Wine in the Rogue Valley: from Peter Britt to Rebirth

Wine in the Rogue Valley: From Peter Britt to Rebirth By Willard Brown Southern Oregon University History 415 Fall, 1999 Introduction In a previous paper this author explored the origins of grape growing and winemaking in the in the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon. Peter Britt was credited with establishing the first vineyard around 1855,arrd later, he produced wine under the name Valley View Vineyards. By the end of the century Britt had introduced premium wine grapes from California and had disseminated cuttings to other growers for propagation and vineyard development.1 Following the death of Britt in 1905, his winery ceased operating-2 and after 1916 when Oregon prohibition took effect, wine production in the valley ceased altogether. It would be nearly sixty years before it would resume. No single factor can explain this extended absence, but a number of successive and sometimes interrelated events impacted the industry and delayed its return. In the following, we will examine these events and evaluate their role in the decline and the rebirth of this industry. The End of the Beginning Grape growing and winemaking in the Rogue Valley reached its apogee around 1890. At that time nearly seventy-five acres of vineyards were in production and a number were recently planted. Grapes were sold locally, sent to the Portland market, and used in the manufacture of wine and brandy.2 By 1903 grape acreage had not increased and may have declined somewhat Only five vineyards totaling sixty acres were noted in a newspaper account, although a number of those plantings emerging in 1890 were not mentioned.3 Appendix A summarizes several reports from 1889 to 1903. August Petard arrived in the valley in 1899 and developed a vineyard southwest of Jacksonville where he shipped grapes to the Portland market and made wine for his own use.4 In 1876 Alfred H. Carson settled in the Missouri Flat area of the Applegate Valley near Grants Pass. Carson developed a nursery, a fruit ranch, and a vineyard on the property. The vineyard of forty acres was one of the largest in Oregon and after the arrival of the railroad in 1883he shipped grapes to the Seattle market. He also made a small amount of wine.5 In September1905, Peter Britt then eighty-six years of age, attended the Lewis and Clark Centennial in Portland. This celebratory exposition displayed many Oregon products including fruit, wines and photographs from Jackson County. Returning by train from Portland he contracted an upper respiratory infection and succumbed to pneumonia on 30ctober 1905.6 After the demise of Britt, the Valley View Winery slowly declined and after August 1907 there were no recorded transactions.7 By this time prohibition sentiment was on the rise, both nationally and locally. The death of Peter Britt and the closure of Valley View seem to have presaged a decline in the vineyard acreage and in the industry as a whole. By 1922 only one working vineyard, that of August Petard was still in operation in Jackson County.8 Although Peter Britt was the seminal figure in Rogue Valley viticulture, it does not seem that his death alone should have precipitated the decline. Certainly prohibition played a role but it would not arrive for another eleven years. Cultural factors including vineyard site, soil factors, and plant diseases may have been implicated. The vine root louse Phylloxera was epidemic in California at the time and might have been found in Oregon had anyone been looking. Phylloxera, Could it Have Happened Here? In order to ask the question it is necessary to be aware of the scourge of this vine root pest, which ravaged the vineyards of Europe and California in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In order to answer the question it is necessary to understand the life cycle of the insect, its natural history in the vine and the soil and factors affecting the dissemination of the pest. Dactylasphaera vitifoliae, also known as Phylloxera vasatrix and Phylloxera vitifoliae, is an aphid like insect which inhabits grape plants native to the eastern United States.lt has not been established west of the Rocky Mountains in the wild state. The organism is small, measuring less than one millimeter in length and width. The insects are oviparous (producing eggs outside the body) and parthenogenic (unfertilized eggs develop into new individuals). They inhabit the root zones of grapevines, where in late autumn, eggs hatch to larvae, which then overwinter in the roots. In the spring after temperatures reach fifty degrees Fahrenheit or greater, the larvae mature, producing the first of many generations in the yearly cycle 9 During warm weather in heavy soils where fissuring occurs, the mature forms migrate via the cracks in the soil to the surface. At this stage they are referred to as crawlers or wanderers. They may be disseminated by wind, rain, irrigation water, or by mechanical means such as implements, packing boxes or even automobile and truck tires and soles of boots. Winged forms are possible and are disseminated much more rapidly. These forms, uncommon in California were responsible for the rapid spread of the pest in Europe.10 Spread from infected to non infected vineyards may occur by any of the aforementioned means or by the planting of infected rooted plants. Infestation is more common in heavy soils, such as clay and adobe, and is uncommon in sandy soil.11 Damage to the vine is caused by the effects of the pest feeding on the roots, and injecting its poisonous saliva. Swelling and galls result, which impair the absorption of nutrients, leading to loss of vine vigor, decline and ultimately death of the vine. During this debilitative phase the vine is also more susceptible to attack by fungi and other insects.12 The diagnosis of the disease is established by demonstrating the organism, but the damage may resemble that of oak root fungus, gophers, nematodes, water stress or winter injury. Because of the slow dissemination of the non-winged form, several years may pass without detection of the pest.13 Had it remained in its natural habitat where native grapes had developed resistance to its destructive effects, the viticultural world would have been spared one of its most disastrous episodes. Around 1860 American vines were imported to Europe for experimental purposes. After vines in southern France began to die for no apparent reason, several years passed before the destruction was attributed to Phylloxera.14 Over the next twenty years the infestation spread to all of France and most of Europe. Here the winged form was implicated with its rapid dissemination. Although many control measures were attempted, it was not until 1881 that it was finally acknowledged that control could only be achieved by grafting the European wine varieties (Vitis Vinifera) to the rootstocks of American varieties.15 In California where the pest had been introduced from either France or the eastern United States, the first infestation was recognized in 1873 near Sonoma. Because the wingless form was implicated, spread was considerably slower than that in Europe, but eventually reached all of the wine districts in northern California by 1885.16 By 1881 the State Board of Viticulture and the University of California had recommended control by grafting to resistant rootstocks, but the infestation still eluded control as late as 1915.1/ " The story of Phylloxera is one of the most curious in the relationship of entomology to economics".18 The economic consequences led to a diverging differentiation in the structure of wine production in Europe. Larger more capital intensive enterprises could withstand the high cost of grafting over the vineyards, while many small peasant producers, unable to compete, were forced to relocate or emigrate.19 While the historical significance and consequences of Phylloxera in Europe and California are well established, in Oregon such is not the case. There is no record of Phylloxera in Oregon prior to the late nineteen sixties.20 In the Rogue Valley given the small acreage here, it might have gone unnoticed, particularly after the onset of prohibition when vineyards may have been neglected. Based on a number of factors it seems unlikely that Rogue Valley grapes could have escaped infestation. I have noted previously that the pest was present in all the vineyard districts of northern California.Peter Britt obtained grape cuttings from many places including California and from the eastern states. Infected rooted plants easily disseminate the organism. Although this would have been unlikely before 1887,after that time the Southern Pacific Railroad was complete, and rooted material could have reached southern Oregon from almost anywhere in California within a few days. The Rogue Valley vineyards, located primarily near Jacksonville were in close proximity to one another so that if any one of them had become infected, the others would have been susceptible. The soil in the Jacksonville vineyards would not have discouraged the pest. Finally, given the slow progress of the non-winged form, the effects could have gone unnoticed for years or have been confused with other problems including neglect. Given these hypothetical factors, could the Rogue Valley vineyards have been infected? We cannot answer that question definitively. After the advent of state and national prohibition, some vineyards would have been abandoned unless a local or distant market was established. In neglected or abandoned vineyards, infestation may have gone unrecognized.^ The State Department of Agriculture reported the presence of Phylloxera for the first time in its biennial report in 1970.21 The organism was supposedly found in four counties. In a personal communication I learned that the infected vineyards were found in Jackson, Josephine, Douglas and Wasco Counties.22 Apparently much of this information has been lost, thus there is no written record and the information is anecdotal.

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