ROMA WINE - AMERICA'S LARGEST SELLING WINE

Old time radio dramas are a favorite way for Denise and me to while away the time behind the wheel, and in Los Angeles, we get plenty of that.  We love listening to "Johnny Dollar," which has to be the only dramatic presentation - besides "Double Indemnity" - to present insurance work as an action plot.  I love injecting my own commentary into the slow spots.  "Listen Dollar, give me half a chance and I'll give you no quarter.  Not on my dime.  Penny for your thoughts."

"Suspense" is a particular favorite of ours, and I often hear the announcer say the show is sponsored by "Roma Wines - America's largest selling wine!"  I had never heard of Roma Wine, and was curious about the company's history.  Here's what I was able to dig up.  Most of the information here comes from an article on a website called Old And Sold.  The article - first published in 1955, but I don't know where - covers a number of now defunct California wineries in detail, and Roma is one of them.

The tiny Roma winery was already in existence in 1915 when brothers John Battista and Lorenzo Cella bought the winery, then located in Lodi.  In 1933 the company bought the Santa Lucia Winery, and the entire operation was moved to Fresno.  By the late 1930s Roma had become the world's largest wine producer.

In 1942, the Cella family bowed out and sold to Schenley Industries (the first corporate wine takeover?) and that company broadened Roma's scope even further.

In 1955, the Roma winery in Fresno had a storage capacity of 16,700,000 gallons of wine, with another 7,800,000 gallons of storage at their Kingsburg facility.  Together, the two wineries could store about as much wine as the state of Washington produced in 2009.

Quoting from the article: "With minor exceptions all Roma dessert wines are produced from grapes grown in the San Joaquin Valley within a radius of sixty miles of the Fresno winery. White grapes represent about 70 per cent of the total volume crushed and include chiefly Muscat of Alexandria, Feher Szagos, Palomino, Malaga, and Thompson Seedless, the last two varieties being used principally for the production of brandy and grape concentrates. The most important dark grapes used are Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Mission, Grenache, Carignane, and Salvador."

By the mid-1950s, Roma had begun bottling their wines in their "new, dripless bottles."  

For what looks to be a fairly complete listing of Roma's wines, I'll quote again from the article:

Table wines:

Red: Burgundy, Claret, and Zinfandel; Red Chianti and Vino di Roma (vino rosso type); White: Sauterne, Chablis, and Rhine Wine; White Chianti; 

Rosé: Vin Rose.

Sparkling wines(bulk process) : Champagne, Pink Champagne, Sparkling Burgundy, and Moscato Spumante;

Aperitif and Dessert wines: Pale Dry Sherry, Cocktail Sherry, Sherry, and Cream Sherry; Port, Ruby Port, and Tawny Port; Muscatel, Tokay, and White Port; Dry and Sweet Vermouth.

Light Sweet wines: Red and White.

Berry and Fruit wines: Blackberry (of the Boysenberry variety), Currant, Loganberry, and Cherry. A Concord grape wine (from out-of-state grapes) is also produced.

A specialty is the Creme de Roma, a liqueurlike wine consisting of sherry with flavoring added and containing 18 per cent alcohol by volume.

Inexpensive Italian-type table wines are marketed under Roma's Pride of the Vineyard label and include Vino d'Uva (red grape wine), Vino Bianco (white grape wine), Barberone, and Chianti.

It's interesting to note not only what grapes were being grown in California in the mid-'50s, but the references to Chianti (red and white), Burgundy, Sauterne and Chablis.

Details after 1955 are a bit sketchy, but it appears the Roma brand was still active as late as 1971, when Schenley Industries sold the winery and vineyards to Guild Wineries and Distilleries.  The sale seemed to have generated some legal issues, but I could not follow the thread any further than that.  If you know more about Roma Wine, I'd love to hear about it.

If you'd like to dig a little deeper, here's an oral history of the John B. Cella Family in the California wine industry.

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AMERICA’S WINE HISTORY

There’s a new wine column which appears to be well worth seeking out.  Eater.com has started a new feature called Vintage America: A Brief History of Wine in America.  It’s a weekly column penned by Talia Baiocchi.  She will explore winemaking across the breadth of the nation.

In the introductory column, Baiocchi remarks on the path wine took from Bordeaux to Thunderbird, and the hard climb to respectability the American winemaking effort has endured.  She writes of how the American wine industry has grown by embracing those who were put off by wine snobbery, of how the domestic wine industry “offered a way in to those who had once felt marginalized by a culture of wine that was not their own.”

Touching on the more accessible jargon used for describing wines and the “democracy” of the 100-point scale for rating wine, Baiocchi outlines the rapid rise of the American wine culture since the 1970s and promises to reach back further into America’s winemaking history.  She also promises to delve into wine from states other than the big four producers of California, Oregon, Washington and New York.

That is of particular interest to me, since I recently began an effort to taste wine from all fifty states.  You can follow my “Wine Country” series on the Now And Zin Wine Blog, and follow Talia Baiocchi’s column on Eater.com.

NORTON WINE - AMERICA'S GRAPE

In the land of grapes, Norton is not exactly a household name.  Not in the American wine mecca of California for sure, and not even in places like Missouri and Virginia, where the Norton vine has its roots.

Those roots go back to 18th century America.  Paul Roberts of Deep Creek Cellars in Friendsville, Maryland has much to say about Norton - or Cynthiana, as it is also known - and he is reprinted at length on the website for Virginia's Chrysalis Vineyards.  He also has a book on the subject: From This Hill, My Hand, Cynthiana's Wine.

The grape known scientifically as vitis aestivalis is believed to have been produced by a Dr D.N. Norton of Virginia, who - probably by accident - crossed two other still unknown grape varieties.  Many grape varieties native to North America have aromas and flavors too sweet and "grapey" from which to make good dry wine.  Norton does not generally exhibit those properties, and makes some very fine wines that are legendary to folks in the midwest and eastern U.S.

In 1873, a Missouri Norton wine was proclaimed "the best red wine of all nations" at a competition in Vienna.  Roberts says, "Zinfandel is often described as America's first and most original gift to the world of wine.  Actually, it's Norton."

Todd Kliman’s book, The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape and the Untold Story of American Wine, deals with the origin of the Norton Grape, its heyday and its status as an outsider in the wine industry.

The book was reviewed on Palate Press, and in the interview with Kliman following the article the author talks about the Norton grape.

“I still don’t think Norton will ever be a dominant wine," he says.  "That’s just not its place. America’s palate, since Norton’s heyday, has changed too much.  But it could be much more than it is.

"You either love Norton or hate Norton," Kliman continues.  "It is a wine of extremes. Someone new to the grape and the wine must understand that.  If you are used to the wines that currently represent what America is, according to the West Coast definition, Norton is going to be very different from that.  Norton is not the kind of wine that you drink while curled up with a book by the fire.

"Norton should be kept in context with the sort of expression of American culture that it could have represented.  I think of Walt Whitman and Mark Twain and even jazz music, and how they have come to define American culture.  Norton was born of the same soil, and yet it is almost unheard of.  It should be understood as a similar expression of that American experience."

Still today, wineries in states from Virginia to Georgia to Texas to Missouri produce Norton wines that are well worth seeking out and trying.  However, Norton wines are not so easy to find in much of the western part of the country.  I was fortunate enough to receive some samples of various Norton wines from Missouri, Virginia and Georgia.  In the coming few days - beginning Thursday - my impressions and tasting notes for those wines will be published here on the Now And Zin Wine Blog.   I hope you’ll look for them.  And for some Norton wine.

THE HISTORY OF WINE IN THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

A fascinating story of winemaking in Los Angeles County - specifically the San Gabriel Valley - will be told by Charles Perry at the Los Angeles County Arboretum on Sunday October 24, 2010.  Perry is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times Food Section and the co-founder of the Culinary Historians of Southern California.  He'll tell this remarkable story from 4:00 until 6:00 p.m., and then host a wine tasting afterward.  The cost for this event is $25 for Arboretum members, $30 for non-members.

The press release for this event staes that if you've only heard California's wine history told by the mention of sacramental wines followed by an immediate leap to Napa and Sonoma, you may be surprised to find that Los Angeles County was the first place in the country where premium wine varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon were made.  In the latter part of the 19th century the wines of Los Angeles County were exported to the East Coast and Europe, and L.A. County was the nation's leading wine producer for about 50 years.

Perry's compelling story is full of colorful characters.  Hugo Reid received the grant to the land called Rancho Santa Anita and tended to the existing vines from the mission days.  He added even more vines and was one of California's wine pioneers.  After Reid's death, the land was taken over by Benjamin D. Wilson, and later Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin made wine on the property.  The Arboretum - and the Baldwin Winery building on the grounds of Santa Anita racetrack - are all that remain of the Rancho Santa Anita land grant.

Anyone with an interest in the history of winemaking in California should find this to be an illuminating afternoon.  For more information or to purchase tickets call 626.821.4623 or email jill.berry@arboretum.org.