Nevada County CA Archives History - Books .....Vines And Wines 1867
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Book Title: Bean’s History And Directory Of Nevada County, California

VINES AND WINES.

  One of the most important of the industrial interests of our county is raising
grapes and making wines. I rank it among the most prominent branches of
industry, not because of the amount of capital invested or the number of men
employed in the business, but because the experiments made have proven
conclusively that grapes can be grown successfully on thousands of unoccupied
acres that now invite the labors of the culturist, and that wines of a noble
quality can be produced, equaling the best table wines of foreign lands. It is
an important interest because the field is so large and the inducements so
great; the kinds of wines which the soil and climate are adapted to produce
being such that no other parts of the State can compete with them in the market.
But, the business of wine making in our county is yet in its infancy. Four years
ago probably not a barrel of wine was produced in the county. The Assessor's
Report of 1866, a paper gotten up with more accurate data than any of its
predecessors, gives the number of vines in the county at 124,000, and the number
of gallons of wine produced that year 10,000. The tax upon wines has decreased
their production, besides giving a motive to the producers for not reporting to
the Assessor all they have made. It is thought by men conversant with the
subject that at least 20,000 gallons of wine were made in the county last year.

  Since it has been demonstrated that wines of good quality can be made in the
mountains of the county, an interest has been awakened in the business of vine
planting, and ere long the Assessor will report a million vines instead of the
number given in his communication of last year to the Surveyor General. All that
is required is the planting of the right kinds of grapes upon the proper soil
for them, and crops will come that would astonish any country in Europe. Four
tons on an acre of vines five years old is not an uncommon yield. And grapes are
produced here with far less expense than in the best grape growing regions of
France and Italy. The land can be had for nothing, and the country being the
home of the grape no extreme artificial system is needed calling for constant
labor to mature a crop. Land being plenty, the vines can be planted far enough
apart for horse cultivation, and the soil being dry in the Summer no exertion is
required to keep down weeds as in countries having a moister climate. The vines
need irrigation the first year, but after that on most soils they will take care
of themselves. It has been found that working the gound in Summer with a plow or
cultivator renders it moist and supersedes irrigation in many localities.

  The vineyards of the county are yet small. Probably there is not one of more
than 10,000 vines. Generally they are but experimental patches of from one to
three thousand vines. The French have tried the cultivation of the grape about
French Corral, and with good success. Their wines of last year's vintage, are
already disposed of and at fair rates. Mr. Ponce has 4,000 bearing vines; Mr. H.
Poulinier 3,000; Mr. Monier 2,500, and Mr. Freschot 1,500, at that place. The
wine produced was a sort of claret, 2,000 gallons of which found a ready market.
The grape cultivated is the Mission and Black Hamburg. General Evens has 3,500
vines of the Mission variety at Sweetland, and Mr. Strahline 1,100, of the same
sort. Eight hundred gallons of white wine were produced from these vines.

  At North San Juan, Louis Buhring, to whom I am greatly indebted for
information concerning the grape culture and wise making in Bridgeport township,
and who is a successful experimentalist in the business, has 2,000 vines—half
Mission, and the other half of Hamburg, Catawba and white Muscat of Alexandria.
George D. Dornin has 1,000 vines, and P. Bush 500. Buhring has made several
varieties of wine, some of which I have sampled, that promise well. The grape in
that section of the county developes a great deal of sacharine matter, which by
fermentation is transformed into alcohol. The wines are, therefore, of
considerable strength— too much, perhaps, for table wines. However, the
introduction of grapes of other varieties may enable that part of the county to
produce the light wines for dinner use, which is the great desideratum, since
Los Angeles can produce the strong wines in excess, and the counties north of
the Bay of San Francisco, the Hocks and sparkling kinds.

  At Nevada, Josiah Rogers has 10,000 vines, mostly of the Los Angeles or
Mission variety. His is probably the largest bearing vineyard in the county. R.
R. Craig has 5,000 vines, of many varieties, but mostly Mission. Mr. Seibert has
a vineyard of 2,000 vines, of forty varieties. E. G. Waite has a thousand vines,
all foreign, with the exception, of a few Catawbas and Isabellas. The wines
produced by Craig have been sold at two dollars per gallon by the cask.
Seibert's wines are sold readily at fine prices; his brandy has, also, commanded
a ready sale. He has attempted several, varieties of wine, and generally with
good success. Good judges pronounce some of his wines equal to any produced on
the coast. Waite has made wine which is said to be the only approach to a good
article of French claret yet produced in the State. The late Wilson Flint, whose
judgment in such matters will not be disputed, said it was the best wine of its
age he ever sampled. [This is not an advertisement; there is not a bottle of it
left for sale.] It sold readily at good prices, and gave universal satisfaction.
All the wines above mentioned have been thrown into market young, but such is
their character that it is confidently predicted they will develop splendidly.

  P. Bergantz has a vineyard of 3,500 Mission grapes, three miles below Grass
Valley, which yields a white wine unlike any I have tested that came from that
variety of grape. It resembles some of the Rhine wines strongly. The yield for
1866 was 1,800 gallons. This wine seems to be a favorite with many persons of
various nationalities.

  There are quite a number of vineyards in Grass Valley township and, also,
several in the vicinity of the Anthony House, in Rough and Ready township, which
produce wines; but we have no knowledge of their quality or character. The grape
culture has begun in Little York township. The few vines in bearing in that part
of the county are said to give promise of good results from enterprises on a
larger scale. Vines are also grown in small numbers, by way of experiment, in
Bloomfield and .Washington townships. The hardier sorts will flourish in those
sections of the county.

  Probably, estimating the quantity of land in Nevada county at the lowest
figure, there are not less than sixty thousand acres, about one-twelfth of the
whole surface, capable of producing grapes, for the market, for wine, for brandy
and for raisins. The soil fit for the growth of the grape is of volcanic ash or
sedimentary lava, or is of decomposed granite, enriched with the potash and soda
set free by the decomposition of feldspar, and impregnated with oxide of iron.
The tops of the ridges coming down from the high Sierra is of the volcanic
character, pretty generally, and the volcanic materials have been washed down
and mixed with the soil of granitic origin in some localities, forming a
combination favorable for grape cultivation. But the soils of granitic or
volcanic origin, are not objectionable to the vine grower. Of ground proper for
grape cultivation, the county is not deficient.

  It has been demonstrated that in a climate where the grape grows so naturally,
the highly artificial system, of pruning and training vines which is in vogue in
some parts of Europe, will not do. In a country of cloudy skies, and where the
high price of land induces the crowding of as many vines as possible upon an
acre; there must be considerable Summer pruning required to give the grape the
requisite amount of heat and light from the sun. But, under our brazen skies,
that labor had better be spared. There are none too many lungs to the vine to
condense moisture and gather from the atmosphere the elements to perfect the
fruit. The more foliage the better, provided it be not so dense as to prevent
the free circulation of air among the vines and around the fruit. The grapes
grown upon vines let alone by the pruner during the Summer, have been found to
be the largest and best, and the more lungs to the plant the greater its
capacity to bring to perfection a large crop. After the vines have been cut
back, the "let alone" practice is best, till the cutting back process is again
required for another year.

  The theory of low pruning will not do for all localities. If the vineyard has
a northern exposure and the soil retains moisture, the clusters of grapes near
the ground and subject to its humid influence, after the rains in the Autumn,
will be liable to mold and rot, while those on the same vine higher up exposed
to the warm currents of air, will soon dry and remain sound. The practice of
heading the vine low in vineyards with northern exposures is therefore
pernicious, particularly when the clusters of grapes 'are large and compact.
Small or open clusters may dry when near the damp ground, but large and close
ones may not.

  The French and Germans have brought with them from the vineyards of Europe the
mode of pruning the vine very short, that is, leaving but few spurs of two or
three buds each. I think my experiments demonstrate that a vine in California
should not be pruned as closely as in Europe, and should be treated according to
its vigor, age and variety. To cut back a vine without reference to its strength
and its variety is absurd. Why should not an Isabella five years old produce as
many pounds of grapes as a Black Hamburg, both being of equal vigor and the same
age? Yet if both be pruned alike, they will produce about an equal number of
clusters. But the Hamburg, with its large bunches, will either overbear or the
Isabella, with its small ones, will not bear according to its capacity.

  Our vines are so thrifty in California that the short pruning system is
destructive. If too few buds are left there is not room for the ascending sap in
the Spring, and it breaks out along the body of the vine, destroying its
vitality. Better leave more wood and cut away a portion of the incipient
clusters of grapes afterward, than ruin the vines with short pruning.

  In the way of wine making, there is little new to be said. Most of the white
wine of the country is made as near as possible after the process of making
cider in the older States of the Union. Ked wine is made from fermenting the
pulp of mashed grapes. The color comes from the skins. Sometimes the pulp is
partly fermented when the wine is pressed out and finishes its fermentation in a
clean cask. Sweet wine is made by boiling the must to one-half its original
quantity, and afterward treating it as white wine. I have adopted the mode of
fermenting wine by the use of iron tubes, like a syphon. One end is inserted in
the barrel of must; the other in a bucket of water. Fermentation is by this mode
retarded, and compensation is found for the deep, cool cellars of Europe.

  But, I am not writing a guide to vine growers and wine makers. The object of
the above observations is, to notice some facts which experiments have shown to
be useful in this region in connection with a few others which are known but
which could not well be passed in silence.

  I cannot well express in language the prospect I see spread put in the
future—a county teeming with agricultural life; hillsides clothed in vineyards
opulent with purple clusters; happy, vine-embowered homes and the joys of the
vintage; leaping rivulets of wine and cellars stored with liquid ingots, more
valuable to the nation than mines of gold, because the source is inexhaustible
and perpetual. This is the aspect of our county to be. It is not a vision, but a
coming reality. The time is not far distant when as a people we shall look no
longer to France, Spain and Italy for our wines, and silks, and raisins, and
figs, and olives, but will resort to Hesperian gardens for them all, and Nevada
will supply the American Chambertins, Burgundys and clarets for American palates
and American commerce.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Bean’s History and Directory of Nevada County, California

CONTAINING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY, WITH
SKETCHES OF THE VARIOUS TOWNS AND MINING
CAMPS, THE NAMES AND OCCUPATION OF
RESIDENTS; ALSO, FULL STATISTICS
OF MINING AND ALL OTHER
INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES.

COMPILED BY EDWIN F. BEAN.

PRINTED AT THE DAILY GAZETTE BOOK AND JOB OFFICE,
1867.


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