THE AMERICAN CHAMPAGNE DISTRICT. 749 



California may be divided into three grape-growing sections : 

 (1) The coast, (2) the Sierra Nevada foothills and Sacramento 

 Valley, (3) the southern counties. In the first district are grown 

 varieties of French champagne grapes, from which are produced 

 large quantities of sparkling wines. The Sierra Nevada foothills 

 are best adapted, as the Director of the Experiment Stations has 

 pointed out, to the growing of sherry, port, and raisin grapes, 

 while the slopes and valleys of the Coast Range must be looked to 

 for wines of the claret, burgundy, and sauterne types.* The 

 southern district of California excels in sweet wines and bran- 

 dies. Here the Muscat varieties are grown for table use and for 

 raisins. 



Thus, the differences between the two great grape-growing 

 sections of the United States are clearly defined. The grapes 

 raised in New York and Ohio in fact, all those raised east of 

 the Rocky Mountains are native varieties and contain but little 

 sugar. They yield the delicate table wines and champagne. The 

 grapes raised west of the Rockies, especially in California, are 

 European varieties and are heavy in sugar. They produce 

 brandies, the demi-liquor wines, such as sauterne, and the heavy 

 liquor wines, such as sherries, madeiras, and ports. Hence the 

 methods of wine-making in California are quite different from 

 those in Eastern States. 



The Eastern district possesses many points in common with 

 the French vineyard districts. The Lake Keuka country is a 

 fine grape-growing region, owing to the peculiar climatic and 

 other natural advantages that it enjoys. 



Here is the proper place to observe that the best grape localities 

 or climates are those where dews are light or altogether absent. It 

 is a matter of experience that grape culture has become popular 

 and profitable only in such localities. It is so in the champagne 

 district of France along the river Marne, or in the Medoc district 

 stretching north from Bordeaux between the sea and the rivers 

 Garonne and Gironde, and in Germany along the river Rhine. 

 It is so in the United States, along the Hudson River, along the 

 lakes of central and western New York, and in the strip of terri- 

 tory extending along the shores of Lake Erie. In all of these 

 grape-growing regions the vines are exempt from heavy or fre- 

 quent dews and fogs, on account of the presence of considerable 

 bodies of water. 



It is to these climatic conditions that the Lake Keuka grape 

 industry owes its success. The vineyards are always under the 

 protecting presence of Lake Keuka, and under the guard of the 

 high hills that surround it. Here the grape is enabled to escape 



*See report for 1889. 



