300 Transactions op the 



WINE CULTUKE. 



Statement of Orleans Hill Vinicultural Society. 



To the Gold Medal Committee for eighteen hundred and seventy-one: 



Gentlemen: In presenting the grounds upon which the gold medal in 

 the fifth department is claimed for the Orleans Hill Vinicultural Asso- 

 ciation, it will be necessary, to show to what degree of merit their 

 exhibition is entitled, to give a brief history of their experiments in 

 grape culture and wine manufacture, and something of the successful 

 results to which these experiments have led. 



The father of the President of this association is a successful wine 

 manufacturer near Johannisberg, in Germany, and the son was born and 

 bred to the business. Coming to California in an early day he soon 

 formed an opinion that the soil and climate of many portions of the 

 State were well adapted to grape growing and wine making, and early 

 resolved to test the correctness of that opinion by experiments of his 

 own conducting. In eighteen hundred and fifty-three he imported a 

 large number of grape slips of different wine varieties, direct from 

 Germany, and at once commenced their propagation and cultivation, 

 near Sutter's Fort, in Sacramento County. In eighteen hundred and 

 sixty he was awarded a diploma by the State Agricultural Society for 

 the best sample of wine from foreign grapes. In the meantime, his 

 experiments giving very satisfactory results, he had been examining the 

 country for a favorable location for a vineyard, determined to pijt in 

 practice, on a large scale, what he had to his own satisfaction demon- 

 strated in a small way. In eighteen hundred and fifty-eight he selected the 

 ground where the vineyards of the Orleans Hill Vinicultural Association 

 are now located. In eighteen hundred and fifty-nine he removed all his 

 vines to that place, planted them out, and commenced a vineyard in good 

 earnest. In eighteen hundred and sixty the Secretary of the association 

 located a piece of land adjoining that of the President, and also com- 

 menced a vineyard. Although not yet associated together for general 

 business purposes, experiments for mutual benefit of both were then 

 systematically commenced, to determine the best varieties of grapes to 

 cultivate for wine purposes. Sixty different varieties were planted, cul- 

 tivated, fruited, and experimented on, and as fast as one variety was 

 rejected the vines of that variety were grafted with the variety giving 

 the greatest promise. This weeding out process has been continued 

 until, for wine purposes, the association, which was organized in eighteen 

 hundred and sixty-nine, are now cultivating but two varieties — the 

 " Orleans " and the " Beisling." 



The object aimed at in all these experiments has been to produce 

 light and heavy table wines of uniform quality, equal or superior to the 

 best European brands, and the first point was to find the grapes best 

 adapted to the soil and climate of California for that purpose. There is 

 no merit in the production of a good wine by accident, merely because 

 the circumstances happen to be favorable, nor will such accidental pro- 

 duction build up for California a good and lasting reputation as a wine 

 producing country. The man or association who, by a long series of 

 experiments, learns the variety of grapes best for a superior and per- 

 fectly reliable and uniform quality of wine, contributes more to the 

 permanent success of the wine industry in the State — even though he 



