San Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE WEST
GEORGE WEST, proprietor of
the famous El Pinal vineyard, two miles northeast of Stockton, is one of the
few men who originally introduced and have sincedeveloped
(sic) California’s greatest interest, - grape-growing and wine manufacture.
Rarely is there found a place, where, with astonishing fertility, the finest
qualities are produced by viticulture. The rule of experience - that quality
and quantity are inversely proportioned - fails of application at the El Pinal
vineyard. Why this is so, is difficult to explain, but there must be some happy
combination of climate and soil conditions to account for the marvel. The
shrewd guess is that the deep stratum of heavy, marly
sub-soil, overlaid by rich, black loam, with surface water enough to maintain a
moist condition of the sub-soil without saturation - the vegetation being
influenced by the warm summers of the San Joaquin valley, tempered at that
point by the inward flow of moist air which follows tide water to Stockton, -
are the controlling causes. Perfect maturity of large crops is attained
apparently under these conditions, and the composition of the soil insures the
qualities sought by connoisseurs.
Mr. West was born in Taunton,
Massachusetts, January 12, 1830, and came to California in the spring of 1850.
He first devoted his attention to mining, as did all others in those days, but
in 1852 purchased the property which has since been his home.
Mr. George West was a pioneer
in viticulture, and now ranks among the most successful as well as the most
esteemed in the State. He and his brother - the latter being the well-known
nurseryman, W. B. West, whose word is authority throughout the State in
horticultural matters - had a passion in the beginning for beautifying the
State with rare trees and plants, and were among the earliest to import foreign
varieties of fine grape-vines, bringing by steamer from Boston in the year
1852, forty varieties, among them the seedless Sultana. From this importation
are derived all the seedless Sultana now in the State.
They added yearly to their stock, and at length exporting their products to
Europe. About 1868 William B. West made a collection of sherry grapes from
Spain.
Their first manufacture of
wine was on the home place, under a tree, about 1858. Previously they sold
their grapes in Stockton and San Francisco. They have continued to increase
their facilities until the present, and could now work up 3,000 tons of grapes
each year could they get them in this county. In 1868 they planted a vineyard
of sixty-two acres about ten miles northeast of Stockton, on the Calaveras, in
company with J. H. Dodge, but some years afterward sold out. In 1880 Mr. George
West and Thomas R. Minturn established in Fresno County a vineyard of 700
acres, on a tract of 2,100 acres. All that is in vine and raisin
grapes. Afterward Mr. West, in company with a number of Stockton men,
purchased the Escondido ranch in San Diego County, where they planted 150 acres
in raisin grapes, and which place they sold in 1886. The present firm is George
West & Son (Frank A.). They have wholesale houses in Stockton, San
Francisco and New York city; in the latter it is the
Sonoma Wine and Brandy Company, at Nos. 1 and 3 Front street. They have a
switch running out to their winery from the Southern Pacific Railroad.
The properties of George and
William B. West adjoin each other, and on each can be seen groves of the most
varied and beautiful specimens of pines and other evergreens that can be seen
in the State. When the vineyard of Mr. George West became so celebrated that it
needed a distinguishing name, he baptized his home El Pinal, which is Spanish
and means the pine grove. For many years the table grapes from this place have
enjoyed the reputation among the commission fruit merchants of San Francisco,
not only for size and beauty of clusters, but also for fine quality. Rapidly,
however, the importance of the wine and brandy grapes in his collection became
felt, and from his stock many vineyards have been built up, all hoping in some
degree to produce the excellencies of the El Pinal cellar.
The El Pinal brandy is now
really celebrated, and is known not only to the trade, which was quick to
discover its merits, but also by critical consumers from San Francisco to New
York. Repeated decisions of juries and committees at fairs and State
viticulture convention have proved that this reputation is not due to any
exceptional vintages or to picked samples, but that it is based on general and
continued excellence and contrast improvement. His last distillations take rank
with the high grades of well-renowned Cognac, and are eagerly sought by NewYork (sic) merchants doing first class business.
Side by side in quality with
the brandies, Mr. West’s port wines, made from the varieties which are most
appreciated in the Alto Douro of Portugal, have made
themselves known. Samples of them four years old have favorably stood
comparison with the highest-priced imported stock. In sherries,
also, the same promising feature are being developed as experience leads the
intelligent wine-maker.
Unexpectedly now the public
is surprised with the quality of his clarets, in which he has shown vast
improvement by adopting the varieties of vines of the Medoc
district, near Bordeaux, France. It has been supposed that a locality suitable
for the highest quality of port would fail in producing high-grade clarets. In
this respect, however, there is an exception to be made in favor of several
districts in California, the most notable being that of Stockton, and its
neighbor, the Livermore valley. Mr. West’s appliances have been developed from
small beginnings, till he now has one of the best appointed cellars for
fermentation and storage; a separate distillery where every care is taken to
insure perfection of methods (but which, in many instances, means orderly simplicity),
and a separate sherry house.
He has long been considered a
man to counsel with, being frank and generous in giving advice and the results
of experience to beginners, and was called by the Governor of the State to
represent, in the State Viticulturist Commission, the great San Joaquin
district.
A short article on
viticulture from the pen of Mr. West is given on the last pages of this volume.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 525-529. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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