248 AMERICAN GRAPE GROWING 



CHAPTER L. 



BRANDY. 



A great deal of brandy may be made of the wash, lees 

 and pomace, but such is not always of the desired fine 

 quality. The best brandy in California has been made 

 from West's White Prolific and Folle Blanche. The 

 latter forms the basis of all the fine Cognacs of France. 

 Were it not for the revenue laws, which make distilling 

 a perplexing business to engage in, even for the strictly 

 honest distiller, while the rogues do not find it very dif- 

 ficult to circumvent them in one way or another, the 

 manufacture of brandy would afford some relief to those 

 who have a surplus of wines. As it is, after paying 

 ninety cents a gallon and incurring all the risk of evap- 

 oration and leakage, while the product is stored in gov- 

 ernment bonded warehouses, there is little profit left 

 after selling the brandy at $1.35 or $1.40 per gallon. It 

 requires five gallons of wine on an average to produce a 

 gallon of brandy, and besides, there are the labor and 

 fuel. That we can make as good brandy here as any- 

 where has been repeatedly proved. That our brandy is 

 better than the cheap whiskies and brandies manufac- 

 tured abroad and brought here is also a conceded fact. 

 But where is the inducement to make it at forty-five to 

 fifty-five cents a gallon above the internal revenue tax ? 

 It is the old, old story : that home production is discour- 

 aged .and suppressed in every possible way ; and that 

 "far-fetched and dear bought" find ready demand, while 

 home products go begging for a market. England, Ger- 

 many and the northern countries are our best customers 

 now. They can appreciate what we make, while our 

 own countrymen turn up their noses at anything which 

 has not a foreign label. 



