Napa County Biographies

W.B. Bourn�s Storage Cellar

Transcribed by: Christine Helmick

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
     In describing this immense establishment we cannot do better than copy from 
a little work entitled �Wines and Vines of California,� premising only that at 
the time the article was written, the cellar was not completed.  It is now 
(1890) in operation, and is proving of the greatest value to the grape growers 
of the Napa Valley, having been a moving cause in the increased prices now being 
paid.  Everything about the place is of the most solid and substantial nature, a 
pride having been taken, seemingly, by everyone concerned, in making everything 
the best possible.  The dimensions of the building are 400 feet in length, 
eighty feet in breadth, by about eighty feet in height to top of tower.  Mr. L. 
Zierngibl, a gentleman of experience and educated to the business, is the 
manager, and the cellar master is Mr. E. A. Wessling, under whose guidance it is 
a pleasure to visit the spacious storage vaults, and taste the choice vintages.
     In another place will be found a description of the two large vineyards 
belonging to Mr. Bourn; Inglebourn, and Rocklands, two of the finest in the 
valley.
     True American enterprise is exemplified by the firm of Bourn & Wise, who 
are slowly but surely revolutionizing the wine industry of Napa Valley.  These 
young gentlemen are fully determined to bring wine making in their vicinity to 
its highest state of perfection, and as aids to the undertaking have wealth, 
intelligence, patriotism and unbounded energy.  One of the greatest afflictions 
which has befallen the grower has been his inability either to store his wine 
for proper aging, or to raise money on it, as none of the banks consider wine 
collateral.  This puts the grower at the mercy of the wine merchant, who has not 
been slow in taking sufficient advantage to ruin prices, and who has more to do 
with the present depression than all of the other causes combined.
     To obviate this difficulty, to keep new wine off the market, and to finally 
realize better prices through direct dealing, are the causes which led to the 
building of an immense storage cellar by the above-mentioned firm, which will be 
completed in time to receive this year�s vintage.  The firm undertakes to loan 
ten cents on the gallon to the grower of such wines as are stored in the cellar, 
and also agrees to accept for storage, in preference to their own wines, all 
those growers products who have contributed to the subsidy asked when the 
project was first mooted.  The subsidy consisted of a certain number of tons of 
grapes, which growers pledged themselves to deliver at the winery for the 
privileges cited above.
     Wines will be received on storage at a fixed charge per gallon.  Storage 
includes the use of oak cooperage, racking and care of wine.  No charge will be 
made for gauging, except when special gauging is required for outgoing wines, 
when fifty cents per 1,000 gallons will be charged.  Delivery charges fifty 
cents per 1,000 gallons.  On the receipt of wine a warehouse certificate will be 
issued to the owner.  We will advance money on wines stored with us, or the 
holder of the certificate can borrow wherever he finds the lowest money market.  
Our warehouse receipt furnishes its owner with a security at par with a grain 
warehouse receipt and one as readily negotiated.
     A circular recently issued by the firm sets forth their terms as follows:
     2d.  We will manufacture grapes into wine on shares, giving the owner of 
the grapes a fixed number of gallons of wine for every ton of grapes delivered, 
and the wine so delivered to him will be made from the grapes delivered by him 
to us.  Every lot of wine will be kept separate, and on or about December first 
each owner will have his wine marked and measured to him.  It can than either 
enter the storage department or be hauled away.
     3d.  We will receive grapes to be manufactured into wine, the price to be 
paid per ton to the grower to remain in abeyance until the product is sold.  
When sold, a fixed percentage of the amount received per gallon shall determine 
the price to be paid per ton.  Pending final settlement advances will be made by 
us.
     4th.  We will manufacture grapes into wines at a fixed price per ton.  Wine 
so manufactured will be kept separate and cared for till it�s second racking.  
It can then enter the storage department or will be delivered to its owner.
     No Malvoisie, Mission, inferior grapes, or grapes in bad condition will be 
received for wine making.
     Such privileges are of inestimable value, since they bring the grower and 
Eastern buyer into direct dealings, the same as the wool and fruit industries 
enjoy, and also afford a means of relief from exacting money lenders.  It is the 
intention to keep samples of all the wines grown in the valley, and a buyer may 
cut, blend and order any quantity or quality without any further inconvenience 
than a visit to this mammoth establishment.  The personnel of the firm inspires 
confidence in the ultimate success of the scheme, since Mr. W. B. Bourn, the 
well-known capitalist, has as a resident partner Mr. E. Everett Wise.  Not only 
will Bourn & Wise store wine for the neighborhood, but they will also make large 
quantities themselves.  Mr. Bourn individually owns two large vineyards near St. 
Helena, aggregating 610 acres.  The very best foreign varieties are planted in 
these vineyards, and it is the intention of the company to produce only 
high-type wines, which they will properly age and bottle before putting on the 
market.
     The following is an accurate description of the cellar, which was built by 
Percy & Hamilton, of San Francisco, from the pen of Mr. Percy, who acknowledges 
many useful suggestions from Captain H. W. McIntyre, of Senator Stanford�s 
vineyard at Vina:
     �This magnificent wine cellar is the largest of its kind in California, if 
not in the world, and the most complete in all its appointments.  It is built on 
a sloping hillside on the west side of the county road and about one mile north 
of the town of St. Helena.  The earth taken from the cut made in the hillside is 
graded in front to form a broad level terrace where a side-track connects with 
the N. V. R. R. and a gentle slope to the road.  The building is 400 feet long 
and seventy-eight feet in width, with a front projection of 50x20 feet, in which 
is the main entrance, office and sample rooms.  A broad flight of granite steps 
lead to the red tiled floor of the main entrance.  From the office entrance a 
central passage twenty feet wide extends across the buildings with stone walls 
on both sides, thus separating the building in two distinct wings.  In the rear 
and on a level with the first floor is a driveway fourteen feet wide extending 
the entire length of the building and open to the grade at both ends.  This 
driveway is covered with concrete beams and arches, forming another roadway at 
the level of the second floor and with properly graded approaches at both ends.  
Above the retaining wall at this roadway, is a graded road on the hillside 
nearly level with the third floor, from which grapes are taken directly to the 
crushers in the attic.  From the covered driveway at the level of the first 
floor are openings for thirteen tunnels, which are designed to extend 250 feet 
into the hillside.  These tunnels are to be sixteen feet wide and eleven feet 
high at the center and are for storing wine.
     �The walls of the entire building are built of a light gray volcanic stone 
found in the immediate neighborhood, and put together with Portland cement, 
while the trimmings are of a red stone of similar formation.  The stone work is 
finished with rock face, giving a bold and massive appearance to the work.  The 
entire roof is covered with a black slate of fine quality found in California.  
The interior construction is of a most substantial character.  The first floor 
is of Portland cement, neatly finished and graded to the various outlets.  The 
second floor is of Portland cement, concrete with strong twisted bars of iron 
imbedded in the concrete (Ransom�s patent method).  This entire floor is 
constructed in twenty four foot spans and supported by iron columns.  The third 
floor is of heavy timber construction, capable of being used for wine storage.  
An attic formed in the roof gives ample room for crushing grapes and 
distributing to the tanks below, while a stone tower twenty feet square, 
extending one story above the roof, gives accommodations to a large water tank 
and furnishes a fine point from which to view the Napa Valley.
     �The facilities for making and handling wine in this vast establishment are 
very complete.  In a small basement under the central projection is located a 
boiler, engine and dynamo for generating electricity, which is conveyed by 
proper wires to all parts of the building and tunnels furnishing incandescent 
lights and power for pumping wine at any point required.  Water pipes are run 
along all gangways and passages with hose cods at frequent intervals.  There are 
four inch iron pipes with neat brass plugs placed through walls and floors every 
thirty feet for the purpose of piping wine from wagons outside to any portion of 
the buildings or tunnels, or to discharge directly from the building into the 
cars in front.
     �In approaching the building after ascending a short flight of polished 
mosaic steps and passing under a massive Romanesque arch one finds himself in a 
neat and spacious vestibule with walls of colored brick, floor of mosaics and 
ceiling of moulded concrete.  On the left a door opens into an office about 
twenty feet square, with walls and ceilings paneled in antique quartered oak 
with desks and furniture to match.  A cozy stone fireplace occupies one corner 
and a massive vault door another, thus making one end of the office octagonal.  
On the opposite side of the vestibule is a sample room, elegantly fitted up 
walls and ceilings of paneled mahogany, with open bottle racks around the walls 
and two beautiful lockers of mahogany and plate glass beveled.  The windows in 
these two rooms are polished plate glass with artistic stained glass transoms, 
while a fancy parquet floor completes the finish.  On the opposite side of the 
vestibule from the main entrance is a large oak and glass door leading directly 
into the twenty-foot passage between the two wings.
     �In this passage is an iron staircase leading to the third story, also a 
hydraulic ram elevator.  On each side of this passage in each story are three 
doors eight feet wide, and from which a vista of 200 feet is obtained in either 
direction down spacious gangways, where great casks of varnished oak containing 
2,000 gallons of wine each set closely on both sides.  The entire building has a 
capacity for storing 2,500,000 gallons of wines, besides space required for 
making wines.  A distillery is placed a little north of the building and the 
superintendent�s house on the south.�
     Since the writing of the foregoing article, Mr. Bourn has purchased the 
interests of his partner, E. E. Wise, and is conducting the enterprise alone.
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California The Lewis Publishing Co., 
1891, Pages 824-827