1911 Beverages de luxe

BY CHEVALIER ANDREA SBARBORO Secy. Italian-Swiss Colony San Francisco, Cal.

r y\> Encourage the American Wine I

ndustry

Wine lias been a healthy, invigorating, 1ns- cions fyeverage, according to the Olcl Testament, almost since the conimencement of the world. In every land on earth which was blessed by the rays of the sun and with the quality of soil to produce grapes for wine making, the grapes were

eagerty crushed by the people by tramping the juice out of thein, and, after proper fermentation, were served at table and nsed especially on festive occasions. In the times of Pliny wine making had been so perfected that the Eomans regarded the wine of Italy as the best in the world. Horace said "that wine, luscious and pure, was a drink fit for the gods." In later years the district of Chianti produced the choicest wine of Italy. Many believed that it was prin- cipally from the inspiration of wine that the greatest men of the world obtained their genius. In modem times wine has become not only a luxury, but a necessity as a beverage at table, and is universally nsed by fam- ilies in every civilized conntry of the world. Wine is nutritious, as well as refreshing, and the peasant of Italy, with a chnnk of bread, a pièce of cheese and a flask of wine, can live happily, perform arduous labors ail day, and retain perfect health. Another of the great advantages of the use of wine is that it is condncive to sobriety. It is a well-known fact that in every country of the world where wine is produced in large quanti ties and used by the mass of the people, drunkenness is almost un- known. It is only practically in the last fifty years that many of the States of the Union have been discovered to produce wine grapes in abundance. Good, palatable Aviné is now made in the States of New York, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, New Jersey and other States, but California, on account of its long sunny days and adapted soil, is known as the "Land of the Vine," and has been found to produce the Vitae Vinifera, the true wine grape, to the same perfection as it is grown in France, Italy and the Ehein. The vines of the much-praised grape grown in the dis- trict of Chianti, Italy, were transported by the Italian-Swiss Colony thirty years ago to their large vineyard at Asti, Sonoma