84: TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



There were twelve exhibitors of wine and brandy, whose schedules 

 covered a list of seventy-six competing kinds, which wore the product 

 of a great number of localities widely separated by distance, and equally 

 distinct in the character of the soil on which it was produced, as well 

 as in phenomena of climate, altitude above the sea level, and exposure 

 of the location where the grapes grew from which the wines were made. 



These wines also were the product of many different varieties of 

 grapes, and some of them of kinds heretofore recognized as only fit for 

 the dessert, but now for the first time appearing for public favor in the 

 form of wine. 



It was exceedingly unfortunate that the Committee of Judges were 

 unable to meet at an earlier day of the Fair, because, in the short time 

 allowed them for their examinations it was next to an impossibility for 

 them to make such critical tests as were required, so that they could 

 make such awards as would do justice to themselves as Judges, and to 

 the exhibitors in competition for the prizes of merit offered by the 

 society. 



It is due to the exhibitors, as well as the committee and the public at 

 large, to state that the examination of the sevent3 r -six samples of wines 

 only occupied the brief period of about two hours — a space of time en- 

 tirely inadequate to even allow of the proper classification of the large 

 number of kinds of wine for examination, to say nothing of any at- 

 tempt at distinguishing, with nicety, the slight shades of difference 

 between those of the same age and class. 



No wine connoisseur, however experienced, can, at any one sitting, 

 which shall occupy only a few hours, properly sample and pass a correct 

 judgment upon more than a very few kinds of wine during that sitting, 

 . because wines are of such a nature that the palate becomes vitiated to 

 Buch an extent by the aroma of some and the excess of tannic acid con- 

 tained in others, that the individual, after tasting a few kinds, is utterly 

 unable to distinguish between sorts where there are only slight differ- 

 ences; and these trivial differences are really the valuable properties 

 which go to make up the character and value of the wine. Hence it is 

 deeply to be regretted that a more elaborate and critical examination of 

 the wines on exhibition could not have been had at the State Fair, not 

 more so because a different result might have attended the awards of 

 the committee than on account of the magnitude of the interest in- 

 volved. 



It maj^not be amiss here to state, that among exhibitors of wines was 

 a firm having not less than a half a million of dollars invested in the 

 wine business, while another exhibitor was the representative of a 

 society which already cultivates four hundred acres in vines, and con- 

 templates planting out six thousand acres within the next decade of 

 years. 



Even had the committee taken sufficient time to have made their 

 examinations with proper deliberation, they could have only come to 

 the conclusion, that although they should award the prize to a wine of 

 a certain locality, it would be no conclusive test of merit, as the com- 

 peting wines raised on certain other localities were an entirely different 

 kind, bocauso of locality where produced. Wines raised in Sonoma may 

 bo properly put in competition with other wines grown in the same 

 locality ; but with such distinct differen es in soil and climate as are 

 found between Sonoma, Los Angeles, and El Dorado County, it becomes 

 an absurdity to place the wines of one of these districts with those of 

 the other for comparative competition. A white wine of Sonoma is an 



