I 



The Wine Product of California. 



97 



In one thing, however, we beg to 

 diifer with our correspondent; it is 

 when he says '^ alcohol, acid and sugar 

 condition the aroma and flavor of the 

 wine.'' We think ihcy have but little 

 to do with it. A wine can be very 

 aromatic, jet very Aveak in body or 

 alcohol. Aroma, as we understand 

 the term, is derived from the fruit 



itself, is is the peculiar odor by which 

 we distinguish Catawba from Con- 

 cord, and both from Norton's Virginia, 

 etc. It belongs to the variety of 

 grapes of which the wine was made, 

 and alcohol and acids have little to do 

 with its development, although the}' 

 develop bouquet, as we understand 

 the term. — Ed.] 



THE WINE PRODUCT OF CALIFORNIA. 



The official report of the year 1868 

 gives the following interesting facts : 



The whole amount made 



was 2,587,764 gals. 



Or 700,000 gallons more than in 1867. 

 This is divided over those counties 

 which cultivate the grape most exten- 

 sively, as follows : 



Los Angelos 1,111,200 gals. 



Sonoma .... 348,136 " 



EI Dorado 168,638 " 



Amador 129,993 '• 



Napa ..... 103,376 " 



Sau Bernardino 74,500 '•' 



Contra Costa 61,370 " 



Calaveras 55,132 " 



Placer 51,300 " 



Tuolumne 50,397 " 



Santa Clara 47,459 " 



Butte , 30,828 " 



It is remarkable that six of the above 

 counties are in the Sierra Nevada dis- 

 trict, where mining was followed exclu- 

 sively only a few years ago. There are 

 already over 6,000,000 vines cultivated, 

 and should grape culture progress at the 



same rate in future, this will soon be the 

 prominent grape district of California. 

 Los Angelos has fewer vines than So- 

 noma, yet it produces three times as 

 much wine, which, however, explains 

 itself by the greater quantity of grapes 

 taken to market from those districts 

 which are easily accessible, as they ob- 

 tain a much higher price for the grapes 

 than if they were made into wine. San 

 Bernardina, which is least accessible, 

 furnishes the comparatively greatest 

 quantity of wine ; Sacramento, Santa 

 Clara and Solano furnish less than a 

 gallon per 20 vines, Napa 1 gallon to 

 each 15 vines, besides 46,000 gallons 

 of brand}'^, which requires five times as 

 many pounds of grapes as the same 

 quantity of wine ; Los Angelos pro- 

 duced 2 gallons of wine to ever}' 5 

 vines. The principal grape u'^ed for 

 wine is the Mission Grape, although it 

 is below the Zinfindal, Black Malvasier, 

 Riess'.ing, Golden Chasselas, Muscatel, 

 and several other varieties in quality, 

 but the superior quality of these vari- 

 eties was only discovered when the 

 greater part of the vineyards were 

 already planted and bearing. 



