Looking backward into the future

The July, 1927 issue is slim - only 15 pages - but chock-full of advertising. I guess it demonstrates the business acumen of editor and owner Stoll.

However, these were tough times for growers as a huge surplus of Thompsons was coming on the market (home vintners had apparently learned to "stretch" the Alicantes with Thompsons). As to be expected, growers were setting up various organizations to help fight the problem of low prices. Latest to be endorsed by the-then California Grape Grower was the California Vineyardists' Association. This outfit was to examine the grape situation from all angles and recommend a course of action that would aid growers.

An interesting article reports on the difference between the "prices for the best and poorest packs". A typical spread is one for Alicantes. For the fore-part of October, 1926, $1.37 was paid for the poorest and $2.32 for the best packs. Farmers, in general, really didn't know how to treat consumers. Many felt that cheaper was better 'cause they used the same philosophy in their own operations.

Again, quality is important in making profits in any market.

"Winehaven to be Sold". This was the huge wine storage and warehouse maintained by The California Wine Association bayside on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay. For winemen, it apparently forecast a permanence of prohibition.

"Growth of Our Grape Shipments". The record seems to indicate that the first straight car of grapes to be shipped from California was sent in 1876 from Vacaville to Philadelphia by "the father of E. T. Earl". In 1888 ten cars of deciduous fruit were sent to Chicago in refrigerated cars. In 1918, the last year before prohibition, over 16,000 cars of grapes were shipped; in 1920 almost 29,000 cars were shipped, and by 1925 over 75,000 cars were being sent each year to Eastern markets.

Volume was not the problem; it was the lack of profit.

In "Editor Comments on the News" page for the July, '47 edition, there is a fine column titled "Bulk Market Turns Strong". I remember no such thing, although I must admit that there were several "blips" in wine prices during this depressed era and I don't remember them all. Prices were up, he says, from a level of 30[cents] to 40[cents] per gallon to 50[cents] and over. The editor feels that the re-establishment of the Raisin Producers Assn. and the active attempts being made to establish a Federal support price for raisins are the main reasons for the strengthening prices.

"Marketing Order: One Year Extension Requested - Same Assessment Rates Asked". This was the one that the industry used to promote and advertise wine. The assessments were 1.5[cents] per gallon on dessert wines and 0.25[cents] on table wine.

"Eliminating Distillery Alcohol Losses" by ol' buddies Walt Richert and Tommy Arkins (remember them?). This was a hot subject for several years. Low prices for wine, etc., forced us to look for every savings and efficiency. With so much production devoted to 20% wines, you youngsters can see why a slight continuous loss at the still resulted in uncomfortable losses at the bottom line. Especially when you remember that the still(s) could be operating steadily from July to December.

"Applying Cellulose Seals Automatically". Seems impossible that we had to wait so long for a machine to put cellulose bands on bottles. It was quite a sight to see ten to thirty women putting these seals on by hand alongside the bottling line - boy, were they dexterous.

"Adding Sulfur Dioxide". Hard to believe that such an article would be of any interest at this late date. But it was, and the article recommended adding up to 150 ppm as per Cruess in his "Principle and Practice of Wine Making". The latter was a bible for me and many others at this time.

"Foreign Markets". Yep, there was quite a drive for a while in the late '40s to export. As I remember, the efforts floundered principally due to the lack of cash at the wineries and the idea was not to be vigorously revived until the '70s.

"Russia's New Five Year Plan for Wine". Ho-hum. But it really did scare us a trifle as the "Russkies" were hoping to plant 250,000 acres of vines (mostly wine varieties) as quickly as possible.

"Carl Bundschu Ill". He was one of our industry's great pioneers.

"New American Wine Co. Vice-Pres." This was Louis Golan's company and he had just appointed R. B. Douglas of W.I. as veep.

"Franzia (the bro. named Joe) Opens S. F. office".

So once again, the industry was waiting for the ax to fall during harvest - the ax taking the form of unsold raisins.

This July, 1967, issue must be the ASE (American Society of Enologists) issue - at least the magazine is heavily devoted to the Society and its convention. And, by golly, there's a montage on the cover containing some sleek-cheeked "youngsters" that go by the names of Elie Skofis, Al Cribari and wife Wanda. Plus scattered hither and thither throughout the magazine are photos of Jim Guymon, Jim Ridell and others I cannot identify.

In the "Wise & Otherwise" column, N.Y. has its wine museum (courtesy Wait Taylor) but California "has even stopped talking about a museum". "Beaulieu Cabernet Sauvignon was the only wine served at a state luncheon in Glassboro for Pres. Johnson and USSR's Premier Kosygin." Vintner Ed Prati said of a wine he had just sipped: "Thirty years ago, we used to pay 76[cents] for a bottle of this. Now we have to pay 77[cents]." Answered John Cella, whose firm produced the wine: "Well, everything has to go up."

"What Line of Action for California Vintners?" asked an article by Paul Huber, board chairman of Wine Institute. While the worry was real, as I recall the market was firming up quietly due mostly to a rather short crop of 3 million or so tons for 1967, but also the wine boom was gaining strength.

So, while the industry was worried, continued modest good times were ahead. The most difficult challenge facing the industry - the switch from dessert wines to table wines - which concerned me considerably, was handled very smoothly and never seemed to cause any big problem.

Actually, we had relatively smooth sailing for the next 20 years.

Basically, the statistical issue, the July, 1987 edition, doesn't have much to offer for this column but the Wise & Otherwise chit-chat by P. E. Hiaring has a couple of good tid-bits.

One is a golf story to end all such stories and one that I missed entirely in '87. Seems that a Prof. Rankine of Australia's Roseworthy College, who is rather well-known in U.C., Davis and ASEV circles, was playing golf with his wife and achieved a "first" in the world of golf. The good prof shot a hole-in-one; his wife did the same on the same day and same hole and within minutes of each other.

And a more significant event concerned findings of Harvard Medical School, which said, "The risk of breast cancer associated with alcohol intake from beer and liquor (c/f) remain significantly elevated, but the association with wine was reduced and not significantly different from that in non-drinkers." So much for a distiller's stand that "a drink is a drink is a drink." Unfortunately, the wine industry is too poor to have made hay of this finding and many women wine drinkers came up to me (even these days) with the lament that they have to severely restrict their intake of wine (to say, a glass or so per week or month) to allay their fears of breast cancer.

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