hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

744 RECENT EVENTS.
Of viticulture and the making of wine a description
has been given in a previous chapter of this volume.
It remains only to be said that with greater attention
to treatment, clarification, blending, storage, and bottling,
the quality, if not the price, of California wines
is being constantly improved. According to the tables
furnished by A. Haraszthy, in 1888 the president of
the board of state viticultural commissioners, the
average price of California wines between 1875 and
1887 was 55.7 cents per gallon, the highest being 62
cents in 1876, and the lowest 45 cents in 1887, the
low valuation of the latter year being due to overproduction
and to the fact that the wine trade was
largely controlled by middlemen. In the earlier years
of this industry, all that was thought necessary was
to plant and harvest a vineyard without regard to
location or constituents of soil, to press out the
grapes, and allow the juice to remain in a barrel,
without regard to fermentation or other methods.
But that day has long gone by, and well that it is so
for the reputation of our western vintages, since there
is perhaps no branch of industry that requires such
technical knowledge, such care and delicacy in handling,
as the production of a sound and palatable wine.
In 1869 there was a large increase in the eastern
demand for California wines, while several hundred
thousand gallons of wine and brandy were shipped to
England, to which country, some two years before, a
few small shipments had been forwarded by way of
experiment. While, during the earlier weeks of the
season of 1889, the prices paid for wine grapes were
exceedingly low, later a series of storms, destroying a
large portion of the crops, caused an advance of more
than fifty per cent, and at the close of the season left
our grape-growers masters of the situation. A gratifying
feature was the medals and encomiums bestowed
at the Paris exposition of that year, 8 fully attesting
8 Including four gold, eleven silver, and twelve broaze medals, with a
number of honorable mentions.