Looking backward into the future

Wines & Vines, August, 1993 by Al Cribari

The August, 1923 issue reported all looked rosy. As the harvest began, prices seemed to be firm and profitable. The railroads had not only added cars and locomotives but also track for extra sidings and for passing on the "high iron". State inspectors for the enforcement of the Grape Standards law were also being employed ($3.50 was the per diem allowed!)

My dad had apparently been able to salvage something from the huge losses of the previous year (22 cars of grapes spoiled on the siding because auction markets could not handle the "flood" of grapes and because the cars were not refrigerated).

A one-page article on "The 1923 Oidium Invasion". Apparently "mildew" had not been common prior to this year. California was in the midst of a wet cycle and the spread of mildew was laid to this event. Interesting, as I thought the disease had been around forever.

One of the problems of those years was the customers' ignorance. Growers had been used to dealing with wineries. Thus it surprised them no end when a customer ordered a split car of Zinfandels and Muscats to be shipped weekly from August to December (Zinfandel ripens about Sept. 1st and Muscat probably mid--October). Naturally many shippers took advantage of this ignorance. In the above case, White Malagas or Palominos might have been substituted far the Muscats, if the receiver did not know the aroma of the ripe Muscat!

Apparently, one of the benefits of our dad being in New York City was the fact that he could oversee the grape auction market and help customers with their orders.

Fortunately--on the whole--business ethics and quality standards seemed to be reasonably high especially as the grape business became somewhat less hectic as it matured and brands became well known and established.

Again, I gather that, over all, the reputation of California grape products, built during prohibition, stood us well in the years to come and was of great assistance to the wine people after Repeal.

In the August 1943 edition of Wines & Vines, we read of the War Food Administration support price of $150 per ton for raisins. At a 4 to 1 drying ratio, this amounts to about $37 per ton of fresh grapes. For such types as Sultanas, Thompsons (AKA Sultaninas), etc., this was not a bad price, even though some people thought they could convince the government to pay $200 per ton.

The War Food Administration also warned growers not to try to divert, by any means, any of the listed raisin-type grapes to outlets other than sale to raisin packers as raisins.

In retrospect, I doubt that these regulation were at all necessary. Wineries and distilleries could only take so much tonnage. While a few more raisins were made under regulation than would have been made otherwise, I doubt that all the raisins produced were used for food; some were fermented overseas!

In 1945 the Gallos started to bottle. Ironically the next year we at Cribari stopped bottling and sold only in bulk. Who made the correct move?

In 1963, Prof. Harold (Jack) Olmo, of UC-Davis was on a sabbatical year in Europe. He reported that the Europeans are modernizing their vineyards and winemaking techniques as quickly as possible. From visitors and tourists, I began to hear the same thing. And do you know what? Most said their inspiration and goals were that of our industry in California.

Remember "Scotty"? Yep, that was a name for Gallo's experimental cider. It was test-marketed in Modesto and Bakersfield. Seemed to me to be a great idea.

I must have missed it--an article by Prof. Vern Singleton on "artificial aging". Apparently financed by the Wine Advisory Board, Singleton subjected several wines to ultrasound waves and another set of samples to atomic radiation. Needless to say (or perhaps I am being too cynical) three-fourths of the tasters didn't like the treated samples. Boy, were we plagued by this sort of stuff for years after prohibition. Mostly by foreigners. Mostly in the East. They descended on my dad in what seemed like a swarm of locusts.

Perhaps, because they knew dad was looking for anything or anyone who could improve our quality and quality control. (Remember, one of the main reasons to ship wine in bulk to the East Coast was that most of us could not bottle "young" (i.e. popular-priced) wine on the West Coast and ship it East without a 5-10% chance of the wine throwing a deposit or forming a yeast or metal cloud before it was consumed.)

But I sure never thought these experiments would show up as late as 1963!

The editorial for August, 1963 was by Irv Marcus. He had been on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on "black Thursday" 1929, when the market broke--what?--60% from 386 in one day? And then drifted lower the next few days! He reported that "You could easily have picked up a 1000-to-1 bet that the DJI would never again came near its former high of 360". His point was that just because wine sales in 1962 were down from 1961 was no reason to panic. In fact he reported that sales in 1963 so far could even be characterized as "hot". And that of course, is my continual theme--do not project today's figures out too far. Who knows, 1993 could become a very good year for most of us.