206 KESOUECES OF CALIFORNIA. 



Most of the wines hitherto made in California have been 

 pure, but not fine in flavor. The Mission grape lacks delicacy 

 and fruitiuess of taste, and gives an earthiness or harshness to 

 the wine. These defects will probably be remedied by the 

 use of the foreign grapes, and their mixture with the native 

 Mission grape. Still wines, equal to the best still wines of 

 France, have been made from foreign grapes in California; 

 and we presume that we can make equally as good wine, in 

 very large quantities, so soon as we have the grapes. Only 

 about one-tenth of the foreign vines planted in the state are 

 now in bearing^. 



The skin of the grape probably contains tannin, for the red 

 wines have an astringent taste not common to the white. 



The cellar is a matter of great importance to the wine- 

 maker. From the moment when the grape-juice comes from 

 . the press mitil the wine is brought upon the table to be drunk, 

 it should be kept in a cellar ; and it is only in a cellar that the 

 equability and coolness of temperature proper to favor fermen- 

 tation can be obtained. In France and Germany, it is often 

 necessary to have fires in the cellars; and it would be well to 

 have them occasionally in California. Indeed, wine-makers 

 generally have no cellars, but only houses. In Los Angeles 

 county, most of the wine is kept in adobe houses. The sandi- 

 ness of the land, the frequent irrigation, and the proximity of 

 the vines to the places where the wine is stored, would lead to 

 the filling of deep cellars with water ; so the cellars are dug 

 only three or four feet into the ground; and an adobe wall 

 three feet thick, and a thick covering, render the cellars pretty 

 cool. In Sonoma, Colonel Haraszthy has dug a wine-cellar in 

 the side of a hill of maguesian limestone. The wine-cellar 

 should be used for wine alone, because the j^resence of other 

 things — especially salt meat, leather, and putrefying vegetables 

 — may spoil the flavor of the wine. 



It is probable that, in many of the vineyards, the soil will 

 not produce a first-rate wine. In Europe, the wines from the 

 flat lands are generally of an inferior quality. To what extent 



