California Wines. 



177 



ted wine is determined by the so- 

 called wine scale, which generall}- 

 ranges from one to twelve, and can 

 only be used accurately when all the 

 sug"ar contained in the must or wine 

 has been changed into alcohol by fer- 

 mentation. But it has become .cus- 

 tomary among wine committees to 

 judge wine b}" an imaginar}' scale of 

 one hundred, one hundred being the 

 best of that variety, oy perfection, and 

 all which they rate below 50° is ranged 

 out. This imaginary scale, friend Carle- 

 ton seems to have confounded with 

 Oechsle's must scale. 



As to the matter of taste, it is an 

 old adage " De gustibus nou est dis- 

 putandura," which translated into 

 plain English means " It is useless to 

 dispute about taste." Therefore he is 

 certainly at liberty to prefer sweet, 

 sti"ong wines, but will he please also 

 allow us to prefer w^hat we like best ? 

 We do not envy his taste, and expect 



the same charity toward ours. We 

 have been taught early, that among 

 every people, whoever fears God, and 

 does right, is pleasant in His sight. 

 We think that good sense is about 

 evenly distributed among the nations 

 of the Earth, and the only time we 

 thought it had to a certain extent left 

 the people of the South, was during 

 the last civil war. But all that lies 

 behind us, thank God ; we are fast 

 friends again Avith the majority' of our 

 former enemies^ and hope to remain 

 so. Especially our Southern brethren 

 have warmly welcomed the Grape Cul- 

 turist, and we hope to pay them back 

 in the coin of friendly feeling and 

 advice, as far as Ave are able. 



Thanks for 3-our invitation, friend 

 Carleton. If we can not avail our- 

 selves of it at present, we may inflict 

 a visit upon you some time, and you 

 may be sure, that we shall try and do 

 your wines full justice. Editor.] 



CALIFOEXIA WIXES. 



The San Erancisco Conunercial Her- 

 ald has the following : 



The local trade in our j^ative Wines 

 has partaken of the general dullness 

 that has attended all other branches 

 of business during the last twelve 

 months. It has, howevei-, been a 

 growing interest, the improved quality 

 of many vintner's product?, through 

 the use of foreign varieties of grapes, 

 having been most marked, and done 

 much to overcome the unjust prejudice 

 which has heretofore obtained among 

 our own people. The export trade for 

 the last three months has been unusu- 

 ally important, greater quantities of 



Wines having been shipped by sea 

 than in the same period before, as has 

 also been the case by rail overland. 

 As a rule, shipments have been made 

 on a legitimate basis of orders, which 

 have been caused by the increased fa- 

 vor which sound California Wines 

 have attained in the Atlantic States. 

 This increased favor, we feel satisfied, 

 will be continued when the late ship- 

 ments are received in the New York 

 and other markets, the quality of the 

 Whines shipped being, on the aver- 

 age, better than any before known. 

 Among the prominent shippers from 

 this port we note the following: Lake 



