NEW ZEALAND WINES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8583, 3 June 1891, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND WINES.

; . : • • , N TO THE EDITOR. , , Sir,— J attention has been drawn to a letter in phis morning's issue of your valuable , and widely circulated paper, headed " Wine Licenses and Drink Supplying," which is evit dently written by some person directly or 1 indirectly associated with the " beer traffic. ' If the assertions contained therein were i true, I would ' have- : little to say, bub as the ( aspersions cast r.pon- the manufacture of ; New Zealand wines are so. utterly untrue, I, ; as one engaged in the business, feel it incumbent- upon me -to refute .the statements of your - correspondent,- sheltering himself 1 under the initials of "E. A" . He says that " Grapes' cannot b'3 ; grown ; n the North Islanu except * under glass." 'ib's statement • is untrue. This climate"• is, the best in the i world' for crape-growing, in- fact :•&? • better than the Rhine All that is required i<? more knowledge of tur> cultivation o£?.the grape vine, and this our settlers are slowly but , surely acquiring. It v.ns only th*? other day J read of a settler,on the K-ipier side who !iad netted £52 for a ton of ; gi-enes produced cn a quarter-acre of ground. I spsak with some authority. I am a native of Germany, : born at Moselle, about 18 miles from Coblent?,, 1 on the Rhine, the seat, of the, wine industry of the world. ,= I was engaged in grape-growing and wine making front the age of 12 to 22, f when I left there to come to the colonies. -In the district where I was reared, the inhabitants number from' about '200 to 300 in each . township, and there is only one publichouse in i each township selling beer, wine and schnapps. f. : The chief drink used is wine, which in a great measure : takes the - place of > tea, coffee, &c., yet in all my long residence there I never saw a drunken person. The inhabitants are all ; strong, able, healthy people, capable of doing- : 16 hours' work a day. There are no gaols for inebriates, and the absence of crime in all its varied forms is remarkable. If ? anyone is sick he has to pass two or three townships before arriving at a city where the services of a doctor can be secured. From this you will see that sickness is a thing seldom heard of. . I am 17 years a wine-maker in Auckland, and have bought hundreds of pounds worth of grapes from the struggling settlers in the Auckland district— grown to a high state of perfection in the open air, despite of your correspondent's statement to the con-; trary. . My : wine was first analysed by the provincial analyst in 1875, ana then pronounced pure and unadulterated. Since that j time I have had my wine analysed by Professor T'-laek in Dunediu, and by Professor Hector in Wellington, aud bdtli these scientific gentlemen have declared it to be free from adulteration of any sort, and to contain not more than from 9 to 12 per cent, of natural alcohol. ■ My wine is recommended on all sides by the medical faculty as being beneficial in cases of consumption and geuerai weakness. If the Commissioners decide to grant New Zealand wine licenses, they will findfar less drunkenness with them than with- ; out them. Mr. T. T. Masefield tne other day ; at a . meeting of the licensing. committees, strongly urged the necessity for appointing a Government-; analyst to; check the - known adulteration of beer, spirits, etc., wlncli he justly said helped to fill our gaols, lunatic asylums,* etc. • I cordially approve of Mr. Minefield's ' suggestion, and am quite willing s to submit the wines , manufactured by me to >; public analysis, and will with pleasure await >< the report of their purity and excellence. 1 ' i

do not deny that certain T>erson3 will always be found prepared to adulterate. anything. therefore by all means let a law be framed to punish such offenders. Every year I make a stock of wine, buying the grapes from the ■ settlers.- I neither adulterate nor fortify it in any way- Its is simply the pure juice of v the grape, and as such it is almost needless to state it cannot be anything else but healthproducing- and invigorating. By the granting of ' ! New Zealand i wine licenses, the ; Commissioners i will confer a boon upon the public, and enable persona to buy wine in small quantities instead of as at present, haying to purchase it wholesale."; In ; conclusion, I may say that publicans do not take kindly to my wine. The reason is not: difficult to guess; persons drinking the pure juice of; the grape are not apt to lose their senses, and therefore are not as profitable J customers as those who do. lam not ashamed to sign my name i to this letter, therefore subscribe myself _ , J.-Wenpel, New Zealand Wine Manufacturer. Symonds-street, Auckland, June 2,1891.