Mr Soler's Wanganui Vineyard.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 9 December 1890, Page 3

Mr Soler's Wanganui Vineyard.

« Mr J. Aitken Connell, who was lately in Wanganui, has written to the Auckland Herald concerning what he saw and learned at the Wanganui Vineyard of Mr Joseph Soler. The proprietor, he says, a vigueron of experience from Spain — one of the famous wine countries — has been engaged in his Wanganui enterprise for twenty-five j'ears He considers the climate of his present locality slightly inferior to that of South Australia for ripening, but superior for fermentation. He states that out of twenty- five years he experienced only two bad seasons when the grapes did not fully ripen, the freedom from hailstorms being a great cause. He takes /rom two and a-half acres — including less than a quarter of an acre under glass — about twenty tons of grapes yearly, making therefrom eighty quartercasks of wine. Mr Connell saw in his cellars some three hundred quarter-casks of win**, varying from one to ten years old, and at the latter age the value is about ten shillings the gallon. " The wine consisted mostly of p rfc, sherry and muscat, but he also manufactures hock, claret, aud even cliampange." Prize medals were taken for those wines at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London, and at the Melbourne Centennial, and at the several New Zealand Exhibitions, and our informant adds that until he tasted them, he did not believe it possible to produce such wines in New Zea'and. This is encouraging evidence of the success of the rnanu- | facture ; but it is always a pity if a ' vintage on its own merits and under ! the local name, instead of naming it i in imitation of othe>- wines, and especially when so widely dissimilar as in the above list. In putting: wine as well as other things o>i the market, a good original proves in , the end immense y more valuable ! than any imitation. In new '• countries it is easy to slide into the mistake because of the difficulty of finding or starting a market for what has not yet acquired a reputation. ! The enterprise at Wanganui clearly ■, proves that the production and manu- ! facture of wive would easily grow ' into a great New Zealand industry, '■ emp'oying, as Mr Conuell justly . says, hundreds of thousands of ' persons, if it were not for the mon- i sirous anomaly that it is actually opposed by oar Legislation policy, • instead of being heartily encouraged as such enterprise is in Australia, i