of the designing, it was Bob who had the foresight to change the stodgy 40-year-old package, then selling about 20,000 cases per year, into what it is today. But when a co-op begins to lose money, the growers grow nervous.

Lucky Lou Gomberg is presented with the Leon D. Adams Award for service to the industry. Only last month we said good-by to Mr. Gomberg, long-time officer of Wine Institute. All who attended said that Lou's memorial service, organized by Jon Fredrikson et alia, was most appropriate. I was very sorry I could not attend.

The big change in the Mirassou Vineyard Co. came this month, with Steve Mirassou and Don Alexander going one way and the other Mirassou boys going the other with Mirassou Sales Co.

Ed Everett has an article about sales of wines to restaurants; certainly one of the most difficult jobs in our industry. Hopefully his remarks are not quite so pertinent these days, as restaurateurs have become more appreciative of our industry and what a bottle of wine can do for their business. With the decline in ardent spirit sales and the new drunken driving attitudes, I believe wine has become--at least in certain localities--the restaurateurs' best friend; or at least a good one.

It is these kinds of developments that give me hope for the future. Surely, until we get our own act in shape, we cannot expect much in the way of exciting developments. But for the end of the century and beyond, I cannot see anything but a solid turn-around for the industry as America comes to look at wine in a new (for them) light --as a drink of moderation and necessary accompaniment to any western civilization. It has taken us a long time to get over the effects of Colonial rum drinking and prohibition's quick one, but we're making progress.

Hold Steady The Course!

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