The Buena Vista Vinicultural Society is, we believe, the first extensive joint-stock agricultural enterprise in the United States; and the production of wine in a large scale is in itself a comparatively new undertaking with our citizens. Having recently made an examination of the vineyard of the society, we therefore think proper to offer the following notes for the information of any whom they may concern:

The society cannot yet be supposed to be clear of all the unforeseen difficulties and hazards which unavoidably attend a large undertaking of a novel character, especially in a new country, and we do not propose to predict its future. Our object will be simply to derive from facts in the progress of its experiment thus far, some trustworthy conclusions as to the probable profits of large vineyards, under reasonably good management, in California.

The property of the society includes a body of land of over 6,000 [333]acres, of which the vineyard occupies six hundred and forty-five acres. The number of vines planted is over a million (1,128,120). At the last vintage about 103,800 of these were in bearing. These varied in age from one to thirty years—almost one-half of them only being of full-bearing age. These latter stood in various parts of the six hundred and forty-five acres of vineyard land—the recent plantings having been for the most part made between the rows of old vines. So far as conditions of soil and aspect are concerned, therefore, the whole ground has been tested by the vintage of 1864.

The vines are managed under a system of extreme simplicity; no staking or training is required, and an extraordinary economy of labor in their cultivation is attained. They are planted in rows from three and a-half to four and a-half feet apart each way, and are cultivated by Chinese laborers in the manner known as the flat way of cultivating Indian Corn in the Eastern States. The soil being very friable, flat, and free from stones, both horse and hand hoeing are performed with great ease and rapidity; and the total expense of cultivation in 1864 was at the rate of but six dollars and three cents per acre, including the pruning of the vines, and an allowance for superintendence, and the wear and tear of the implements used.

As the young vines grow to full-bearing size they occupy more room, and hereafter a larger part of the cultivation will need to be by hand. The expense of cultivating the older and closer planted part of the vineyard does not appear in the accounts furnished us, distinctly from that of the whole. We think it safe to assume, however, that the expense of cultivation need never be more than four times as much for the whole vineyard as it was in 1864, in which case twenty-four dollars and forty-seven cents per acre, which is at the rate of fourteen dollars per thousand vines, may be considered a maximum rate for the expenses of cultivation.

The picking of the grapes, and the loading of them in wagons, cost in 1864, a fraction less than a rate of three dollars per thousand vines.

The following is a statement of the rate of production of fifty thousand full-bearing vines, as nearly as it can be determined, in 1864—a year of extraordinary dryness and unproductiveness.

Production.	Rate per Thousand Vines-Galls.
White Wine for Champagne	137
White Wine	333
Red Wine	160
Brandy	16

Of the bearing vines in 1864, only 16,000 were planted before 1858, and none of those since planted bore as fully at the last vintage as they may be expected to hereafter. The youngest plantation then produced [334]

[335]according to the Superintendent’s estimate, but fourteen gallons of white wine per hundred vines, while those planted before 1858 produced fifty-seven gallons per hundred, and those planted previous to 1855 eighty gallons per hundred. In previous years the production of the latter has been larger; and it is believed that an average production of eighty-six gallons per hundred for mature vines of the Spanish or Old California variety, and seventy-one gallons per hundred for vines of varieties recently introduced from Europe (which forms about one-ninth of the vines planted), may be calculated on. An estimate of the future production of the vineyard, therefore, based upon the foregoing table of the yield of 50,000 of the older vines in 1864, must be regarded as moderate.

The whole expense of wine-making, from the field to the cask stored in the cellar, was in 1864, at the rate of twenty dollars per thousand vines, or four cents per gallon of white wines produced—superintendence, interest on cost, and wear and tear of casks and implements included.

The distillery expenses amount to a rate of ten cents per gallon of brandy produced, or for sixteen gallons the production of 1,000 vines, one dollar and sixty cents.

The machinery being designed for the larger work that is expected to be required of it in the future, a reduction is expected to occur in the above-stated rate of expenses of wine-making equal to at least half a cent per gallon. It is possible, however, that unforeseen difficulties may occur in the management of the increased business; and we therefore adapt twenty dollars per thousand vines as the established rate of expenses in wine-making.

The buildings and machinery used in the process of wine and brandy-making, are of substantial construction, and well adapted for the accomplishment of a large amount of work, with great economy of current expense. A steam engine of thirty-horse power is employed, and the wine at different stages of the process is moved by a force-pump through hose and metallic pipes, the whole extent of which employed is nine hundred feet. The apparatus used is an improved arrangement of that recently adapted in the best French vineyards. The cost of the whole works, including the press-house, the distillery, and the cellar, with their equipments complete, has been $40,000.

We recapitulate as follows:

Maximum rate of Expenses per thousand Vines, close planted and full bearing, with a production of five hundred gallons of White Wine, one hundred and sixty of Red Wine, and sixteen of Brandy.

Vineyard Expenses	$14 00
Housing the Grapes	3 00
Wine-making and Cellerage	20 00
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Distillery Expenses	1 60
Total	$38 60
At the rate thus established the Annual Expenses of the whole Vineyard of one million Vines now planted, when in full-bearing condition, will be	$38,700 00
Add twenty per cent. for contingencies	7,730 00
Total for one million Vines	$36,440 00

The total production of the vineyard, in full bearing, at the rate previously determined, will be—

	Galls.
White Wine for Champagne	167,000
White Wine	333,000
Red Wine	160,000
Brandy	16,000

The California market is at present overstocked with new native wine of inferior quality. The better class of native light wines has never been put in the general market; they are unknown to the public; and, from the present price of ordinary wines, nothing can be inferred as to their value when they shall have been introduced in large quantities, and their superior quality generally appreciated. For these reasons, it is impossible to form an estimate, with much confidence, of the value of the production of the vineyard. We are informed that some thousand gallons of the white wines of 1863 has been sold in New York at a price which leaves ninety-two cents as the net price of the wine in the cellar. At this price, the value of a vintage would be $500,000—a fair allowance being made for the red wine and brandy.

To establish a minimum, however, we estimate the value of the whole, for Brandy, as follows:

	No. Galls.
449,800 gallons White Wine, reduced 6 to 1, is of Brandy	74,966
160,000 gallons Red Wine, reduced 6 to 1, is of Brandy	26,666
Total	105,632
Add Brandy previously provided	10,666
Total production in Brandy	112,298
Which, at the extremely low price of $1.50 per gallon, is	$168,447
Deduct distillery expenses	10,163
Minimum value of vintage	$158,284
Deduct yearly expenses	49,440
Minimum net profit per annum	$108,844

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Of the profit likely to be found in the manufacture of champagne, in which the officers of the society have great confidence, and which has been commenced under the management of an experienced person, we have said nothing—preferring to confine our observation, as far as possible, to the facts of the business which has been established by actual experience.

The advantages which California possesses for the production of wine over any European country, is chiefly found in its climate, which is probably the best in the world for the purpose. Through extensive districts of the State during all the period of the year in which the grape is growing and ripening, the sky is nearly cloudless and the air warm and dry; hail is unknown; nor in sixty years, during which time authentic and particular accounts are extant of the vineyards planted by the Spanish missionaries, have any of the diseases to which the vine is subject in Europe appeared here. The advantage of the climate, however, is greatest at the period of the vintage. An entirely satisfactory vintage season, that is to say, one in which damp weather or frosts do not occur to the manifest injury of the grapes, and consequently of the wine, is expected in European vineyards not oftener than once in ten years, and when it occurs is an occasion for special national thanksgiving. In California, whatever variations have been experienced in the climate at other seasons, a perfect vintage season has never failed. The consequence is that grapes ripen uniformly, and rot is unknown. This greatly facilitates and cheapens the labor of gathering the grapes, and simplifies their subsequent treatment and the whole process of wine-making. California also possesses a large extent of volcanic soils, in which alone the best wine-grapes of Europe can be cultivated with entire confidence. In the Eastern States, all the vines of the Buena Vista Vineyard would be subject to mildew. Here it has never made its appearance.

Until recently all these advantages might be supposed to be fully offset by the great cost of labor in California; but the employment of Chinese laborers, and the application of labor-saving machinery, added to the great simplicity which the peculiarities of the climate and soil render feasible, especially when the business is conducted on the large scale adopted by the Buena Vista Society, entirely remove this disadvantage. It is reasonable to expect that experience will suggest still further improvements in this respect. But even should the expense of labor be doubled, as far as can be judged at present, the business is one promising extraordinary profits.

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