Pioneering American Wine: Writings of Nicholas Herbemont, Master Viticulturist

Letter to an Alabama Planter (July 9, 1830)

Letter to an Alabama Planter Of Making Wine. July 9, 1830 By 1830 Nicholas Herbemont’s reputation as a vintner advanced because of three causes: the clarity with which he argued a scheme of vineyard management suited to American conditions, the generosity with which he supplied interested persons with grape varieties proven to flourish in the difficult growing conditions found in the United States, and his skill as a winemaker. In the later years of his life, the last reason predominated. As bottles of his vintage circulated and published reports lauded their quality, Herbemont became the American authority on making flavorful wine. The “gentleman in Alabama” whose request prompted this letter typified the sort of correspondent of the 1830s curious about the hallmarks of Herbemont’s wine-making method. The “gentleman” was probably physician and cotton planter Robert W. Withers (1798–1854) of Erie, Greene County, Alabama, president of Alabama’s Agricultural Society. In 1828–29 he traveled through sixteen states visiting grape-growing establishments and, in a letter to the American Farmer dated May 14, 1829, mentioned Herbemont’s vineyard.1 Herbemont’s remarks continued the line of reasoning concerning the regularization of alcoholic potency by judicious sugaring of the must, the avoidance of brandy as a fortification, and the goal of creating finesse in taste. Of particular note was his instruction to cull the grapes before the crush, excluding all spoiled or immature fruit. No aspect of Herbemont’s wine making had a more beneficial contribution to the quality of his vintages. Published in American Farmer 12, no. 19 (July 28, 1830): 147–48. 1. Robert W. Withers, “Grape Vine and Sugar Cane,” American Farmer (June 5, 1829), 91–92. published letters 184 Culture of the Grape. Columbia, S.C. July 9th, 1830 j. s. skinner, Esq. Dear Sir,—The following is the answer to a letter I received from a gentleman in Alabama, requesting information as to my manner of making wine, &c. Thinking it possible that some of the readers of your invaluable “American Farmer” may, perchance, be glad to read it, I send it to you for insertion, if you think it can do any good. It really does me pleasure to answer all such queries; but, I confess, it takes too much of my time. I am yours, very respectfully, n. herbemont. Copy of an Answer to a letter from a Gentleman in Alabama. Columbia, S.C. July 9th, 1830 Sir,—It is always with pleasure that I answer any queries relative to the culture of the grape and the making of wine. I do, then, readily answer your letter of the 20th ult., according to my limited experience, and to the best of my knowledge. You request, in the first place, to know the process as practiced by myself, in making wine with the assistance of sugar. In complying with this request, allow me to begin the subject by explaining what wine is. This is the less impertinent, that liquors are often made and sold in this and other countries as wine, which have very little claim to this name, unless we give it also to beer, cider, and any compound frequently found as substitutes. Wine is the juice of the grape fermented according to certain rules, and to be sound and wholesome, it ought not to have any admixture of other substances, particularly of distilled spirits. The juice of the grape not fermented is not properly wine, and this fermentation is unavoidably necessary to the process of vinification. My objection to the admixture of brandy is twofold. 1st. Instead of assisting the process of fermentation, it is an obstacle to it, and 2dly, it renders wine heady, and by affecting the nerves, is most probably the cause of many of the diseases to which those who make too free a use of spirits are most liable. Yet wine contains spirits; for these are certainly the produce of fermentation; but the spirits thus produced seem, until they have been separated by distillation, to have very different effects on the human body. In fact, it has been observed that the inhabitants of those countries where wine is almost exclusively and generally used, are much less subject to many of the diseases to which those who usually drink spirits are frequently victims, such as liver complaints, 185 dyspepsia, &c. &c.2 In order, however, to make a sound, durable and wholesome wine, the grapes must have...