by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Continuing with our look at some of the history of San Gabriel Valley viticulturist, orange grower and horse-breeder L.J. Rose of the Sunny Slope Ranch, we find that on the 1st day of 1882 he was enmeshed in a bit of controversy that foreshadowed later events in the grape-growing and wine-making industries in greater Los Angeles.
Luther M. Holt, a founder of the towns of Artesia and Pomona during the region’s first boom some seven years earlier and operating the Riverside Press and Horticulturist newspaper in that citrus capital, wrote about an outbreak of red scale among his area’s vineyards and pinpointed the problem as coming from Rose and his sale of cuttings, as well as those of Isaias W. Hellman of the Rancho Cucamonga and the late Mathew Keller’s Los Angeles holdings.
Rose, in a lengthy reply in the Los Angeles Herald, stated that Holt had a beef with him and Hellman, but answered the claim with “if the red scale is on grape vines, it is all new to me, and I am inclined to doubt it.” He added “I have had the red scale insect on my place perhaps as long as it has been in this county,” but in his more than two decades at Sunny Slope never found it except on citrus trees, as well as on peaches and olives, but never on grapevines.
After reading Holt’s piece, Rose went out to his vineyard “with a magnifying glass . . . where it adjoins my orange trees that have red scale, and in no instance have I found one.” As a seller of cuttings throughout California, he professed that “I would no more sell a diseased cutting than I would steal” and added “I shall be much obliged to Mr. Holt or any one who convinces me of my error.” All he could see were some examples with dark raised dots, which, however, were just part of the bark or skin.
Offering that it was commonplace for persons to get unduly excited and anxious in such situations, Rose told of how it was believed that phylloxera, another insect pest, was found in Los Angeles vineyards, but this turned out to be a mistaken assumption. The agriculturist noted that insects come and go and washing plants with sulphur, soap, whale oil, concentrated lye and other material and aggressive pruning. In the end, Rose challenged Holt’s accusations and Matthew Cooke, the state horticultural officer, inspected the Sunny Slope vines and found no evidence of red scale, leading the Herald to scoff, “our people are decidedly more scared than hurt” when it came to dangerous pests, real or imagined.
Yet, the 24 February edition of the paper briefly reported that “the work of extirpating the scale-bug in San Gabriel is being very energetically prosecuted” and that “Mr. L.J. Rose entered into the work very earnestly,” while on the lands of his neighbor William S. Chapman (the Chapman Woods community is on part of that ranch) “the job has been done very thoroughly.”
The Herald of the 11th, with a rain season of somewhat meager levels, recorded that Rose felt that the lack of adequate precipitation “would reduce the yield of the vines about one-third,” even with a good deal of irrigation, of which he was not a proponent. Fortunately, at Sunny Slope the extension of vineyard acreage was expected to make up for the shortfall per vine.
The paper also commented that the industry would be augmented by “a very lively competition for grapes” between Rose “and the large winery which is being erected under the supervision of Mr. J[ames] de Barth Shorb.” Shorb, son-in-law of the late Benjamin D. Wilson of Lake Vineyard in the San Marino area, was launching the San Gabriel Wine Company and the Herald felt that “when distilleries multiply around him, the grower of grapes may well fancy that he hears the jingle of money in his pocket.”
By the end of the month, though, as the Herald observed, the welcomed rains came and, even though 90% of regional vineyards were irrigated (this included that of Francis W. Temple at the 75-acre Workman Homestead), local vines “will gain a strong and rooted permanence through the warm and genial rains.” Applying his percentage accordingly, Rose opined that the rainfall would boost grape production by that one-third and “in this single proposition alone is a gain of a million dollars to our people.”
On 18 February, the paper talked with Rose’s son-in-law, John V. Wachtel, an agent of Rose and Stern, who said that “the Sunny Slope vintage this year has been specially happy” and, with production there and at the former Tarbox distillery along the east bank of the Los Angeles River just north of William H. Workman’s Boyle Heights vineyard, total production was pegged at 560,000 gallons.
Including existing inventory, where aged wine and brandy would fetch higher prices, the Herald commented that “Mr. Rose’s splendid storehouses contain the largest and finest stock of the products of the vineyard on the American continent.” The article concluded with the claim that, aside from those in Los Angeles and Sonoma counties, maybe six vineyards in the nation are “deuce aces” in comparison to “this royal Los Angeles winery.”
In its 25 May edition, the Herald provided some detail from another official report by Rose, who was, earlier in 1882, reappointed to the State Horticultural Commission and who stated that $1 million was made from the products of vineyards in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties totaling north of 5,700 acres. So, a return of some $175 acres was countered only by expenses incurred in cultivation of $15, but it was added that there were around a half million acres in Los Angeles County “and at least one hundred thousand acres which would return heavy profits if planted in the citrus fruits.”
Claims that irrigation was responsible for agricultural success in the region were also refuted as it was countered that “there are many vineyards in Los Angeles county which are yielding plentifully without a particle of irrigation, and the most intelligent judgment is that no irrigation is needed.” A case in point was Rose’s new 600-acre vineyard at Sunny Slope which “is in a splendid state of growth, and that without any irrigation whatever.”
Just under a week later, the paper reprinted a travelogue from an Iowa journalist, who wrote that, not far past the Sierra Madre Villa hotel, “is the great ranch and vineyard of Mr. L.J. Rose, who left Iowa for this land of enchantment.” The writer was entertained by Rose’s son Harry and son-in-law Wachtel “and sampled the marvelous vintage in his great wine warehouse where are wines that need fear no rival, be it from Italy, France or Oporto [in Portugal].”
In a vineyard of 720 acres, a port was “the purest [the journalist] ever drank,” while the Berger and Blue Elbe “will through any foreign hock out of the market. After opining that “his brandies are matchless,” the correspondent concluded that “could all of his various vintages reach the consumers pure as they leave him no foreign wine would find a buyer in this country.”
On 4 June, the Herald posited the conflict of “The Orange vs. the Vine” and began by observing that before the first regional boom went bust in 1876, “orange culture in Los Angeles county ran up to marvelous figures. Benjamin D. Wilson’s crop yielded $1,800 an acre and it was added that single trees could net up to $70 and up to 80 trees could be planted on an acre. Counter to that, “our vineyard interests were in a very depressed state” and the general quality of wine was not good.
In recent years, however, there was such a marked improvement that the paper asserted that no local industry made “such great advances . . . as amongst our wine-makers during the past five or six years.” Still the reputation of poor quality product lingered, while inadequate distribution systems also hindered progress, leading to attitude the Herald characterized as despair.
Then came an era in which “the late Don Mateo Keller and Mr. L.J. Rose threw themselves into the breach, and inaugurated what might fairly be called a vineyard ‘boom'” and this included Keller’s efforts to market his wines at the nation’s centennial exposition at Philadelphia, while, in the same year, 1876, Rose and Stern began to sell Sunny Slope wine in the east. Keller and Rose laid the groundwork, the piece concluded, for “a modest competency to the possessor of twenty acres of land with vines four or five years old.”
The short-lived Los Angeles Telegram, in its 22 August issue, visited Sunny Slope and, though the owner was absent, they were shown the ranch and quoted an unidentified representative (probably a son or Wachtel) as saying
Our own vineyards will produce at least one-fifth more grapes this year than they did last, when we made about 400,000 gallons of wine and 100,000 gallons of brandy. If the grape-growers from which we purchase have as large a proportionate increase as indicated in the vicinity of Sunny Slope, we shall produce not less than 600,000 gallons of wine and at least 125,000 gallons of brandy.
The grape yield was considered “enormous” as “the vines are loaded to their full capacity” and “the berries are of the best quality.” As to prices, they were expected to remain consistent and, when asked if competition, from Shorb and San Gabriel Wine Company, the reply was: not in the short term, though “it may create competition in the future.”
The Los Angeles Times of 19 October, though, cited Rose’s latest report to the state commission in which he was quoted as suggesting that, because of the great increase in planting grapes, “California in the last two years made about as much wine as the demand required.” He also averred that there was no real foreign market yet, so, even with “home” demand increasing, “doubling our vineyards every year is an increase far beyond what can be expected in the increase of consumption.” Recalling past overproduction and the resulting abandonment of vineyards, it was feared that a repeat was in the offing.
Little was found about the horse-breeding component at Sunny Slope for 1882, although former governor and future United States Senator and railroad tycoon Leland Stanford visited in late May and purchased two of Rose’s colts. A new business venture for Rose was in Arizona mining with Reginaldo F. del Valle and Rose’s long-time friend Thomas D. Mott. On the real estate front, Rose and his livery stable partner William Ferguson, in the fall, leveled “the old, unsightly” building across from the Baker Block on Main Street, where U.S. 101 is now, in preparation for a three-story, with basement, commercial structure.
The year 1883 began with another distinguished visitor, the Marquess of Lorne, John Campbell who was also the 9th Duke of Argyll (related to the Duke of Sutherland who previously visited Sunny Slope) and who was the Governor-General of British-controlled Canada. Lorne was married to Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, and his term ended in October, but his visit to Rose’s domain included his interest in wine production including the “taking of copious notes.”
A key event for the year was a three-day convention for the Los Angeles viticultural district, of which Rose was the state commissioner, as noted before. The Herald of 17 June reprinted a San Francisco newspaper article that hoped that many northern winemakers would attend to see what was being done in the southern part of the state, who viticulturists felt “slighted” because those of Napa, Sonoma and other counties discounted the notion that good dry wines could be produced in the south.
If the latter was not able to do so, however, “they can make most excellent port, sherries and sweet wines,” but the San Francisco sheet opined that southerners were too “self-satisfied” about their abilities, “while the northern counties have been eagerly experimenting and studying, and therefore making progress.”
When the convention opened on the 21st, Rose gave an opening address and stated that “this section is not only adapted to the culture of oranges, lemons, figs and other fruits, but particularly of the grape.” Appealing to the northerners present and invoking President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, he added, “we must all pull together, for a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Southern winemakers, he continued, “want to know what we can do in making raisins and improving our wines” and he ended by proclaiming, “I believe this is the most favorable land in the world for raising wine grapes, and it is true that California will be the great grape and wine country of the world.” Overproduction of wine, as referred to above, was also discussed that first day.
During the second day, Rose addressed the question of grape varieties and asserted that “we need all the Mission vines we have, but the foreign also,” repeating that he favored the Blue Elbe and Berger, even as these imports were still large considered experiments. He went on that “we not only can, but do, make good light wines here, but there is more money in strong wines.” He also promoted the Sultana grape as excellent for sherry, as well as brandy.
On the final day, Rose reiterated his view that foreign varieties were superior to the “native” Mission grape, adding, somewhat prophetically, that the best markets for California brandy were in England or France, as Americans were not brandy drinkers, and that a strong foothold in Britain would dispense with all concerns of overproduction. Exhibits at the Turnverein Hall on Spring Street, where the confab was held, included seven vintages from Sunny Slope of Blue Elbe, Berger, Zinfandel, Trousseau, port and two brandies from 1877 to 1882.
Earlier in June, the Times briefly recorded that 180,000 vines were planted at Sunny Slope on a total of almost 1,000 acres. At that time, the Herald observed that some $30,000 in the sale of oranges occurred from groves there during the past season. After the convention’s closing, the paper expressed disapproval of an unnamed northern paper’s contention that Rose commented that California was overplanting vines and overproducing wine (which he did say in 1882), insisting that in conversations with him he had nothing negative to say regarding local conditions.
The article continued that Rose expanded his vineyard, as the Times reported, and Stern and Rose had trouble keeping up with eastern demand for its products. The Herald felt that what Rose probably meant was that there were areas of the Golden State where inexperience led to poor quality wine, but Los Angeles County “long ago passed through that purely experimental stage.”
The progress of the previous decade were, in fact, “simply phenomenal” as light wines were far superior and Rose was mentioned as a prodigious buyer of local grapes and not in a way that made him “a bear on the vinicultural and viticultural interest.” The piece concluded that there was “no fear of the future” to be felt locally and “the market for well-made specialties of the Los Angeles wine press will always be highly remunerative.”
The 1 August edition of the Herald including interesting statistics from the past decade, including a nearly 250% increase in general property values since 1872, from under $11 million to nearly $25.5, while acreage devoted to vineyards jumped, during that period, from 5,850 to some 20,000. The number of gallons of wine rose from not quite 1.25 million to about 4 million, while brandy leapt from 15,000 to 250,000. The 13 September issue reported that Rose paid $20 per ton for foreign grapes, while the local Mission variety fetched $15, so it was expected that a profit of $75 pre acre would be realized.
In its 26 August number, the paper described how the already “immense winery” at Sunny Slope was augmented with a new three-story brick structure with another crushing apparatus, thereby doubling the storage capacity with a capability of processing 150 tons of grapes daily. Twenty-eight new vats, of 15,000 gallons each, were in the new edifice, which could hold 450,000 gallons of product from 160 tons of grapes crushed each day. Steam pipes in the cellar allowed for a stable temperature to aid in proper fermentation and Rose was hailed for this “immense benefit to Southern California” that was expected to be “a grand success.”
With respect to his horses, Rose and another well-known breeder, James Ben Ali Haggin, conducted a major auction in late March at Bay District Track in San Francisco, just north of Golden Gate Park. Each man listed a dozen animals and the auction was considered by the Herald of 31 March to be “the most exciting sale of horses probably ever held on this coast.” The usual fall races at Agricultural (now Exposition) Park, south of Los Angeles city limits, were held in early October, with Sunny Slope horses besting “Lucky” Baldwin’s entries from Santa Anita in two contests.
Lastly, and more than two years before the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad completed a direct transcontinental railroad link to the region, but as the Southern Pacific was finishing its southern rail line to New Orleans, the Los Angeles Board of Trade looked for southern California “to secure . . . its just proportion of the sweeping tide of immigration about to set in for this Coast.” It established a Committee of Immigration, including Rose, Shorb and William H. Workman, the latter becoming mayor of the Angel City in 1887 and 1888 during the ensuing boom.
We’ll be back tomorrow for part seven, so check back then.
The article in the Los Angeles Herald on August 26, 1883, about L. J. Rose’s newly added wine production and storage facilities requires clarification. It stated, “Twenty-eight new vats, each with a capacity of 15,000 gallons, were in the new edifice, which could hold 450,000 gallons of product from 160,000 tons of grapes crushed each day.” Given that, on average, one ton of grapes produces 150 gallons of wine, the total volume of wine produced from 160,000 tons of grapes would far exceed the facility’s storage capacity, not to mention being crushed each day. It seems likely that the intended measurement was 160,000 kilograms, i.e., 160 tons instead.
Thank you, Larry, for pointing out the mistake. It was stated as 160 tons in the news article. We appreciate your letting us know!