The Bancrof T Library University of ~Alifornia/~Erkeley Regional Oral History Office

The Bancrof t Library University of ~alifornia/~erkeley Regional Oral History Office California Wine Industry Oral History Prod ect Maynard A, Joslyn A TECHNOLOGIST VIEWS THE CALIFORNIA WINE INDUSTRY With an Introduction by Gordon Mackinney An Interview Conducted by Ruth Teiser Copy NO- @ 1974 by The Regents of the University of California All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between the Regents of the University of California and Maynard A. Joslyn, dated April 1, 1974. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancrort Library of the University of California at Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, k86 Library, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Maynard A. Joslyn requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. TABLE OF CONTENTS -- Maynard A. Joslyn PREFACE INTRODUCTION by Gordon Mackinney INTERVIEW HISTORY INITIAL INTEREST IN WINE THE PROHIBITION PERIOD DIFFERING TASTES IN WINES THE POST-REPEAL INDUSTRY AND THE UNIVERSITY COOPERAGE AND EQUIPMENT PROBLEMS THE UNIVERSITY AND THE FEDERAL BANKS THE CALIFORNIA VINEYARDISTS ASSOCIATION PROHIBITION PERIOD WINES PREPARING FOR REPEAL WINE TASTING SHEWAN- JONES JOHN EOFF AND WINE BY-PRODUCTS CONSUMER TRENDS LOW-ALCOHOL AND CARBONATED WINES SOME WINERIES OF THE 1930's COOPEBATIVES GRAPES, WINE AND ECONOMICS ADDITIVES AND CONSTITUENTS AGING WINES SHERRIES TOKAY, ANGELICA AND OTHER DESSERT WINES WINE MAKING PRACTICES, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE BESIURCH STUDIES THE FIELD OF FOOD SCIENCE JOSLYN-AMEBINE PUBLICATIONS RECENT RESEARCH PROJECTS THE CAREER OF A FOOD SCIENTIST APPENDIX I: Curri~tulumVitae, M.A. Joslyn APPENDIX 111 Bibliography, M,A, Joslyn APPENDIX 111: "Food Scienoe Program at Berkele~,~ MeA. Jos~~ INDEX The California Wine Industry Oral History Series, a project of the Regional Oral History Office, was initiated in 1969, the year noted as the bicentenary of continuous wine making in this state. It v~asundertaken through the action and with the financing of the Wine Advisory Board, and under the direction of University of California faculty and staff advisors at Berkeley and Davis. The purpose of the series is to record and preserve information on California grape growing and wine making that has existed only in the memories of wine men. In some cases their recollections go back to the early years of this century, before Prohibition. TA~s~ recollections are of particular value because the Prohibition period saw the disruption of not only the industry itself but also the orderly recording and preservation of records of its activities. Little has been written about the industry from late in the last century until Repeal. 'There is a real paucity of information on the Prohibition years (1920-19331, although some wine making did continue under supervision of the aohibition Department. The material in this series on that period, as well as the discussion of the remarkable development of the wine industry in subsequent years (as yet treated analytically in few writings) will be of aid to historians. Of particular value is the fact that frequently several individuals have discussed the sane subjects 2nd events or expressed opinions on the same ideas, each from his own point of view. Research underlying the interviews has been conducted principally in the University libraries at Berkeley and Davis, the California State Library, and in the library of the Wine Institute, which has made its collection of in many cases unique materials readily available for the purpose. Three master indices for the entire series are being. prepared, one of general subjects, one of wines, one of grapes by variety. These will be available to researchers at the conclusion of the series in the Regio-nal Oral History Office and at the library of the Wine Institute. The Regional Oral Bistory Office r.ms established to tape record autobiographical interviews with Gersons who have contributed significantly to recent California history. The office is headed by Willa K. Baum and is under the adzinistrative supervision of James D. Hart, the Director of The Bancroft Library. Ruth Teiser Project Director California Wine Industry Oral History Series 1 March 1971 Regional Oral History -Office 486 The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley CALIFORPJIA WINE INDUSTRY INTERVIEWS. Intervieus CompZeted by November, 1983 Lecn D. Adams RevitaZizing the CaZifomia Wine Industry 1974 (154 pp. ) Maynard A. Amerine The University of CaZifbrnia and the State 's Wine Indz~stry 1971 (142 pp. ) Philo Biane Wine Making in Southern CaZifornia and RecoZZectims of Fruit Industries, Inc. 1972 (100 pp. ) Burke H. Critchfield,- Carl F. Wente, and Andrew G. FreZicks The CaZij?amin Wine Industry During the Depression 1972 ( 79 pp. j William V. Cruess A Half Century of Food and Wine TechnoZogy 1967 (122 pp. ) Maynard A. Joslyn A .TechnoZogist Views the CaZifornia Wine Industq 1974 (151 pp.) Horace 0. Lanza and Harry Baccigaluppi CaZifom.ia Grape Products and Other Wine Enterprises 1971 (150 pp.) Louis M. Martini and Louis P. Mart,ini winemakers of the Napa VaZZey 1973 (94 pp. ) Otto E. Meyer CaZifornia Pretmh Flines and Brandy 1973 (71 pp .) Harold P. Olmo PZant Genetics and flew Grape Varieties 1976 (183 pp. ) Antonio Perelli-Minetti A Life in Wine Making 1975 (174 pp. ) Louis A. Petri Thg Petri Family in the Wine ~ndustr?~1971 ( 67 pp .) Jefferson E. Peyser The Law and the CaZifornia Wine Industry 1974 (71 pp. ) Lucius Powers The Fresno Area and the CaZifomia Wine Industry 1974 (54 py.) Victor Repetto and Sydney J. Block Perspectives on CaZifomia Wines 1976 (65 pp.) Edmund A. Rossi Italian Swiss Colony and the Wine Indzcstry 1971 (103 py. ) A. Setrakian A Leader of $he San Joaquin VaZZey Grape Industry 1977 (107 pp. ) ~ndre'Tchelistcheff Grapes, Vine, nnd EcoZogy 1983 (230 pp .) Brother Timothy The Christian Brothers as Winemakers 1974 (142 pp. ) Ernest A. Went e Wine ~Vakingin the Jivemore VaZZey 1971 (97 PP . ) Albert J. Winkler ViticuZturaZ Research at UC Eavis (1921 - 1971) 1973 (144 FP.) INTRODUCTION Maynard Joslyn gave four interviews to Ruth Teiser, two in 1969, two in 1973. The transcripts confirm what I had long known, that Maynard has virtually total recall for events many of which occurred over 45 years ago. His answers are invariably forthright; there is never any hedging or uncertainty. What is not so evident is the extraordinarily wide range of his interests. Time and again, he showed that he knew the literature background of a proposed research project more thoroughly than the individual to whom it had been assigned. He was truly an omnivorous reader, always ready to share his knowledge and generous with his help. Iwas appointed to the staff -imniediately after Professor Bioletti's retirement (p 18) but delayed joining for six months to complete an assignment on chlorophyll degradation during the processing of leafy vegetables. This too was a topic on which Joslyn was well-informed, the subject of subsequent collaboration between us. Iwas only marginal ly involved in the work on wine, but Ireceived material help from him when I isolated the pigments of the red Alicante Bouschet from different areas in the State. He touches lightly upon differences of opinion between the two campuses (p 26). These were real, and probably inevitable. It was exciting to be in Berkeley in those days. Residues from our glass stills were sought for deuterium-enriched water; then there was the impact of the cyclotron. No student on the Berkeley campus could be entirely immune to what was going on and it probably went to our heads. By contrast, we felt that the more conservative Davis campus lacked glamor. The peculiar administrative setup of the College contributed to all this. Within a somewhat anomalous "Department of Agriculture" the College was organized into Divisions, and Division Heads tended to maintain a rigid hierarchy not only at Davis, but to a lesser extent and generally less effectively, at Berkeley. (As niight be expected, some Heads were very much more equal than others. ) Consequently in addition to a no doubt unjustifiable Big Brother cor~plexof the larger campus, there were personality clashes. I refer of course only to the period prior to World War 11. Dean Hutchison wisely forestal led further erosion (p 89) by his selection of the two Maynards (Joslyn and Amerine) to reconcile differences of opinion in this area, which led to their publications on table wines, dessert wines and brandies, rightly termed classics. These interviews portray vividly the contributions of Maynard Joslyn to the wine industry. This is the result of the fact, in his own words (p 90) that he "was pr-iniarily interested .in doing creative scholarly work in the field," and this was not limited to wine. He made important contributions to our knowledge of pectins, (the polyuronides responsible for, gel formation in jams and jell ies) ; he and George Marsh did much work on the then unknown reducing factor of vegetables, later shown to be vitamin C. Joslyn also made an impressive start on the darkening of dried fruits (the Maillard reaction), and he generously turned over his findings to the writer. He would, I think, have been very much at home, in eighteenth century France during the En1 ightenment in the Age of Reason. "Ni hi1 quod tetigit non G. Mackinney Professor of Food Techno1 ogy, Emeritus July 16, 1974 Berkeley INTERVIEW HISTORY Professor Joslyn's contributions to the Regional Oral History Office interview series on the California wine industry began while the concept was being formulated.

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