California may be divided into three grape-growing sections: (1) The coast, (2) the Sierra Nevada foothills and Sacramento Valley, (3) the southern counties. In the first district are grown varieties of French champagne grapes, from which are produced large quantities of sparkling wines. The Sierra Nevada foothills are best adapted, as the Director of the Experiment Stations has pointed out, to the growing of sherry, port, and raisin grapes, while the slopes and valleys of the Coast Range must be looked to for wines of the claret, burgundy, and sauterne types.[1] The southern district of California excels in sweet wines and brandies. Here the Muscat varieties are grown for table use and for raisins.
Thus, the differences between the two great grape-growing sections of the United States are clearly defined. The grapes raised in New York and Ohio—in fact, all those raised east of the Rocky Mountains—are native varieties and contain but little sugar. They yield the delicate table wines and champagne. The grapes raised west of the Rockies, especially in California, are European varieties and are heavy in sugar. They produce brandies, the demi-liquor wines, such as sauterne, and the heavy liquor wines, such as sherries, madeiras, and ports. Hence the methods of wine-making in California are quite different from those in Eastern States.
The Eastern district possesses many points in common with the French vineyard districts. The Lake Keuka country is a fine grape-growing region, owing to the peculiar climatic and other natural advantages that it enjoys.
Here is the proper place to observe that the best grape localities or climates are those where dews are light or altogether absent. It is a matter of experience that grape culture has become popular and profitable only in such localities. It is so in the champagne district of France along the river Marne, or in the Medoc district stretching north from Bordeaux between the sea and the rivers Garonne and Gironde, and in Germany along the river Rhine. It is so in the United States, along the Hudson River, along the lakes of central and western New York, and in the strip of territory extending along the shores of Lake Erie. In all of these grape-growing regions the vines are exempt from heavy or frequent dews and fogs, on account of the presence of considerable bodies of water.
It is to these climatic conditions that the Lake Keuka grape industry owes its success. The vineyards are always under the protecting presence of Lake Keuka, and under the guard of the high hills that surround it. Here the grape is enabled to escape
- ↑ See report for 1889.
