32 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF VITICULTURE 



European countries, and I hope that more attention will be paid to the 

 selection and maturing of finer qualities, that is, aging in old cooperage that 

 has contained nothing but the better types. Sherry responds quicker, I be- 

 lieve, to showing age than any of the sweeter wines. A white wine matures 

 and shows its finer qualities sooner than a red wine. 



Within the time up to the fire, I have had old wines that I knew to be 

 twenty years of age (having known them at the time of their making) that 

 wouldn't be accepted by any European wine drinker as a California product, 

 which goes to show that by giving the same care and attention as is done 

 in proper aging, we can equal the wines of the old country. 



I am inclined tc^ believe that the prohibition movement will educate the 

 American people to the use of wines as a household food product and I con- 

 tend that a white wine, or even a red wine, drank with about 50 per cent 

 of water, makes a more palatable drink than taking the wine in its merchant- 

 able state when drinking, assists the digestion and quenches one's thirst, at 

 the same time being more healthful than many of our waters. I don't believe 

 carbonated waters are healthful. 



LOVE OF THE VINE. 



By LEE J. VANCE, 

 Editor American Wine Press, New York. 



At this, the first International Congress of Viticulture in America, it 

 seems appropriate to refer to that deep and tender feeling which animates 

 and unites grape growers all over the world. If we were not lovers of the 

 vine we would not be meeting here to-day. 



This love of the vine was born when the human race was created. It 

 thus antedates civilization itself. And so at the beginning of civilization we 

 find man planting the vine, cultivating it with care and skill, gathering, 

 treading and pressing its luscious clusters of fruit, and drinking the juice of 

 the grape at his religious ceremonies and on all social occasions. 



I need only mention, in passing, how the love of the vine inspired the 

 people of ancient Greece to celebrate the vintage, or grape harvest, with 

 song and music in honor of Dionysus, the god of vine and wine. Out of these 

 festivals was evolved the magnificent Greek drama. From the choral hymn, 

 called the dithyramb, sprang both tragedy and comedy; tragedy meaning the 

 "goat song," because a goat was sacrificed to the god before the hymn was 

 sung; comedy meaning the "village song," as it was marked by the rude 

 jests of the rustic carnival. 



The Romans had a deep love for the vine, as all readers of the old Latin 

 writers well know. This strong feeling for viticulture has persisted as a 

 notable characteristic of people of the Latin race down to this day. It has 

 had a great influence upon their daily life and activities. It appears in their 

 wonderful art and in their splendid literature. 



