STATION, FARM AND GARDEN. BY OLD COLONIST. WINE AS A COLONIAL PRODUCT.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1595, 23 September 1882, Page 6

STATION, FARM AND GARDEN. BY OLD COLONIST. WINE AS A COLONIAL PRODUCT.

Vine growing and wine making are not new industries in the colonies by any means. The earlier settlers cultivated the yine in New South Wales; and, after the fever of the digging times had passed off, not a few of the more lucky ones who lemaincd in the colonies were induced to do so by the prospect of marrying and settling down as vine growers. Indeed, no small number of the farming, vine growing, and gardening classes, had graduated on the gold fields ere taking up the hoe and going in for the cultivation of the soil. Such men were very desirable acquisitions to the classes who cultivate the land, for, in addition to the capacity for downright hard labour !/fc>j]ght w^th them from the life of the miner, mafy of them are men of tolerable education an Aacquaintance with the ways of the world. H is >to such men — not ex-mincr.s of necessity — but \ men of intelligence, that this paper on thej>r>ospect3 of wine producing as a colonial product, is more especially dedicated. It may seem strange to add, after such an introduction that the writer knows well that, so f ai , the colonial wine-producing industry has not been of that markedly successful character which would induce men to take to it as to a prosperous business in which money could be made. There are exceptional cases \no doubt, where men have done especially I well at vine-growing and wine making. Men .in that happy condition could be named in ■all the colonies where wine production has ■gained a footing ; that is, in Victoria. South ■Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland. ■But very large numbers who took 'to vinetrowing with stout heart and good-will have Ifared •differently. Such a result was really to 7Be expected from the nature of the men who |went into the business. And, notwithstanding fctbeir seeming failure, wine production is yet Bestined to be one of the gieat colonial indusMies. It will have its checks and drawbacks ; Ble^ business has them now. But, notwithstanding that, the colonial wine product will on extending and the number of persons Htaaged in it will increase ; and, by-and-bye, hit upon the system most suitable for colonies ; and then we will go ahead as system most suitable for making the industry of the colonies a pronounced is, fortunately for us, growing in favor parts. It will grow and develop here The system referred to is that which the growing of grapes from the of wine. Th^ former is truly the art Hie tiller of the soil. Wine making, as on in the present day, is a fine of scientific and chemical operations. which, in spite of the misfortunos seem to have closed down upon her is still in the very front as a wine In France wine making is not folnow by those who grow the grapes. It profession. Were it riot so, skill in (he manipulation

between capital and labor, and it is a sort of co-operation required very much in ' these colonies. To the effects of such co-operation is due, in a very marked degree the extraordinary success of the French sugar farmers and manufacturers in the West Indies. But it is not necessary to do more than merely refer to them. Our concern is with the wine industry, and its adaptability to the colonies. _ It is long since the sy._Lem was commenced in France, winch we would like to see adopted here, as being suitable in a peculiar degree to our circumstances. That system includes the formation of companies amongst the vine-growers, and persons of capital, who would purchase both grapes and grape juice, and convert them into the sorts of wine for which they are most suitable, and which are most in demand. It is the perfection to which this system is carried — the separation of vine-growing from wine making — which enables the French manufacturers, although the vineyards have been scourged by phylloxera, to be still able to supply any demand made upon them for the supply of any sort of wine in request from any part of the world. No thinking man can suppose for a moment that the supplies of the famed wines of France are maintained from the special products of special vineyards, or that it is possible to obtain the quantities of special wines required from any special sort of grapes, however largely they may be grown. It is not possible to obtain those wines by any sort of manufacture, however skilful, carried on separately in the vineyards ; and that the fact is, it points as conclusively as possible to what can bo done by the full development of such a system in the colonies. Were it necessary to have further proof that a most serious drawback to our vines is the number of varieties produced, that proof, we have not a doubt, will be forthcoming with the results of our exhibits sent to the International Wine Exhibition at Bordeaux. The exhibits from the colonies are sufficiently numerous to test the matter conclusively ; and we have every confidence that the test will be fair and impartial. Thee are very excellent samples amongst the exhibits sent from each of the colonies, from Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia. In number the exhibits are fully three hundred, and the varieties of wine in those exhibits foot up nearly one third of that number. A hundred varieties of wine from Australia ! And the industry is yet in its infancy only 1 France, herself, with all her long experience, and the vast resources at command for wine making, does not turn out one half the number. Probably, in the great wine trade of France, not more than twenty, if as many, sorts of wine are known to the trade. They have, in that country, realised the facts most fully that it is necessary to study the public taste ; that the taste for certain wines is the samo during year after year, and that the taste does not vary. And it is very largely through the operations of the factory system in wine making that the French hold the position they have won so skilfully as the purveyors of wines for the whole world. One object of the Bordeaux Vine exhibition was to see if new sources of supply of grape juice have become available to the French manufacturers. That they will be attracted by many of the rich, bright samples from these colonies is more than probable. With all the faults of newness, rawness, etc., attiibuted to them, the colonial wines have undoubtedly got the strength and spirit in them that can be worked up by skilful manufacturers into the varieties most in favour in Europe as well as in the colonies. And worse things may happen to the colonial wine interest than that it may be drawn upon largely for the supply of crude wines for export to France. The manufacturers of that country are already impoiting juice or " unformed wines," as the term is, from Spain, Italy, Greece, and even from California. But beneficial and promising as such an outcome from our exhibit"? at Bordeaux would be, the prospect of manufacturing in the colonies upon the French model is better still. A commencement, and upon a somewhat extensive scale, has been made in Melbourne ; and various of the large vineyardists of South Australia and the other colonies are now purchasers of grapes which they crush with their own crops. This is the manner in which the wine manufacturing Business was commenced in Frai^s^ And there is no reason why the occupation if pushed on here skilfully and with sufficient capital should not be as successful as in France itself. The soil and climate for grape production to the greatest perfection are available here to an enormous extent. The*business, indeed, but awaits skill and capital to be developed enormously. The great want is the formation of companies with sufficient capital for manufacturing puiposes upon the French model. One of our most serious mistakes has been in supposing that any sort of appliances, and anybody, can manufacture wine. Capital is really necessary for the purpose. With proper buildings, storage for keeping the stock during the years necessary for its fully maturing ere being placed upon the market. With such facilities there would be no such waste of good material, as is but too common at present, to the serious injury of the name and reputation of colonial w^rte. As tlie case is with the French wines, a few sorts would, in the course of a few years, take the leading place. With such wines as that, there would soon follow the demand for Australian wines which would enable the colonies to export an article, which nature has qualified them to supply in the greatest perfection.