A draft non-fiction book in development

2008-05-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

Copyright by John M. Olney,
February 10, 2007. All Rights Reserved
1325 Imola West, #409, Napa, CA 94559
E-mail: jjolneytwcc1@aol.com

I have separated the history of wine production in what would eventually become the United States of America into three distinct eras as follows:

Initialization and Migration:

1560 - 1825

This period is defined as the time from first arrival of “foreigners” to the” new world” and continuing up to the year of about 1825 with the start of America’s great period when it was declared that it “was our manifest destiny to make the United States, one country reaching from coast to coast.” This became part of what was known as “The Monroe Doctrine.”

The most influential grape growers, winemakers scientists, writers, marketers and significant incidents include:

Florida
The French “Huguenots” since the early 1560s fermented the cherry size grape, called ”Muscadine” that grows in clusters unlike all other grape species which grow in bunches. This grape is unique to the southern belt states.

The Colonists
In the 1600s, these British Empire communities were producing wines from native grapes. In fact such wines were used at the first celebration of our great national holiday “Thanksgiving” in the year 1623. Significant contributors to the attempts to use European species were made by such noted gentlemen as Lord Delaware (History on page___), Lord Baltimore (History on page ___), William Penn (History on page ___), Governor John Winthrop (History on page___), and Governor John Printz (History on page___). Wines were being produced is such diverse locations as Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina in the south, and Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island in the north.

Southwest
In early 1600s the Spaniards were introducing the Mission (Criolla species) grapes for the production of wines for use at Mass.

Alta California
In the late 1760s and through the 1820s, the Spanish priests from Mexico were establishing missions from San Diego to Sonoma along the Pacific Coast of what would become the State of California and at each they produced wine for use by the for Mass and mission staff consumption (Bibliography item # __).

Thomas Jefferson (History on page ___).

Missouri - 1823 first wine (page )

Expansionism and Refinement: 1825 - 1933

The period starts with at about when the grape wine moved from American varietals and their “foxy tastes” to the palette in the eastern states, to the pioneers moving towards the West Coast and into production using European varietals with their “refined after-taste.” The period lasts through the enactment of Prohibition in 1920 with the adoption of the ___ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which forbid the commercial production of alcoholic beverages and human conception of them. It continued through the Repeal Act of prohibition in 1933 ( ___ Amendment of the U.S. Constitution). Because of the Prohibition era, this period also includes the dismantling of varietal wines and the move towards fortified and sweeten wines of much higher alcohol content.

The most influential grape growers, winemakers scientists, writers, marketers and significant incidents include:

Missouri

Stone Hill Winery (1847) (Page ___)

Missouri Wine Company building began in 1832 when the site operated as a vinegar plant until 1859 when Isaac Cook purchased the property and began Cook’s Champagne. (page ___)

Prof. George Husmann
He was head of Horticulture at the University of Missouri. He was responsible for shipping phylloxera-resistant vines from Missouri to resurrect the wine industry of the depressed great Fremnch vineyards. He initiated the periodical, “The Grape Culturist” covering various aspects of what was becoming known as “Viticulture.”

In 1881, he decided that the over-production of grapes and the influence of the Prohibitionists were too much and he moved to California where he also helped to overcome the phylloxera problems the state was suffering. In fact, the reproduction of the resistant vines he sent to the French found their way back to California to save its wine industry.

He became a winemaker at the Carneros region (south Napa and Sonoma Counties) at the Talcoa vineyards and winery where his wines won numerous awards. He then moved to Chiles Valley (East of Napa by Lake Berryessa) where he had the Oak Glen Vineyards and Husmann Winery. Louis P. Martini eventually purchased this property and the Martini’s retained the only part of the winery that remains-the headstone.

In 1883, he wrote the first of his two books “Talcoa,” and in 1866, he wrote the second, “The Native Grape and the Manufacture of American Wines.” In his first book, he claimed. “A visit to this shore, in the summer of 1881, convinced me that this was the true home of the grape…” He went on to add that it “…was destined to become the vineland of the world.”

Probably his most profound statement is “We have the finest climate in the world and can always make a good produce even in the most unfavorable seasons. We can raise grapes and make wine cheaper than any other nation or climate. We have the world for a market. We can satisfy every taste.”

Prof. Eugene Waldemar Hilgard
Like Husmann, he is also credited with conquering the phylloxera problems of California. He was investigating grape culture and wine in Mississippi and Michigan before coming to California in 1875. He was Dean of Agriculture at the University of California in 1880. His other accomplishments include advocating the following:

- Use of mechanical means to crush grapes versus the use of Chinese and American Indian labor foot stomping.

- Employ slow fermentation at controlled low temperatures.

- Pick grape with a better balance of sugar and acid by encouraging growers to quit using the European method of letting grapes go full term to develop the sugar content. He recognized that in the cooler European climates that worked for the Europeans but not in the warmer California climates.

- Vine pruning to reduce overcropping

- Wines of lower alcoholic content.

Hilgard is responsible for quite a succession of great scientists and educators in viticulture. He hired Frederic Bioletti in 1889 who would eventually succeed Hilgard. Bioletti trained the following:
William Vere Cruess, a famed food scientist and writer on winemaking who trained
Maynard Alexander Joslyn also a prolific scientist and writer.
Albert Julius Winkler, who will succeed Bioletti in 1935 and would eventually hire
Maynard Andrew Amerine. They created the 1938 Winkler-Amerine classification of California climates.
Harold Paul Olmo, who would introduce many new varietals

Napa Valley Wine Company
Key winegrowers determined that their survival depended on them ensuring that Napa Valley wines were properly labeled and not watered down and sold as some European generic name but as true USA-California-Napa Valley . So in 1883 Charles Krug (who would pass away within the year), along with Alfred Loving Tubbs (Tubbs Cordage of San Francisco, the Tubbs Brother Hotel near Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA and owner of Hillcrest Estate/Chateau Montelena winery in Calistoga), John D. Fry (owner of Vine Cliff Winery, Oakville, ), Morris Estee (a prominent republican in U.S., California and San Francisco politics and creator of Hedgeside winery and distillery near Silverado Resort and living in San Francisco), James Goodman (a prominent banker in both San Francisco and Napa, and with his brother were owners of Eschol winery -now Trefethen - located south of Yountville) and W.W. Lyman, (son a the Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco and owner of the El Morino Winery just north of St. Helena), formed the Napa Valley Wine Company. Tubbs became President of the organization and explained it when he wrote the following to the St. Helena Star newspaper: "We of Napa Valley know that we manufacture a superior wine, and it remains only for this company to establish the fact abroad, by placing the unadulterated and properly matured article on the tables of the consumers, to gain for our wines a reputation that shall extend throughout the length and breadth of the United States, and even into European Countries."

California Wine Association
In 1892, a well respected financial manager in the business community of San Francisco, Percy T. Morgan was a director of the Samuel Lachman Estate Co., a large wine merchant operating out of the city. He witnessed the disarray of the wine industry and had a vision of where it could go. In 1894, Morgan of the Samuel Lachman Estate Co. persuaded the Napa Valley Wine Co. to join him along with Kohler & Frohling (the largest San Francisco wine merchant), C. Carpy & Co. (of Napa and San Francisco), and Arpad Haraszthy & Co. (the Sonoma and San Francisco company whose namesake was a son of Agoston Haraszthy, the founder of Buena Vista) to form the California Wine Association. Morgan became its President and served for 15 years. At the high point of CWA’s business, it owned 64 wineries and controlled many others thus monopolizing the wine industry of California until the initialization of Prohibition in 1920.

Morgan had much to say about the American wine consumer when the New York Times in 1896 reported on his comments following a visit to NY. The article is quoted below: (newspaper articles)

The great earthquake of 1906 ruined all CWA’s assets in San Francisco so Morgan oversaw the construction of the world’s largest winemaking facility on Richmond Point, Richmond, California, a short distance across the northern portion of the bay from San Francisco. It was named “Winehaven.” Morgan retired from business in 1911 because of health problems.

In 1929 CWA, with many other wine firms, merged into a company called “Fruit Industries.” During the latter years of Prohibition, it marketed the Captain Paul Garrett (See Garrett, page ___ for his history) created grape concentrate called “Vine-Glo.” (Go to page 461 for more here)
In 19__ the complex became a Navy fuel depot but today is vacant. You can still see this mammoth building complex as you cross the Richmond Bridge going in the eastern direction.

Garrett & Co
Captain Paul Garrett of Virginia (circa 1900), New York (1913) and California. (1940). By 1919, Garrett had 17 plants processing grape juice and wine among North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, New York and California. He created “Virginia Dare,” the most popular wine for about 20 years before, and for a few years after, Prohibition (1920-1933). He was the number one planter, marketer and producer of wines made primarily from the Scuppernong grape of the Vitis rotundfolia or Muscadine family.1 (Go to page ___ for more here)

In 1934, he tried to convince California winegrowers that the future of American wines would be founded in the mixing of the native American species, Labrusca, with the European species, viniferous, but Californians would not give the concept any merit. Over three decades later, bulk winemakers imported Labrusca based juice to mix with California grown grape juices to produce a “Cold Duck” type sparkling wine.

See “THE GENTLEMEN WINPERODUCERS OF SAN FRANCISCO: The men who really made Wine Country, California as we know it today” A SUBCHAPTER OF “WINE U.S.A. - A MODERN HISTORICAL” starting on page ____

Resurrection and Perfection: 1933 - Present (2008)

This period commences with the repeal of the failed social legislation prohibiting the production and consumption of com-mercial alcoholic beverages after 13 years of attempt to govern the mores and morals of the people and includes all the advancements made up to 2008. It constitutes the period when winemaking retreated from sweet, fortified wines and moved back to premium varietals and excellent generic wines produced in mass quantities.

The most influential grape growers, winemakers scientists, writers, marketers and significant incidents include:

In the 1950s, the East Coast winegrowers finally began to understand and produce wines from Vinifera varietals and mostly through the development of French-American hybrids.

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson (____) instilled in the government the need to push the products of America Wine Industry. The Department of State was tasked with developing a list of fine American wine products that Federal agencies were to use at their social functions. The State department pulled together a committee of prominent wine industry experts to develop that list. This committee consisted of the following six gentlemen: Leon D. Adams (Page ____), Dr. Maynard Amerine (Page ___), Creighton Churchill (Page ____), Harold Grossman (Page ____), Robert J. Misch (Page ___) and Tom Marvel (Page ____)

Notes:
1 Page ___ Scuppernong/Muscadine/Vitis rotundfolia is a different kind of grape in appearance on the vine. Its size is like that of a cherry tomato. The grape seems to fall easily thus instead of being picked, a shaking of the vine makes the grape fall into the collector being used. To the taste, the wine product is said to be slightly tart so it usually blended with other grapes to reduce the harshness.

Bibliography

American Wines,
Frank Schoonmaker & Tom Marvel, 1941, Duell, Sloan and Pearce

California Mission Days,
Helen Bauer, 1951, Doubleday & Co.

California Wine,
James Laube, 2nd Ed., 1999, Wine Spectator Press

Great Winemakers of America,
Robert Benson, 1st Ed., 1977, Capra Press

Wine Country - A history of Napa Valley,
William F. Heintz, 1st Ed., 1990, Capra Press

Wines of America,
Leon D. Adams, 2nd Ed., 1978, McGraw Hill

“WINE U.S.A. - A Modern Historical Perspective"

A draft non-fiction book in development