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University of California • Berkeley

University of California Bancroft Library/Berkeley

Regional Oral History Office

Burke H. Critchfield

Carl F. Wente
Andrew G. Prericks

THE CALIFORNIA WINE INDUSTRY DURING
THE DEPRESSION

With an Introduction by
Maynard A. Amerine

Burke Critchfield being interviewed
March 9, 1970

Photograph by Catherine Harroun

This manuscript is open for research purposes.
All literary rights in the manuscript, including
the right to publish, are reserved to the Bancroft
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, ^86 Library, and should include identification
of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated
use of the passages, and identification of the user.

TABLE OP CONTENTS — Burke H. Critchf ield, Carl P. Wente,

Andrew G. Frericks

PREFACE i

INTRODUCTION ill

INTERVIEW HISTORY v

I BURKE H. CRITCHPIELD

BACKGROUND SUMMARIZED 1
WORK IN CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, 1927-1934 2

THE WINE INDUSTRY AND THE BANK OF AMERICA 9

WINERY FINANCING 21

THE PRORATE AND CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WINERIES 26

A CRISIS IN EVENTS 31

C.C.W. OPERATIONS 36

ANTI -TRUST CHARGES 43

WINE INSTITUTE PROGRAMS 48

APPENDIX I Memorandum by Burke H. Critchfield, 1970 52

APPENDIX II Report by Burke H. Critohfield to the

Wine Institute, June 1935 53

APPENDIX III Members of Central California Wineries, Inc. 55

II CARL F. WENTE 56

ECONOMICS 0? GRAPE GROWING IN CALIFORNIA, 1918-1942 57

INDEX - Burke H. Critchfield, Carl P. Wente 64
(For Wines and Grapes see page 69)

III ANDREW G. FRERICKS 70

THE PRORATE AND CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WINERIES 71

INDEX - Andrew G. Frericks 79

PREFACE

The California Wine Industry Oral History Series, a
project of the Regional Oral History Office, was initiated
in 1969 t the year noted as the bicentenary of continuous
wine making in this state. It was undertaken 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. These 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 (1920-1933),
although some wine making did continue under supervision of
the Prohibition 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 same subjects and
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 Regional Oral History
Office and at the library of the Wine Institute.

The Regional Oral History Office was established to
tape record autobiographical Interviews with persons who
have contributed significantly to recent California history.
The office is headed by Willa K. Baum and is under the
administrative supervision of James D, Hart, the Director
of The Bancroft Library,

Ruth Telser
Project Director
California Wine Industry
Oral History Series

1 March 1971

Regional Oral History Office
Jj-86 The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley

ill

INTRODUCTION

Burke H. Critohfield

Burke H. Critchfield was born in North Dakota in 1888.
He received an M.A. in agricultural economics from the
University of Minnesota and worked as a market specialist
for government and private organizations before coming to
California.

In 1927 he came to California for the Federal Bureau of
Economics. Seven years later he was employed by the Bank of
America. At a critical stage in the post-Prohibition period
of the California wine industry, he played an important role
in protecting the bank's loans to the newly developing wine
industry and in industry-wide measures on behalf of the whole
industry. In 1935 the bank lent him to the Wine Institute,
which according to his account he had played an important part
in organizing with the potent aid of A. P. Giannini. He
served as lobbyist in various states.

This interview was taped when Mr. Critchfield was 82
years old and only six months before his death. It therefore
often raises questions which are not easily answered. It is
not clear to this reader (p. 18 et seq. ) whether Critchfield
is talking about the Wine Institute or the grape prorate
program of 1938. He was active in the prorate program of
1938-9 and. then in planning and later in operating the Central
California Wineries.

The story of the genesis and death of Central California
Wineries is covered, in detail. Certainly all the details are
not given here. The anti -trust aspect of the case is only
sketchily referred to. Critchfield. frankly admits that a
personality conflict was involved. The details of the
liquidation of Central California Wineries are not clear in
the interview but are made clearer in the Interview History.

As to who was most responsible for the organization of
the Wine Institute, time will decide. Mr. Critchfield assumes
major credit — and perhaps he deserves it — though little
specific evidence is given in the interview.

His career is best summarized in his own words, "I'm a
promoter."

Carl Wente

Carl Wente came to the Bank of Italy at a very early
date. (He was manager of the Madera branch in 1919.) Much
later, from 1952 to 195^, he was president of the Bank of
America.

Because of his father's winery at Livermore and of his
two brothers who made Wente Bros into an important wine
company, he was always interested in the wine industry.
Doubtless he followed Critchfield's efforts closely. Hence
his paper, included here as an over-all view of matters
Critchfield discussed in particulars.

Maynard A. Amerine
Professor, Viticulture and
Enology

101 Wickson Hall

University of California at Davis

23 February 1972

INTERVIEW HISTORY

Burke H. Critchf ield was Interviewed on March 9, 1970,
In his study at his home in St. Helena, where he and Mrs.
Critchfield had lived since his retirement. Correspondence
had preceded the interview, and Mr. Critchfield had gathered
papers to refer to. Copies of some were made and have been
drawn upon for footnotes, and for the following account of
his career with the Bank of America.

The interview was held in two sessions, one in the
morning, then another in mid-afternoon after Mr. Critchfield
had had time to lunch and rest. He spoke quite clearly, but at
times he and the interviewer were not entirely understanding each
other, and there was also some lack of time sequence in his
account. He later wrote out and sent to the interviewer the
memorandum that forms Appendix I.

The initial transcript, with questions by the interviewer
intended to clarify some points, was sent to Mr. Critchfield
September 21, 1970. On October 23, before he had had an
opportunity to check it, Mr. Critchfield died. His nephew,
Burke M. Critchfield of Livermore, read it over and made some
minor corrections in wording.

To clarify the sequence of events discussed in the
interview, the following account has been prepared.

Burke H. Critchfield entered the employment of the Bank
of America on February 26, 193^, as a vice president and
continued to hold that position until October 1, 19^1, when
he took a leave of absence prior to terminating his employment,
according to the bank's records. An article in the San
Francisco Examiner of February 27, 193^, announced his
appointment and stated: "Critchfield, who has been in charge
of crop production loans with the Federal Intermediate Credit
Bank in Berkeley since November last, will supervise the same
type of credit with Bank of America."

One can speculate that A. P. Giannini, the bank's founder
and active head, was impressed by Critchf ield' s previous work
with the Giannini Agricultural Foundation of the University of
California in setting up the California Prune Pool and the
California Prune Control Board to stabilize the state's prune
market. (It is described in Marquis and Bessie R. James,

,">,'

vii

On January 8, 1935» A. P. Gianninl sent the following
telegram to Paul Garrett of Garrett & Company, in Brooklyn,
New York:

Under auspices California State Chamber of Commerce
grape and wine industry struggling very hard
organize Wine Institute Stop Undertaking now seems
assured of success Stop We loaned Mr. Crltchfield
to Chamber to assist during organization period Stop
Wine Institute has now asked that we loan Critchfield
for period of time to work for Institute in advancing
the interests of the grape and wine industry nationally
throughout Eastern states and Washington Stop Am
Informed sixty per cent of California industry signed
up and strenous efforts are being made to obtain
complete participation Stop Believe very helpful to
Wine Institute in obtaining additional signatures if
you sign up your California interests Stop Would
personally appreciate Stop We are gratified to loan
Critchfield further and assist industry in every way
possible if the individuals in the industry do their
part.

The bank did loan Critchfield for the legislative work,
as he recalled in his Interview (pp. 49-50). In April the
Institute reported that he had "during the past two months...
been assisting the Wine Institute in [an] advisory capacity
in surveying Eastern and Midwestern legislative and regulative
problems pertaining to wine [and] is in the East again after
a brief stay in California.11

During the following months he sent in many reports on the
legal status of wine in states in the East and as far west
as Utah. (See Appendix II for his report on quality standards. )
It may be, however, that Mr. Critchfield 's memory played him
false when he recalled that he had spent "most of a year" on
the legislative work, for on July 12 the board of directors
of the Wine Institute passed a resolution thanking him for
his efforts as if they had been concluded. ("Mr. Critchfield
has [worked] unceasingly over a period of many months, without
regard for his personal interest or his health, to perform
the difficult task and to obtain results which were beyond
the most optimistic expectations....") And no longer did out-
of -state reports appear over his name.

It is not known whether Critchfield participated in the
1935 Wine Institute drive, mentioned by Giannini in his
telegram to Garrett, that increased membership from ?2 in

vill

March to 18? in November. Probably Critchf ield's references
in his interview (pp. 18 and iJ-8) of work toward increased
membership refers to the three-pronged 1938 drive discussed
below.

The only 1936 event specifically mentioned in Critchf ield's
interview is the securing of wines for the American Bankers
Association meeting in San Francisco, an action which tied
in with the California industry's continuing effort to raise
the prestige of its products. A rather elaborate 16-page
pamphlet on the California industry and its wines was prepared
by the Bank of America to present to the bankers with the
wines. Mr. Critchf ield's copy is on deposit in the Bancroft
Library.

In 193? the Bank of America took Community Grape Corpora
tion away from the Berkeley Bank for Cooperatives, as Critchf ield
related in his interview (p. 2?). On August 10, he wrote the
following letter to Community:

August 10, 1937

Community Grape Corporation
Lodi, California

Attn: W. A. Spooner, Mgr.

Dear Bill:

In line with your request as to what terms our Bank would
make for a loan that would enable you to make your 1937 crush
to advantage and give your Growers substantial cash advances,
we are willing to make the following arrangements:

On approximately 650,000 gallons of Sweet Wine which you
now have in storage in Lodi we will make an advance of 20^
per gallon; and on your 60,000 proof gallons of Warehoused
Commercial Brandy in new oak cooperage, we will loan you 50^
per proof gallon. This will give you $160,000 and this will
enable you to retire your Berkeley Bank for Cooperatives'
obligation of $123,89^.07, and gives you a working capital of
$52,000.00 in excess of your Berkeley Bank obligation.

On new Sweet Wines we will advance 20^ a gallon when
fortified and upon satisfactory chemical analysis, and
tentatively 50^ per proof gallon on Commercial Brandy in new
oak cooperage. Subject to our approval of quality.

We would not require any chattel mortgage or deed of
trust on any of your property but require you to warehouse
the wine with a reputable warehouse company. The Laurence*
Warehouse Company has given us a figure of warehousing costs
to you of $150.00 a month over all, assuming an average
inventory of one and a half million gallons.

Wine would be released to Fruit Industries, Ltd.,
according to sales agreement and all proceeds from Fruit
Industries from wines and brandies now in their pools and from
shipments to be made to be assigned to the Bank of America,
Lodi Branch, with the understanding that from these monthly
proceeds deduction would be made of 2Q& per gallon on the old
wine released and 22$ per gallon on new wine released and
per proof gallon on brandy released and the balance of the
proceeds to be credited to your account. Interest to be at
5*.

Cordially yours,

[signed]

B. H. Critchfield,

Vice President

Commodity Loan Dept.,

Bank of America, N.T. & S.A.

BHC

An unsigned typed memorandum dated August 13 reported
that the sub-committee of the bank's general finance committee
had approved a commitment of $575*000 and specified its uses
in detail. The Lodi Times of August 1b, 1937, reported the loan
as follows:

Grower-members of the Community Grape Corporation
will receive an advance price of $15 per ton for grapes
delivered to the winery this fall crushing season, J. V.
Bare, president of the big co-operative association,
announced yesterday.

This will be the highest advance price ever paid
by a co-operative winery and is $5 per ton higher than
the customary $10 payment made by grower-operated
concerns .

Arrangements to make this larger advance to their
151 grower-members were completed Thursday by Bare and

*Lawrenoe

W. A. Spooner, secretary-manager, with the Bank of
America. ..

Bare reported that the Community has paid off all
of its financing obligations to the Berkeley Bank for
Co-Operatives. . .

The entrance of the Bank of America into the wine
producing financing field follows the state-wide
banking corporation's realization of the unprecedentedly
strong position of the wine industry, based on the
healthy condition of the wine markets, greater stability
in the wine price structure, increasing wine consumption
and generally favorable prospects for the 1937 grape
crop...

The Bank of America, acknowledging the increased
cost of production of grapes and wines, has adopted this
winery financing policy as a means of aiding the grape
growers in receiving a higher advance price for their
product. The bank expects to put approximately $3,000,000
into the grape and wine deal this fall...

Bare said that this Bank of America financing
program will have a salutory effect upon stabilizing
both the price for grapes and for wine and brandy. He
declared that his higher advance to co-operative members
is in keeping with the facts revealed at the Wine
Institute meeting, where vintners, growers and bankers
agreed that the price for 1937 grapes should range from
$17*50 to $22.50 per ton, delivered at the winery...

Nineteen thirty-eight was the year the stabilization plan
known as the prorate was organized. The background of the
program is summarized in a paper prepared for the Wine Institute
in 19^3 "by Jessie Schilling Blout titled A Brief Economic
History of the California Wine-Growing Industry C pages 28 and
29). In 1937 and 1938 "bumper crops, accompanied by a marked
reduction in the demand for raisins. . .led to depressed grape
prices generally and a greatly increased crush by commercial
wineries... A still further price-depressant was the Federal
tax on brandy used in the production of dessert wine...
According to the California Agricultural Prorate Commission,
•In the spring and early summer of 1938, it became apparent
to the informed growers and vintners of California that there
impended a very serious economic problem for both elements of
the industry. • "

It was apparent to A. P. Giannini also, for on April 14
he wrote to Paul Garrett (in part):

A program is being developed among California wineries
for substantial wine industry advertising and market
stabilization which is being fostered by the Wine
Institute. Mr. Critohfield will be glad to get your
detailed views and suggestions, as he is keeping in
very close contact with this industry in which we are
all interested.

This effort included strengthening the industry organiza
tion as well as developing an advertising program and putting
together the stabilization plan, and it is probably this
tripartate effort that Critchfield referred to somewhat
obscurely on pages 18, 20 and 48 of his interview. The
advertising account was given, as Critchfield indicated, to
the J. Walter Thompson Company, and on January 2?, 1938, Arthur
C. Parlow of that firm wrote to A. P. Giannini to say "we are
pleased and grateful to have received that appointment."

The prorate, which according to Blout diverted 45$ of the
grape crop to brandy, was financed equally by the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation and private banks. Biography of a Bank
states (page 402) that the program "ultimately" cost $7,400,000,
that originally twenty banks offered to take half of the
financing, but that fifteen dropped out and "the burden was
borne by the Bank of America which contributed 80.4 per cent
of the bankers' share, with four other banks contributing the
remainder. "

While the prorate proved successful in the long run,
prospects for the 1939 vintage year were poor, with another
large crop and depressed prices anticipated. It was this
situation which brought about the formation of Central
California Wineries, Inc.

An article in the Fresno Bee of September 9» 1939, began:

Approval by representative California banking and vintner
interests of a comprehensive 1939 wine grape industry

frogram which the sponsors say will result in an estimated
8,000,000 increase in returns to growers was announced
today by the recently formed Central California Wineries,
Inc.... The new non profit organization which filed
articles of incorporation at the state capital and in

xii

Fresno, is composed of a group of about thirty*
independent wineries and is supported through
contractual agreements with virtually all of the
major independents and cooperative wineries....
Calvin L. Russell, of the Tulare Winery Company at
Tulare, is president of the organization and head
quarters have been established in the Helm Building,
Fresno. Other directors are Joseph Di Giorgio, of
the Earl Fruit Company; Fred Vieth, Mount Tivy Winery;
J. B. Gundert, Acampo Winery, and Mount K. Wild of
Fresno, counsel.

On November 8 following, an article in the Los Angeles
Times described the organization. It quoted Critchfield,
"vi ce president of the Bank of America, whose services were
loaned to the... group to aid them in the development of the
new organization," on its objectives. And it quoted A. J.
Gock, vice chairman of the board of the bank (in part) as
follows :

Even before the new organization commenced operations,
the beneficial effects of the program began to make
themselves felt. Growers* returns on their grapes moved
upward, and finished wine prices also strengthened.
Central California Wineries has been in active operation
for two months now, and further gains in grape prices to
growers and in finished wine prices have taken place.

Critchfield had been loaned to the C.C.W. some time. in the
early summer of 1939. He became general manager.

In the spring of 19^-0, C.C.W. bought two wineries and
placed them under Central Winery, Inc., newly organized by
C.C.W. members. The two wineries were the Louis M. Martini
establishment in Kingsburg (reported in the Fresno Bee of
March 12, 19*1-0) and the Greystone cellar near St. Helena, which
the Bank of America had taken over from the Blsceglia Brothers
(reported in the St. Helena Star of April 19, 19^-0). The cost
of the Martini winery plus "an additional large storage and
blending plant" to be constructed was given as "more than
$1,000,000." The magazine Wines and Vines, in its May 19^0
issue, gave the selling price of the Greystone cellar as
approximately $300,000. A "2,000,000 gallon inventory of
vintage sweet wine" was included in the Martini purchase, and

*There were 19 members during most of C.C.W.'s life. See
Appendix III.

xlli

an unspecified amount of "fine old stocks of Napa and Sonoma
County dry wines" was included in the Greystone sale. The
reason for C.C.W. »s purchase was given as a need for storage,
blending, "bottling and marketing facilities.

In announcing the purchase of the Kingsburg winery,
the Pacific Rural Press of March 23, 19^0 noted:

San Joaquin Valley growers were generally quite
happy last season with the cash support CCW gave to
the deal, despite occasional complaints. This next
season should now see equally prompt cash and a much
stronger market.... The Bank of America has been the
principal financial support of CCW and has been the
angel for many of its member wineries while the going
was discouraging. It has, in numerous instances which
we peeked into [sic], fought to keep out of any ownership
interest and that still seems to continue to be that
bank's policy in this new expansion deal. s

Critchfield continued as C.C.W. *s general manager into

In his interview he indicated that he left the
organization because of difficulties with Di Giorgio, and his
own physical fatigue. (Friends of Critchfield have stated
that he was a man who, when he took on a Job, frequently worked
to the point of exhaustion. ) There is a suggestion in his
interview (page 42) that the arrival of Louis Golan may have
been the immediate cause of his departure. An additional
circumstance that could have been a factor was a change in the
presidency of C.C.W. In February 1941, Calvin Russell, with
whom (as Critchfield indicated in his interview) he worked well,
was made chairman of the board and was succeeded as president
by Ralph S. Heaton, with whom Critchfield indicated he did not
see eye to eye. At the time, however, according to an article
in the Fresno Bee of February 6, 1941, announcing the changes,
Critchfield was continuing as general manager and assuming "a
new position as executive vice president."

The precise dates of Golan *s arrival in the organization
and Critohfield's departure have not been ascertained. In
his interview, Critchfield recalled that he "went back to the
bank and then took a long vacation" (page 42). The vacation
may have begun before he was placed on leave of absence on
October 1, 1941, or on that date.

The end of C.C.W. came the following year. Although
Critchfield was no longer associated with it and was
increasingly absorbed by his grain bin project, he continued

xlv

to be informed of events. The subpoena which he mentioned in
his interview (t>age 44) was dated June 20, 194-2. By it, the
United States District Court ordered the Capital Company, a
Bank of America affiliate, and certain individuals to produce
specified papers relating to the wine industry and C.C.W. at
the June 24- meeting of the federal grand jury in San Francisco.
Critchfield *s name was Included among those of bank officials,
but a bank representative requested that it be deleted because
he was no longer an active officer.

Various segments of the industry, many not related to
C.C.W. , immediately responded to the threat of what was
understood to be anti-trust action by raising objections in
Washington. It has been said that a delegation went to
President Hoosevelt. It is known that on July 1, 2 and 3»
Emanuel Cellar presided over informal hearings in a House
of Representative subcommittee room at which representatives
of government agencies and the wine Industry appeared. The
hearings resulted in a memorandum being sent to Attorney
General Biddle reporting the conclusion that probably no
infractions of the anti-trust laws had been committed, but
if they had, they had been committed unwittingly, and
suggesting that indictment proceedings be suspended.

Mount K. Wild, who as Critchfield noted was sent to
Washington, wrote to Critchfield on July 14-, 194-2, on Mayflower
Hotel stationery as follows:

Dear Burke

We are still here - and according to today's
developments I will either head for the coast immediately
or be here perhaps as much as a week more. Perhaps you
saw in the papers an announcement that the Federal Grand
Jury was discharged Saturday without returning an
indictment in connection with an important investigation
it had made regarding a California industry and many
Individuals connected with it. There was quite a row
out there and the foreman of the jury demanded the
resignation of Attorney General Biddle - no less - for
obstructing justice. There is still much to be done
however.

Was very interested in your grain bin literature....
May have to get one for the doghouse use you suggested -
come here for two days - been here three weeks - and will
surely need a place of refuge when I get back

Best regards
Mount

A long article headed "U.S. Jurors Urge Ouster of Biddle"
had appeared in the San Francisco Examiner of July 12, 19^2.
This one read in part:

Hardly had Federal Judge Michael J. Roche
yesterday afternoon discharged the Federal grand Jury
which has been sitting here since last March, than its
foreman — David E. Snodgrass, dean of the Hastings
College Law School — issued an angry statement in which
he 'demanded1 the immediate resignation of Attorney
General Francis Biddle for 'obstructing Justice" in the
Federal Courts here....

That the Snodgrass statement was not his solely. . .
was made plain by other members of the Federal Jury. ...
[W]hen reporters asked them if they concurred in the
Snodgrass view, fully three-quarters of them uttered or
nodded affirmatives.

The nature of the case on which the Jury had been
working, and on which they charge they were denied an
opportunity to vote, cannot be revealed, beyond the fact
that it is an antitrust action. Nor can the identities
of the individuals or firms or parties to have been
named in the proposed indictment be publicized.

Yesterday's explosive Snodgrass statement. . .came.. .
as an aftermath to the occurrence a few days ago in open
court, when Foreman Snodgrass told Judge Roche that there
had been interference from Washington in the case before
the Jury. . . .

[Yesterday] Wallace Rowland, special assistant to
the attorney general. . .asked that Judge Roche extend the
Jury's life, so that additional witnesses might be heard —
'disinterested* witnesses Rowland termed them, who could
testify as to 'government concurrence' in the pending
antitrust matter. The intimation was that in view of
the Government's 'concurrence,' the matter should be
brought up in civil action, not in a criminal indictment
by the grand Jury.

It was probably following this that preparations were made
for a civil action, although no date has been ascertained. A
civil complaint and two consent decrees were drawn up ready
for filing. Although the complaint contains no date, the
alternate consent decrees indicate that the complaint was to
have been filed in either October or November, 19^2. None of
the papers was filed.

, .'."

xvi

The case was to be titled "United States of America v.
Bank of America National Trust & Savings Association et al."
The other defendants included the Capital Company, the Wine
Institute, Central California Wineries, Inc. and its members,
27 other wineries, and many individuals associated with the
bank and the industry. The wineries listed were asserted to
produce more than 80$ of California's sweet wines. The
defendants were charged with combining and conspiring to fix
sweet wine prices and terms of sale. The plaintiff asked
that the court enjoin the defendants from continuing such
action or engaging in similar action in the future.

The consent decrees differ slightly, but both assume
denial of all allegations by all the defendants, and their
consent to refrain from the practices mentioned in the
complaint. They also require dissolution of Central
California Wineries, Inc., Central Winery, Inc. and several
other organizations. One specifies return of the Greys tone
winery to the bank and disposal of the Kingsburg winery.
Since they were not filed, no legal action ensued.

In November 19^2, Central Winery, Inc. sold the Kingsburg
and Greystone wineries and their Inventories to Schenley
Distilleries, Inc. for "approximately $^,000,000," according
to the Fresno Bee of November 13, 19^2. The figure is given
as $3,800,000 in Biography of a Bank (page ^05). It is
impossible to compare the buying and selling prices of the
properties for in addition to inexact figures on the sales,
no detailed list of inventories, added equipment, and improve
ments included in the transactions is available. It is
reasonable to assume that the sale represented a profit, for
World War II had begun and the wine situation had improved
considerably.

The same newspaper account indicated that Central
Winery, Inc. would be liquidated. According to Biography
Of a Bank* Central Winery was liquidated and di stributed a
profit of $657,000, and when Central California Wineries, Inc.
liquidated it distributed $895,000 to its members.

When the bank's part in financing C.C.W. was brought up
at a 1950 Federal Reserve Board investigation of "monopolistic
tendency charges against Transamerlca Corp." (according to
the San Francisco Chronicle of April 13, 1950), Jesse W. Tapp
stated that "the firm was formed when the wine business in
California was in the trough of depression. It was investigated
by the Department of Justice as a possible infringement of

xvii

antitrust laws but the case was dropped.... The "board's
counsel asked Tapp why the wineries* organization dissolved.
Tapp said it was because it had the opportunity to dispose
of the various wineries at profitable prices."

Ruth Teiser
Project Director
California Wine Industry
Oral History Series

3 March 1972

Regional Oral History Office

486 The Bancroft Library

University of California at Berkeley

PART I

Burke H. Critchfield

BACKGROUND SUMMARIZED

[Burke H. Critchfleld was born in Hunter, North Dakota,
February 10, 1888. His father, a doctor, died when he was
in his last year of high school, and he worked on a farm to
pay his expenses during his college years. He went first to
the University of Minnesota, then to the Agricultural College
of North Dakota, where he was awarded the B.S. degree in 1909-
He returned later to the University of Minnesota and received
an M.A. in agricultural economics.

His career as an agricultural economist and marketing
specialist included heading private marketing organizations
and making surveys for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in
various parts of the country. He spent a year working for
the Idaho State Director of Agriculture organizing farm
marketing programs, then was asked, by the U.S. Bureau of
Agricultural Economics to make a study of dried prunes in
Oregon.]

(Interview Date - March 9» 19 ?0)

WORK IN CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS,
1927-193^

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield!

•The head of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics
said, "Burke, how would you like to go down to
California and represent the Secretary of the
Department of Agriculture in the marketing
activities and research in the western group of
states?" And that was how I came to California.*

I see.

That was it. And I came because that was a new
approach. Now, this was a study of the production,
marketing and demand; or, demand, marketing and
production. This was the first definite promulgation
of that type of agricultural economic philosophy,
you see. Well, they thought I could do a lot of
good. I did. I got the University staff started.
I did some research work in the California State
Department [of Agriculture], you see. They had
some money at the time.

We made a study on the topic, "What does the
consumer know about the quality of canned peaches?"
I T>ut men in six markets at least.

*In June 1927, Mr. Critchfield was appointed head
of the San Francisco regional office of the United
States Bureau of Agricultural Economics.

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:
Teiser:
Critchfield:

for

This was with the United States Department of
Agriculture in cooperation with the California
State Department of Agriculture?

Yes. I became head [of the project] eventually.*
We had already sent a man out to California to take
up this federal -state job in charge of all the
marketing activities. By the time that I was
there a few months, it was recognized that he
wasn't going to stay. He was a little too old
one thing. And he made his approach too much:
"There's Just one thing for you to do — pull out
these trees, pull out these vines," and so forth.

Here I am in California and punching the
University up to put some of those good young men
they were training, agricultural economists, to
take some of these sick areas. They had a very
good man by the name of R.L. Adams, who was not
head of Agricultural Economics — for that was [Dr.
Henry E.] Erdman, who was a farm management man.
He [Adams] had gone to Cornell and taken his
Master's — I don't know whether he ever got a
doctorate or not — but he was very adaptable.

He was at Berkeley or at Davis?

Berkeley.

At the University?

At the University.** The first Job they undertook
was one down at Delhi. That was when they had
settled that with veterans of the first World War.
'They put them into small areas. It was quite
obvious that the size of farm was [too small. That
was] one of the things that they would conclude out
of it.

*In February 1928, Governor C.C. Young of California
announced the appointment of Mr. Critchfield as
chief of the state Division of Markets.

**See also: Henry E. Erdman, Agricultural Economics..
1922-1969, an interview completed by the Regional
Oral History Office, University of California,
Berkeley, in 1971.

Teiser:

Where was it?

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Delhi. You know where Delhi is? You know where
Modesto is? Well, between Modesto and Merced,
about halfway, is the little town of Delhi, which
when I first came out here was one of [Dr. El wood]
Mead's projects. Do you remember who Mead was?
He was the great man for settling up these projects,
and he was the man Lake Mead was named for down
there, until they changed it back to Hoover Dam.
Well, we found out that neither the retailers nor
the consumer had any very good idea of the quality
or the relation between the quality and price.
We picked up somewhere between 500 and 1,000 cans
of peaches and had the Canners League [of California]
experts cut them and grade them without knowing
whose they were. Otherwise they'd doctor it up.
Now, that publication was published by the peach
growers' association.

I stayed with the state on that job for two
or three years — three years, I guess. But there
was too much politics in it.

May I get the chronology of this straight? You
came out for the federal government?

The Bureau of Agricultural Economics.
Then did you transfer to the state?

No, I never transferred to the state. I always was
a federal man, you see. But I was in charge of a
project.

Then your title of Chief of the State Division of
Markets was under a joint federal-state program?

Critchfield: That's right.

Teiser:

Critchfield:

[Tape is turned] You were saying that you got a
series of radio...

Radio short waves, and put in a communicating
netrwork. I got a hold of a young man who was
smart enough to build the equipment. He was very
smart in this particular line, and I got him when
I got the network. So we put in this network —
Sacramento, San Francisco, Fresno, during the grape
season several others, Salinas, the carrot area

Gritchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

down there, this side of Santa Barbara; Los Angeles;
the Imperial Valley.

We got the grant of the use of those wave
lengths and kept them for twenty-odd years.

For agricultural information?

For agricultural information. We had a leased wire
coning in to Sacramento from San Francisco, and
then we just beamed it out and back again and
distributed information that way.

I see. When did you start that?

I came out here in '2?, you see, but I kept my
federal connections all this time, and they paid
rjart of my salary until I left. I think it was *28
that we got that federal grant.

You mentioned that there were politics,
there were.

I'm sure

The man who was State Director of Agriculture was
a little German who had got his technical training
at Kew Gardens, and he was very close to the citrus
group. They more or less ran the show. The things
that they wanted done got the prime consideration.
They didn't need market information. That's one
of the fine cooperatives. But the director and I
didn't get along too well, and so finally we parted.

It was during this period then that you first...

Before I left, the first spring that I was there,
James Mills — he had that big operation and that
big lemon grove up there west of Corning and down
through there (900 acres) years ago — was head of
the Board of Regents for a little while, but he was
a close friend of Mr. [George] Hecke, the Director
of Agriculture. One day he called me and. he said,
"There must be something that happened to the
prune business somewhere. They have raised their
offers to me for my prune crop, and they've tried
to buy it from me for so many cents over last
year's price. See what you can find out."

I got on the phone to Washington immediately
and cabled to our man over in Munich, and he got
on his horse quickly and found out that there had

Gritchfield:

Teiser:

been a bad frost and the Yugoslavian prune crop
was almost completely wiped out, that was the
corn-petition for the prune business here in this
country. So, following this, Steer sent me back
directly a report.

Steer?

Critchfield: Lloyd Steer.
Teiser: Who was he?

Gritchfield:

He was in our foreign section of the Bureau of
Agriculture; he was the foreign agricultural
representative on the continent of Europe.

At that time Union Oil Company had put in a
broadcasting room for us in our office in San
Francisco and in Sacramento, and we had broadcast
facilities, and I got right on this. I had been
building up a list of principal prune growers, and
I got out a bulletin to them that day. As Mr.
[Robert I.] Bentley, the president of California
Packing Corporation, said, I saved the prune growers
about five million dollars that year by advising
them of the conditions and factors that were going
to influence the prune market and the price of
their prunes, and there were many similar opinions.

We had one firm, Rosenberg Brothers, who were
later purchased by Federated Growers or somebody.
Because the Rosenberg girl was the only one left
and she had the controlling stock, the [Rosenberg
Brothers] had oversold to a tremendous extent, and
they were trying to cover quickly. That was the
kind of operation I was trying to help in direct
economic things. Mr. Hecke didn't like it. Knowing
he wouldn't like it, I didn't see him until the
next day, because he was a customer for many years
of Rosenberg's and always got what you called a
"favorite customer position." Eventually we came
to a parting of the ways.

Mr. Bentley of the California Packing Corporation
called me up one day and invited me to come over the
first time I was in the City to have lunch with
him. He said, "We know that you and George are not
getting along very good, and we'd like to have you
take a position with the Canners League," or the
Canners League and the peach growers. They had been

Critchfield: talking about a joint operation because we were
already getting too many peaches. We're getting
now into a prorate. I went with the Canners
League, and the peach growers paid part of my
salary until mid- '32. We had a lot of those
prorations with the canners paying the bill,
instead of a grower prorate, it was a canner's
prorate. There were two cooperatives at the time.
One year we pulled out and offered the growers so
much an acre to eliminate certain trees; of course
we got the punk trees, but they did take out ten
thousand acres of trees — punk trees and poor
varieties.

By that time we got into the Depression of
the early 'thirties, and a lot of the canners went
busted, so we were at a point one particular day
when the head of the Canners League said, "We want
to keep everybody on; I'm putting this proposition
to you. We suggest that you offer to take half
the salary during this period of depression." I
said, "Well, that's all right with me," because I
wanted to stay there. I was working on consumer
problems — consumer promotion — and was beginning to
get somewhere, so I wanted to stay while it was
still hot in my mind.

The head of the Regional Agricultural Credit
Corporation, a part of the RFC — Reconstruction
Finance Corporation — phoned me and asked me to come
over to his office. He showed me a long telegram
from Washington. Someone was charging that they
were making commitments for loans that were impossible
to pay out under the then existing conditions, and
that it was going to upset some of the agricultural
industries. That someone was E.W. Wilson, who later
became State Superintendent of Banks, one of the
finest men I ever worked for. He said, "I'm going
to admit that I don't know anything about these
agricultural loans. I was given this job and I
want to keep it, and the board that they have given
me are the heads of the California Fruit Exchange
in Sacramento and the head of a group of cattlemen —
all interested in getting every nickel they can out
of the government for their members, which is
all right." These were the men who met weekly or
monthly and laid out the general policy, and Wilson
didn't know enough to beat them down. He said,
"Someone that I've got confidence in has told me

Critchfield: that you know the agricultural business here, and
what you don't know you know how to find out
about. I need somebody here who can take over.
•The vital thing of it is when these people want
money, they've got to make a request; up to now
we haven't put out any money, but we want somebody
who can scale these loans down if it's necessary
or increase them if it's necessary."

I said, "All right. I will come here and
take over that job if you'll channel this through
some of my close friends in the business of farming.
They'll know. They know the people." He let me
have six new men, and we prot the money back and
did a wonderful Job.

In 1932, Roosevelt took over, and they
couldn't see any good in anything Hoover had done,
so they took this over and built the new Farm Credit
Administration, which was a good thing. It had
been a very constructive set-up, and most of those
individual banks now are on their own.

Then a man came out from Washington and called
me over to the Farm Credit offices, the Land Bank,
and said, "We're going to take over the function
of the Regional Agricultural Credit Corporation,
and we'd like to have you come over to the Inter
mediate Credit Bank [in Berkeley] where the papers
are going to be discounted and take over and build
it up — build up a division."*

I then had the chance to pick out the men
that I wanted that knew something. I went out
then and virtually set up the production credit
set-up, but I wasn't a Democrat. A good friend of
mine from the Bank of America that had been up at
Yuba City, who was a Democrat, immediately started
to try to clear loans through that I didn't want,
that I didn't think were sound, and on which they
lost a lot of money. About that time I got a call
from the Bank of America, Mr. Carl [P.] Wente,
one day, and he said, "Mr. Mario [L.M.] Giannini
and I are sitting here in his office and we'd like

*Mr. Critchfield took charge of crop production
loans in the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank in
November 1933.

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critohfield:

to talk to you." I said, "Carl, I've been gone
for five days over to Utah and down into Arizona
and just got back, and I can't leave here for
four or five days or more. I'm tied up. My desk
is loaded." He said, "Get on the next car and
come over here." Did you ever see Mr. Wente?

Yes, I've talked to him.

Once he brought over forty rice growers to us at
the Regional Agricultural Credit Corporation, and
we took good care of them, but the Production
Credit lost a lot of rice growers. I was glad in
a way to get out of there, although when I went in
to tell Mr. [Reuben] Evans, who was the officer in
charge of Intermediate Credit, that I was leaving
him, he said, "You can't. We've just elected you
a vice president of Intermediate Credit Bank. The
board of directors is just meeting now." I said,
"Reuben, that wouldn't have made any difference if
I had known it yesterday or the day before. I think
I can contribute something to the Bank of America
on its agricultural problems."*

THE WINE INDUSTRY AND THE BANK OF AMERICA

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Before you get to the Bank of America, let me go
back then and pick up the grape industry. You
mentioned, when I asked you, that you had observed
the grape industry during the years you had been
out here, and knew something of the Donald Conn
scheme — project — whatever you want to call it.
Would you give us your account of that from where
you sat, what your view of it was?

They were setting up, as I remember, the Fruit
Industries, a big institution somewhat along the
lines of the Fruit Exchange in purpose. I've kind
of lost my thread on it a little bit now.

Well, I can remind you that Donald Conn had come
out here; he had been a railroad traffic man, I
believe, had he not?

*Mr. Critchfield was appointed a vice president of
the Bank of America in February 193^.

Critchfield:

Teiser:

A promoter,
promoter.

Conn was a promoter, a railroad

Gritchfield!

Teiser:
Critchfield:

And he had tried to get the grape growers together
in something called the California Vineyardists*
Association. This was around '26 or '2?, about
the time you came here, I think. Then a little
later he was in on the establishment of Fruit
Industries.

Well, maybe I was biased against Conn's approach.
He was inclined to make statements about what he
was going to get as already established. He was
a high pressure salesman, and he sold the chief of
my bureau back there, who was a very wonderful man,
Lloyd Tenney, Chief of the Bureau of Agricultural
Economics, on coming out here and assisting him in
doing that. I think I got that from Lloyd. Lloyd
didn't stay with him too long.

Why?

Well, I think it was Conn's tactics. Conn was a
high-powered motor that would state what he hoped
to do as an accomplished fact. Mr. Heoke was going
to throw the energy of the State Department of
Agriculture behind him, and I protested it, because
it didn't turn out. It was over-promoted, and I
didn't think that was the way they were going to
solve it.

Well, now here we are: I am at the bank [of
America]. About the time I arrived there, Mario
had a long spell of sickness. I went over there
one afternoon, and they had brought us their
customers, and they wanted them back. So we laid
out a program. They knew how I had run the
Regional. They had a staff of loan examiners, and
not a one of them had ever been on a farm, I don't
believe. This was at the Regional [Agricultural
Credit Corporation] — political appointees for some
reason or other. When I got a hold of it, I took
control with my men in the field.

I didn't even get my money for eight or ten
months. Wilson and his assistant (by the time
that I got over there a day or two later after
he'd talked to me) had gotten into a hassle. He
was an ex-banker but didn't know beans about
agriculture.

Teiser:
Critchfield:

You're not now referring to the Bank of America?

No, over at the Regional set-up. No, at the bank
I was a vice president.

In charge of special programs, was that it?

Production loans and agricultural counsel, more
or less, of the bank.

•They paid you, though?

Yes, but they never paid me very much. 'Those were
days when we were Just getting out of a terrific
economic tailspin.

Now, in asking me to accept a vice presidency
and take over a program to attempt to get the crop
loans back, I had already been out and gotten quite
a few of them reestablished in my work over in
Berkeley. I started right in, and we took 10^ loans
away that had applied for loans through the
Production Credit at Stockton at one bank. There
were so many of the bank managers in the Bank of
America that had been burned up very badly for
making bad loans on agricultural property that
there was considerable resistance to taking it on.
When "A. P." [Giannini] made his summer trip into
the northern Sacramento Valley, these managers with
their literature and budget (you control
production always by budgets despite all of the
hope on our part that they would go ahead) put up
so much of a protest that he wired the main office
and stopped the program temporarily.

This was shortly after you went with the bank?

Shortly after I went with them. I had never met
him at that time, and. Mario was in the hospital for
a long time then. Mr. Will [F.] Morrish of Berkeley,
who had been head of the First National Bank of
Berkeley, and A. P. didn't jive — they didn't get
along very well; it wasn't very long before he
[Morrish] was out.* A. P. looked upon this as a

*See also references to Morrish in: Marquis and
Bessie R. James, Biography of a Bank. New York:
Harper & Brothers,

Critchfield: Morrish program and didn't know that his son [L.M.]
and Carl Wente had it as their program. Here I
was in a strange atmosphere. Anyway, it delayed
their getting back into that field.

They could have headed off Production Credit,
because the men that I had working for me in the
Regional in the R.F. C. program later became managers
of the Production Credit for the Marysville district
and other districts, and they knew their stuff. In
fact, we tried to hire some of them for the bank,
but there was a tendency for people to look upon
the bank as a good time deal when things were
good, but when they were tough they don't stay
with you. There was that. That was true in the
winery business.

Before Carl Wente went to Nevada* there began
to be an undercurrent of criticisms of the quality
of the wines of California. There were some good
ones. The Wentes put out good wine; Beaulieu did;
California Grape Products — little Horace Lanza and
Harry Baccigaluppi — had a very nice winery up at
Ukiah, and they put out good wines. In the summer
of '36 when the bankers from all over the United
States and Mexico and Canada were here at the
national convention, I was on a committee of four
or five men to lay out the program of entertainment —
things we would, do for the bankers. The fellows
had two ideas ; one was to give them an airplane
ride around the city (they had leased a TWA plane)
and an orchid for the women at the grand ball.

I said, "I've been thinking of an idea, and I
think it would be good. We'll get out a little
carton of wine, good quality, a sauterne tyne, a
Beaulieu Cabernet, and a bulk-process chamDagne
from the Padre Winery down at Cucamonga, and Wente 's."
The California Grape Products — that was -Lanza's
group — submitted a burgundy from up there. I
suggested this idea. I said, "We can get this wine
at wholesale price. Let's go and talk to A. P."
Three or four of us went over and outlined our plan.

A. P. said to me, "Burke, can you get good
enough wine?" I said, "Here's my idea of doing it.
I'll get samples from our customers mainly, but in
a few cases we'll give non-customers a chance. I'll
get them to submit samples and I will get Edmund [A.]

*He became president of the First National Bank
of Nevada on June 16, 19 3^ •

Crltchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield!

Teiser:

Critchfield!

Rossi and A.R. Morrow and Lee Jones and one or
two others to put them into six ounce containers
with no label on them except a number." Fruit
Industries had an awful time getting us to accept
a wine that their Mr. Morrow would rassl

Oh really? [Laughter]

Yes. I think we got a sherry from them finally,
but it was fair, Just fair. Beaulieu had a very
fine Cabernet. The sauternes that the Wentes
bottled were good, and they had a little bottle
of champagne that was bulk-process. So, A. P. said,
"Go ahead." They got an engraved card, he [A. P.]
and Mario included that they had personally
inspected this wine, so it had to be good.

To start with, I think we got out 6,000
packages. We used the bank across from the Palace
[Hotel]; the basement was quite empty at the time,
and this took carloads of wine. We took big
shipments. I got lots of help from the clerks who
helped repack it, and Time magazine came out right
after the convention reporting that "A. P. and L.M.
Giannini stole the show with their personally
selected boxes of wine." They told about the
bankers leaving their hotels with a box of wine
under their arm and the porter carrying their
wife's mink coat. It was a fact. Time gave us a
real good write-up on it.

It then became so popular that everybody
around the bank wanted a few packages, so I guess
I got out another four or five thousand cases. It
was getting along towards the fall then, and I was
still getting out the wine. Everybody wanted wine
and they knew that I could get good wines.

There was a lot of poor wine around then, wasn't
there?

Oh, that was it. Carl said before he left for
Reno, "Burke, take a hold of this wine deal and
see what can be done." Now the Wentes have always
put out good quality, and Beaulieu has put out a
good quality of wine. Some of the others were
sort of in a different class.

THE PRORATE AND OTHER INDUSTRY PROGRAMS

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:
Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Everyone was trying to get into the wine business,
and the hard liquor people were looking at it as
a t>lace to make money, and some of them got in and
then out again. In the meantime we had put the
prorate law through the legislature and it passed.

How did you do it? Did it take a lot of politicking?
No. It took some r>ower of institutions.
You said it came from your idea?

No, not the prorate idea. I had something to do
with it because we had been doing the same thing
with the Canners League.

Whose idea was the prorate, do you think? Was it
any one person's?

I don't think it was a one-person deal. I tried
to find out. The man who I recommended and whom
we hired to run the brandy part of it — he was with
the Growers Grape Products Association... You see,
there was the California Grape Prorate that
organized the prorating, and there was the Growers
Grape Products Association that handled the brandy
deal.

Were they both set up by a legislative act?

No, I don't know as they were at the time. I don't
think it was. You see, the prorate idea was far
wider than grapes and wines or brandy. Anyway,
we got the law passed. That wasn't hard to do,
because we had some sick industries. In most of
them the conditions surrounding -production were
quite standardized. If you got a good sentiment
you could bring in the recalcitrants with a law.
It took a law to do it, you see.

In the Canners League operation it was a
matter of the canners and processors putting up
the money, and you always had recalcitrants.
There were some times when a little group with the
big guys had to p;o in and put the money up for
someone who had sold out their production. Anyway,

Critchfield: here we are with an industry now that's beginning
to show a little life. There's some improvement
in production, not too much. We get over well
into the 'thirties, and quite a lot of new wineries
started. In those days, one of their big problems
(keep this in mind) was that they had to get a
bond and submit a bond for their federal taxes.
This eventually was abolished. They don't have
to do that today. And that made it tough for the
small ones.

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Was it a big bond?
Quite a big bond.

You were saying that the wineries at first had to
put up a bond, and then they no longer did?

In the early days, yes. A bond to protect the
cost of the tax stamps. Now, I think, later on
they were able to change that and pay their taxes
as they sold the wine. I don't think it's a big
factor now.

I see.

Now we get over into '3? and '38. We begin to
accumulate a lot of wine, a considerable supply,
and a lot of it of mediocre quality. Wine prices
went down. The demand was not keeping pace with
production and with supply. There is one point I
should make right now: the wineries were looked
upon as the dumping ground for the cull grapes.

The cull table grapes, or the oversupply if
there was an excess, or the raisin grapes that are
not put on trays. Lots of this was used; lots of
those grapes were used in those earlier days, and
they didn't have to build up these surpluses.
Today they are still used; they are still all right.
Now we come up to the point of the spring of '38
with a big crop on the vines, with the wineries
quite full, and the wineries in general, especially
those in the Lodi and Fresno areas, considering
that they should make use of the prorate law and
divert a substantial tonnage of grapes into brandy
to hold it until it could be sold that way. Even
if it didn't make anything, it would take it out
of the supply... In those days there could be a
tendency for a good crop [one year] and the next

Critchfielci!

Teiser:
Critchfield:
Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:

Gritchfield:

year a poor crop. So we figured (it was '38)» we
got a big crop coming on now, and if we can divert
half a million tons to brandy, that way you'd get
rid of the table grape culls and the Thompson
Seedless. The Thompson Seedless is what you found
as the troublemaker, you see,

Now, to the growers in this northern area
this didn't sound good.

Because their grapes were rood quality?
Well, they were mostly of good quality.
Why didn't they like it?

Well, because their yield was so small. The price
of table wines had gone down. They were eleven
cents, twelve cents or even fifteen cents. Now
the bank had quite a lot to do with this. These
things we kept very close track of. That's a lot
of years back. Well, we did a lot through our
branch managers to try to quiet down these northern
growers .

I remember Mr. Lanza was one of those who objected,
wasn't he?*

Yes, he was, although they had an operation down
in the San Joaquin Valley also. I've forgotten
whether we got "the prorate started before we got
the money commitment, because it took a lot of
money to divert half a million tons of grapes into
brandy. Anyway, we supported it strongly. I held
lots of meetings, especially in the bad areas.
There were no problems in Lodi nor in San Joaquin,
and not too much in the south, because they were
making some brandy. But up here there were not
many stills, you see. The Beringers** had a still
and were making some brandy and selling some brandy,
and one other outfit over in Sonoma County. You
took your life in your hands when you came up here
to hold a meeting of the growers. It was tough,

*See Horace 0. Lanza, California Grape Products
and Other Wine Enterprises, an interview completed
in 1971 by the Regional Oral History Office.

**Beringer Bros.

Critchfield: but we had. certain key nen that we knew personally,
Who were they?

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield;

Teiser:
Critchfield i

Well, there was Chapin Tubbs, who had the winery
up at the head of this valley and whose beautiful
home has since burned down. He was a member of
the cordage family.* There was also Walter Fink,
over at Cloverdale, and half a dozen other men
over there. When we got into that stabilization
of the movement, we used to buy their wines, or
we used to have them make wine for C.C.W.

Central California Wineries, that is?

Yes. Now, in the meantime, the raisin people were
faced with tremendous holdovers of inventories,
and they were struggling for action. In Washington,
two of my associates from the University of
Minnesota were i^ery important men in handling
those marketing programs, and I used to review my
problems with them. They gave them a loan for
raisins in '37, but in '38, that was a tough one.
It looked as if everything was going by the board.
But the industry met — the grape growers and the
wineries and the raisin people, at the Palace Hotel
for two or three days.

Was Mr. A. Setrakian involved in this, "Socks"
Setrakian?

He undoubtedly talked loud and long, but I don't
think that he was a big factor in it. I'm not
sure whether he opposed it or not. But if he did,
in those days we were able to move regardless of
what Socks wanted to do. Have you interviewed
him yet?

I've talked to him. I'm going to interview hin.

Well, they met there and came to us for financing.
They had sent a committee to Washington, and Henry
Wallace was opposed to loaning money to the wine
industry, so they had to come back.

*Tubbs Cordage Co. , San Francisco.

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:
Gritchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:

He didn't believe in drinking, did he?

No, Henry didn't. He probably did before he died;
he might have changed his mind; a lot of people
did. The Mormons are a good example. Lots of
good Mormon people that never drank wine or had
anything to do with liquor changed their minds.
So the wine people met, and this prorate was
right in the midst of this. So we said, "If you
will put on a drive and get the prorate and get the
Institute going...

The Wine Institute?

Yes. We had to virtually go out and knock over
some of those Italian wineries. If I couldn't do
it, I'd ask A. P. and he'd call the manager himself
and tell him. When we did that we'd get them.
When A. P. would say something.

I never heard that A. P. Giannini played a part in
the Wine Institute.

Oh, to be sure, and every move we made he was
sitting in on the sidelines. So we said, "If
you'll set up a substantial advertising program
and do these various things, we will ask Jesse
Jones* to participate with us in a loan for the
conversion of half a million tons of grapes prorated
by the growers, and we'll carry the heavy load of
financing it." The R.F.C. were only in a part of
these deals. Well, they had quite a lot of long
sessions there which I sat in on, of course.

Who were "they," the R.F.C. ?

No, the industry — the wineries, the leading growers,
the raisin people. Now, people like the Wentes
weren't interested particularly in the prorate.
They rode along.

I had forgotten. Did you hear anybody talk
about prorate certificates?

No.

^Chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation,
1933-1939-

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

I think in this northern area that they did let
them buy some certificates, some tonnage down in
the valleys and substitute it.

What do you mean? Will you explain that?

Suppose you've got a hundred tons and you're
willing to be prorated at 37 per cent. Your 37
tons could buy a certificate from somebody for
the proper tonnage so that you could crush your
total grape tonnage. The man that I selected and
put in to run this prorate lives here in St.
Helena, Andy Prericks,* but Andy told me this
morning that he couldn't remember. He can't
remember how many tons were crushed. He was a
wine chemist.

And he was in charge of ...

The brandy. He worked for the Growers Grape
Products Association. Now, the figures on all of
these things are in the State Department of
Agriculture or the [Wine] Institute.

Let me ask you a question in relation to these
certificates that you speak of. Someone mentioned
the fact that some winemakers can get more wine
out of a given quantity of grapes, so that there
was some variation, and that somewhere in this,
Earl Warren, who was then Attorney General of
California, stepped in as Attorney General and
gummed up something. Do you remember this? Did
he interfere in any way with the prorate?

Well, I asked Andy how many suits were filed
against the prorate, mainly in this northern
country in these three counties — Napa, Sonoma, and
Mendocino — and he said over forty suits as he
remembers. I think the lawyer is now dead, Bill
Voechel of Agnew and Voechel. They were attorneys
for R.P.C. among other things. Well, I was
constantly talking to A. P. at that time. In the
summers he used to go down and stay a couple of
months In L.A. at the Biltmore, and I would talk
to him sometimes every night as to how things were
getting along, so he would talk to Jesse Jones.
You know who Jesse Jones was?

Chairman of the R.F.C., wasn't he?

* Andrew G. Prericks

Critchfield: Yes, that's right. And he*d opened this subject
up, see. Of course they left it up to us to name
the conditions, and then A. P. approved it. So it
looked as if we were going to hatch out an egg;
it looked as if they were going to meet our
conditions, which was a substantial advertising
program set up so that it would continue, which
they have done, to get the prorate vote over, to
get the vintners all in the Institute, and we
helped them do it. When they finally voted on it
unanimously or practically unanimously, I had a
plane reservation waiting for me and I flew down
to L.A. that evening. They insisted on a couple
men going down with me. They were not vintners
either; they were growers, one Fresno district and
one Lodi.

Teiser: Who were they?

Critchfield: Did you ever hear of the name Lescher?

Teiser: Yes.

Critchfield:

[Edwin] Lescher and somebody else. They insisted
on somebody going along. So A. P. knew I was coming,
and when I got down I called his room and I went
right up. And he said, "Give me this picture
again, because then I'm going to call Jesse. Jesse's
going to be available to me to call him." This was
early evening, you see. I don't think I spent over
fifteen minutes with him. If you couldn't tell
A. P. what you had in mind in say, five or ten
minutes, he figured you hadn't got your lesson
learned very well.

So he said, "I've got a reservation for you
on that plane and a taxi waiting downstairs to
take you out to the airport and go right back,
because you've got to be at the bank at seven
o'clock in the morning, and the general finance
committee is going to have to pass a resolution on
this which will have to go over to R.F.C. "

In the meantime Jesse Jones was waiting in
Washington for it to go through. It was just a
question of making the gestures, which you had to
do. So I came down to these guys and said, "Fellows,
we've got a taxi waiting to take us to the airport.
We're going back. I've got A.P.'s telegram

Gritchfield:

[directions]." Jesse Jones had his board together.
And so we put that over, the stabilization program.

WINERY FINANCING

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

At that time the Bank of America was financing all
except a few wineries that needed financing. One
of them was the Gallo boys* that had been more or
less kicked out of the Bank of America. They had
good security besides their wine business, but
(I'll give you a little gossip) we had a vice
^resident there who was the vice chairman of the
loan committee of the credit department of the bank
who was a partner in the Italian Swiss Colony.
There were the two Rossi boys,** [A.E.] Sbarboro,
and. the man that died up there who lived near the
winery and was an active member up there, [Enrico]
Prati. Now Prati was a great help to me in working
out these various programs. He was excellent. I'd
go up and spend a Sunday with him. But the Rossi
boys and Sbarboro kept thinking of a California
V/ine Association. Do you remember how the business
was run here before Prohibition? The California
Wine Association was the big factor.

Yes. Sbarboro 's father had started Italian Swiss
Colony, hadn't he?

That's right. He and I think the father of the
Rossis.

P.C. Rossi, I believe.

Yes. Well, he was critical of my endeavors to
keep the little wineries alive. And when I finally
had my showdown with him, I licked him. And if I
had stayed there we might not have been a lot of
this great consolidation. We'd still have kept a
lot of small wineries alive.

Where did the Gallo boys stand in all of this?

Well, they had lots of Bank of America stock, as
I remember, Transamerica was what they held in
those days, and used in getting finance from year
to year for their wine business.

*Ernest and Julio Gallo
**Edmund A. and Robert D. Rossi

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Gritchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Why, Sbarboro was sitting there and took the
position, "Well, these people are just newcomers
in the business; why, we won't finance them."

Oh. He was thinking in terms of a monopoly in
effect, like the California Wine Association had
had?

Yes, a California Wine Association monopoly.
There was a time there when Mario was sick, A. P.
was away, and a resolution was passed and I was
advised that I couldn't go out and leave the city
on any kind of work without approval of the general
finance committee. You know what that did for me.
Of course I'll tell you then that the next chapter
is that stabilization movement that I developed.

Let me go back. I keep interrupting you when
you're about to talk about the Gallos. They owned
Transamerica stock at that time?

They had a good background, and I know the man
that advised them to go over to Capital National.
That was run by ex-Lieutenant Governor Alden
Anderson. That was his bank in Sacramento. And
the man that sent the Gallo boys over there, or
sent Ernie over, was a good personal friend of
mine.

Sbarboro was the one who blocked their Bank of
America connection?

Well, he's still alive, you see. He's 93 years
old and still on the board of the bank. The
Sbarboros had a lot of land in Marin County, very
valuable land up there.

Now you can get the figures on the prorate.

Let me ask you another thing about it. You said
that brandy was set aside, but wasn't there also
neutral spirits made?

You mean high-proof. Oh, they made some of it in
high-proof, but not much. It was mostly made into
potable brandy.

You said that you asked Mr. Prati's help and got
it.

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Yes. There was in this table wine business quite
a lot of support, but there were also forty or
fifty suits filed, and Voechel handled those,
Andy told ne. But they didn't sustain themselves.
The law was in pretty good shape. Well, then we
put it into operation, expecting to have almost
half a million tons. As I remember the figures,
we crushed for brandy and put into the brandy pool
about 387,000 tons, not expecting to get any return
from the growers, or at least a very minimum of a
few dollars. But it paid out very near twenty
dollars a ton to them, which was a lot of money
to the growers in those days, because we were on
a different price level then, you know.

Well, we thought that would stabilize the
business for that year and for several years by
taking that loan of raw material out of the way,
you see. We got a pretty good price for the rest
of their grapes that they were selling to the
wineries, or making wine and selling wine in co-ops.
The co-op movement was just underway and in pretty
good shape. Well, they fertilized and took good
care of their vineyards and got a big tonnage.
And the next year we had a crop that was tremendous.
And as the marketing season approached, we realized
that it was going to be a debacle, a much worse
debacle than the year before. I mean we at the
bank, those of us who were close to it.

The Gianninis were very much Interested in
these industry moves. It was easier to get a ten
million dollar loan or financing arranged than it
was to borrow for a taxi fare. As the season began
to get on towards where they were shipping plenty
of table grapes, it was apparent that we were going
to have an awful crop of wine grapes and a lot of
raisin Thompsons dumped into the industry. We
measured that by the fact that the wineries started
to go into bankruptcy or to be close to it. The
Security First National of Los Angeles had one
account up in Tulare — they had the Giannini winery*
there, a big operation. It was too bad Russell
died, who was attorney for them and an officer of
the winery, and I put him in as president of the
C.G.W....

Who was he?

*The Tulare Winery Company. See p.

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield i

Calvin Russell. He died a few years after that.
But he would have been a great source of information
for you on the stabilization moves and the problems
of the winery. They [the Giannini winery] were
notified just before the crush started that the
bank would not finance them any longer with a
winery that was making several million gallons of
wine a year.

Was this Prank Giannini *s* winery?

Yes, Frank's. Did you ever meet Lagomarsino, the
son-in-law who was running the farms? They sold
the winery eventually, but he runs the farms.

The bank told him it was pulling out?

I got a call from Calvin Russell and old Prank and
Fred Lagomarsino who were together from down there.
They were crying. The bank adjuster from Fresno
had been down to give them this bad news, and it
was Just like a funeral. They were Italians, but
they were not Catholic Italians. Prank Giannini
was an Italian Mason, and. he was a little stout,
fussy little rcuy, had built up quite an institution,
and the old man, A. P., didn't have any time for
him. So that would have been a handicap to have
got them in. But they called me and told me what
had happened and said, "Can you come down?" [It
was] Saturday afternoon, and I got a plane to
Fresno and went down, knowing what I was going to
be asked to do.

We had a manager there at Fresno who had been
with us a heck of a long time, his name was Ralph
[S.] Heaton, and I said to them, "You go in to
Heaton, but don't tell him that I suggested it or
that you even spoke to me about it. Throw yourself
on his shoulder and. make him the big guy, and I'll
grease the way as much as I can at head office."
We worked out a financing arrangement for them.

Did you hear of Louis Cribari's work? The
Cribaris of San Jose? Well, the chairman of the
general finance committee of the bank during those
years I was there was this former banker from San

*This family was not related to the A. P. Giannini
family.

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Jose. Something had happened and he didn't like
the Cribaris and kicked them out. They were old-
time friends of the Gianninis. So when we were
in New York once, we went over to their winery to
a little affair. He [A. P.] thought a great deal
of Angelo [Cribari], who was in New York. They
had a big New York distribution.

They had a storage depot there?

Yes, and a big distribution out of New York. And
the smartest brother was there. But they were all
smart enough. Well, A. P. found out that they
were not in the bank. Angelo told him and said
that he and [William E.] Blauer had had a set-to,
a disagreement, and he was over in the other bank.
So A. P. informed ine a week or two later when he
found this out and sent me word, he said, "You
get ahold, of Prank Mitchell" (who was our San Jose
top vice president and more or less the dean of
the Bank of America managers within fifty miles or
so) "and get that Cribari account back in the bank."
Of course Frank told me what had happened and he
said, "If that's the orders from the old man, let's
just get out and do it."

So we went to work and analyzed the assets
and what we needed to safeguard a loan from them
and to finance them and got ready and brought it
in and presented it to the general finance
committee, that had to pass on those big credits
at that tine. The committee still does to some
extent. We were not received with open arms but
with growls. We didn't tell them any background
because we didn't want to show our hand. If we
had said to Mr. Blauer that this was A.P.'s order
that the account was to come back, I
been treated worse than I was, see.
boy always at starting these deals,
they just wouldn't listen to it.

would have
I was a bad
But of course

He [Blauer] said, "I'm being insulted. I
ought to know whether that account was worthwhile
or not." So we didn't tell him why we were there
with it, but I sent word to our vice president in
New York who was very close to A. P. and the family
and told him what had happened. The phones got
busy and before long we got a request to come back
in with this account, and vie took it on aptain. Mow

Critohfield:

that was one of the things. You have to say this:
during those years the Bank of America was just an
institution, you see, it wasn't a well-organized,
smooth-running deal. Today it is very smooth
running. But the Gianninis were wonderful to work
with, except that when anything happened and they
went away you got nailed to the cross.

THE PRORATE AND CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WINERIES

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critohfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

What more would you want to know about the prorate?
It worked, is that right?

It worked in very good shape, and it did a fine,
wonderful Job. It would have been a debacle in a
hundred communities of California, and the
Gianninis recognized it. We put up the money, of
course, underwritten up to maybe 50 per cent by
R.P.C. And Mr. Jones would come out every summer
and A. P. would get me to tell him the status of it.
This was when it was working and the brandy pool
was developing.

It was only formally on for one year, was it,
19 38- '39?

That was all, Just the one season.

But you had to watch the brandy afterward?

Yes. I made the deals for the barrels and the
containers.

Do I remember that much of that brandy went to
the Christian Brothers?

No. A considerable amount was sold to Schenley.

What did they use it for?

They sold it under their label.

For brandy, not for blending?

Yes. It helped a little. And then some of the
wineries bought their own brandy, like Community

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:

Gritchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

bought theirs. Another lot was Serramonte; that
was East Side Growers,* the big co-op there. We
bought Serramonte by the case; that was one of
the best brandies. You see, this friend of mine
knew his brandies and was a good chemist.

Who was he?

Andrew G. Prericks. He was manager of Growers'
Grape Products Association. He lives up here now;
he's losing his sight a little, and he's not as
old as I am but he's beginning to show his age a
little.

Was Mr. Walter Taylor of Fruit Industries involved
in the prorate?

Walter was involved in the prorate; Walter was not
too enthusiastic, but they cooperated. You see,
they had as members, supporting wineries. Community**
was the one we took away from the bank of Co-ops.
That was their biggest operation. And then they
had Perelli-Minetti*** down in Kern County, and they
had a winery there at Fresno; they had one over
here at Fulton, the Fulton Co-op, and they had the
big Guastl plant in southern California.

They had big inventories too, and they
wanted anything that could be done to help them.
Here we were then, with a good operation. We felt
proud of what we had done at the bank even if we
had to knock a few men on the knuckles hard. I
can remember these northern fellows coming down —
not this county, but the Mendocino group and
Sonoma group — grape growers with winery connections,
and pleading to get the bank to reverse its
position. Of course they didn't get anywhere
because the bank was more interested in the
stabilization move than they were in their Dleas.

Then after that was completed you set up Central
California Wineries, as that right?

Yes, in August a year later, August of 1939- The
wineries during the two or three months preceding
were trying to get their bonds renewed and having
to put in their homes and everything else to
underwrite, and no assurance from the bank of
financing to a reasonable extent. Suddenly I

*East Side Winery
**Community Grape Corporation.

pp. viii-x.
***A. Perelli-Minetti & Sons

See Interview History,

Grltchf ield :

Teiser:
Critchfield:

found, out that a commitment had been made to
Bisceglia Brothers for picking charges, which
were about four dollars a ton. They had submitted
an idea to the bank of making that advance and
then agreeing that out of the proceeds of the
sale of the wine they would contribute to the
grower what they could afford to pay him. He
still had a residuary interest in it, with that
type of operators. They had gone through bank
ruptcy. They owned Grey stone [winery], and that
was their northern operation. They had a plant
at San Jose there which had gotten in bad shape;
: don't know whether that burned down. They had
leased a plant down east of Fresno and moved down
there, and this commitment was made. Louis
Martini was buying some grapes at six dollars; it
looked as if that might be the price — six dollars
a ton. And Roma, John Cella,* were offering about
six dollars and getting some grapes. That made a
debacle in a hundred communities in California.

This was when Louis Martini was still in Kingsburg?

Yes. We didn't buy that [the L.M. Martini Winery
at Kingsburg] for a couple years after that though.
Tulare Winery [of Frank Giannini] hadn't been
thrown out of Security First National yet, but
they were worried. They were thrown out two or
three weeks later.

So Giannini and Russell and Fred Lagomarsino
used to come up once a week or so and call me and
tell me they were coming the next morning, and to
meet them for breakfast at the Sutter Hotel or
somewhere. We were working on various plans. I
had been trying to solve this, to figure what
could we do with an industry that was so sick that
4-0 per cent of it was pretty near in a bankrupt
stage at that time. When this was happening, your
left hand didn't know what your right hand was
doing or vice-versa. So I had this plan of
operation pretty well in my mind by that time. I
wasn't being allowed to talk to winery groups as
a whole. They had me muzzled by this time. So
Frericks called me one day and said, "The group have
gone home. They've had a meeting and they've given
up many ideas of what to do." Everybody was trying
to figure out plans of stabilization.

*John Battista Cella

Teiser:

Gritchfield:

Was this a formal group or Just a bunch of people
who sot together?

Well, this was growers, I think. This was the
same group that were running the Growers Grape
Products Association, that owned a doubtful
residual in the brandy. Well, he said, "They've
had their last meeting, and they've decided that
there's nothing that can be done. They've just
got to let the tail go with the hide."

So I said, "Well, all right Andy, let's you
and I have lunch together and I'll give you my
ideas now. " Andy and I used to lunch together
quite a little because I wanted to know the moves
that were being made. So we went over to a
Chinese restaurant — I'd give a lot of money if we
had that tablecloth that I diagrammed this program
on, because we drew it up that way. There were
a whole lot of questions as to what you could do
legally. So I laid out the program as a legal
entity, but instead of a group of Individual
growers trying to be developed, a non-profit
cooperative of processors, part of which were
co-ops or individuals like the Giannlnis crushing
their own grapes. The market for wine was very
low. For the fortified wines it was around 22 to
2^ cents. Most of them were our customers at the
bank. And the dry wines were from 11 to 15 cents.

Now, a non-profit cooperative of institutions,
of processors, many of them grower processors. In
the meantime, the raisin people were trying to get
a loan from the government, and they were turned
down because there was such chaos in the industry.
They hadn't started then, I don't believe, to put
the grapes on trays, but they knew that if nothing
was done with the wine business what with the
prospects were, that there would be a great over-
supply of raisins, and the government didn't want
to be involved in another long-time loan. They'd
gone through it, you know, a romance, a long series
of projects in the raisin business, including some
shooting too, if you go back and look up the
history.

Well, I went down [to Tulare] on a weekend
and the Gianninis, Frank, and Gal Russell and Fred
met me, and on Sunday I laid this plan out to them.

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

reiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:
Teiser:
Critchfield:

Andy agreed with me that it was workable and in
his opinion was legal and would not get us into
a suit with the government. Now it was hinged to
an agreement with the bank that they would finance
it. The cooperative, the C.C.W., was to purchase
the wine knowing that there would be a lot of
wineries flocking into it; purchase the wine
outright — take title to the wine — and we would
give them a carrying charge sufficient to keep
their wineries so that they would be taking proper
care of the wine during such processing on it as
our production manager would indicate necessary.

Each winery would store its own wine?

Each would store its own wine to the extent that
they could.

Who was your processing manager?

We took on Allen Dunning, who was at that time
running the big winery for Di Giorgio. Now, C.C.W.
would buy the grapes from the growers and pay them
cash and make new wine to the extent that grapes
were available and that storage was available.
That was one of the reasons we bought the Martini
winery the next year. And C.C.W. would not be a
Fruit Industries selling organization but would
sell at wholesale to the large wineries that were
outside that were financible [financially sound]
enough, that had merchandising outfits and that
were good merchandisers.

Like what?

Like Roma, Italian Swiss.

Did you sell any to Gallo?

No, Gallo wasn't operating big enough then. If it
had been now and Gallo was operating as it is, he
could have taken all of it. He's a good operator,*
a fine operator. I don't know as we offered Gallo
an opportunity to sign a marketing contract with
us.

In the meantime, we had key growers in almost
every community that had a lot of grapes, where
they sold them, pass the word around that there was
a big deal developing with the bank behind it. And

*Ernest Gallo

Gritchfield:

they were the kind of men who told their friends
that, and it spread, and we stopped the selling
of grapes, which was essential to this move. We
went to work. There was a good attorney there in
Fresno who since has died, Mount [K.] Wild. And
Calvin Russell and I talked Mount into Joining us
in the preparation of the documentation. The
documentation was a very difficult one, you see,
to get these thoughts and the whole structure as
I had laid it out. And we worked night and day
there for three weeks or so and developed the
documentation. We tried out the marketing
contract on such fellows as Rossi and a few others,

A CRISIS IN 3VENTS

Critchfield:

Now by this time I had the complete confidence and
backing of the Gianninis [the Prank Giannini group].
I had been down to Fresno and. Tulare once, but this
man [Ralph S.] Heaton didn't like me. I was messing
with his wine business. He always had some new
idea which was no good. A lot of people you admire
for certain reasons, but you know that consistently
they're not thinking soundly, not thinking through
what's legal — what can legally be done and what
can't be done.... Well, I got back on Monday
morning and was walking into the bank where we hung
up our coats, and Mr. Sbarboro said, "You're trying
to save the wine business again, are you?"

Well, I said, "Why?"

"Why," he said, "you were down in Fresno this
weekend." Then I knew that Heaton had called him.

He said, "I thought we told you you couldn't
manipulate things like that."

I said, "Mr. Sbarboro, I'm going to tell you
once, and this will be the last time I'll probably
ever speak to you: I am being paid for what I was
hired to do here at this bank, and I'm not going
to listen to what you tell me that I can or can't
do. I'm going up to get my personal papers out of
my file and put my coat on and walk out of here."

Crltchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

I went back to my desk, which was a ways back
of his, got my papers out, called my girl down and
asked her to bring my files down, the papers that
I wanted. And I took my personal papers and walked
out.

Then I went over to California Lands,
remember who they were?

No.

Do you

This was the strategic move that I made, you see.
California Lands was a corporation in which title
to all the farmland that Bank of America would take
in would be placed, and they would manage them
until they sold them. The bank had another one,
Capital Company, that took their urban properties
that they took in.

Well, Ed [E.D.] Woodruff, the president of
this corporation, was a good friend of mine, and
I told him, "Ed, I'm finally leaving the bank. I've
put up with all of these disturbing and unsatisfactory
conditions over there to which I've been subjected
for quite a while, and I'm going to leave now and
I thought I'd tell you why." They had about forty
or fifty thousand tons of grapes coming in. They
generally sold to Roma; that was to Cella, who was
quite a close friend of the Gianninis over a period
of years, big customers of the bank, and they got
a good price there.

California Lands held the grapes?

Yes; they were on the vines. They hadn't entered
any negotiations or contracts. Now, you see, we
were very careful. We hadn't announced anything
yet; we hadn't done any sleuthing around yet. So
he said, "You can't do it Burke. You gotta stay
here. We're in a bad spot here with the tonnage
we've got."

I said, "I went down there on my own expense
on a weekend" (they didn't pay me for my [travel
or overtime] time), "and I've been down there a
couple times lately, and I've got half a dozen of
those sick wineries that are willing to go along
and be the nucleus of a stabilization move that I
have worked out with them that has the possibilities

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:
Teiser:
Critchfield :

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of stabilizing this deal and putting it on its
feet. It would form a holding pool, but it
wouldn't hold wine off the market." The marketing
contracts that we had with what we called the "Big
Five" stated that they agreed to take a certain
percentage of that wine.

'The Big Five were these large companies?
Yes. Roma, Italian Swiss, Petri...
Crest a Blanca?

No. We never got Cresta Blanca to move ir. with
us. They always played a lone hand. They had
not been sold then yet to the firm that bought
them- -Hiram Walker or Schenley.

So you had Roma, Italian Swiss, Petri and two
others.

We didn't do any business with Fruit Industries.
There was a winery down south, Padre, run by Yai.
You never met Jimmy Vai before he died, did you?

No.

He was a charming nan. He was one of those easy
going Italians that made money in spite of his
habits of spending. Well, we documented this, and
in the meantime we promoted it by word, of mouth;
no publicity. We got up to the point where those
who were interested in getting a home [for their
grapes] because they wouldn't have to put up any
money for taxes, for bonds, or anything....

Let me go back to my leaving the bank and
going over to California Lands. I talked, to Ed
Woodruff there for probably two or three hours.
He said, "You've got to go back there and talk to
somebody. Go back and talk to Mario."

I said, "The orders around the bank are that
unless it's high rating business you're not to
disturb L.M. He's recovering from his hospitaliza-
tion." He was in and out of the hospitals a good
deal.

"Well," he said, "talk to A.?, himself."

Gritchfield: "No," I said, "I'm not going to talk to A. P.
because I don't want to weaken my position with
him. I've never had him turn me down on any
proposition that I've put up to him, and I don't
want to go in with a little matter like this."

"Well," he said, "who can you talk to?" I
said, "Well, I'll talk to his wife's nephew,
Renolds Barbieri." A very fine fellow, who had
their ear.

Well, I went on back to the bank after Ed
and I went out and got a little lunch. And I
said, "Well, I'll go back and try."

He said, "This is serious enough now. I'm
asking you as a personal favor. Go back over
there. You've got to go to the top of the bank
on this."

So I went back, and we were on the top floor,
and as I got off the elevator L.M. was standing
with his hat on and his coat, going out to lunch.
It was probably two o'clock.

He said, "Burke, how are you? I'd like to
have a good long talk with you about this grape
deal. It's in bad shape, and we realize it."

"Well," I said, "I'd like to have a good talk
with you, too, about it." And he said, "I'll be
back in twenty minutes or so from my lunch. I'll
just go downstairs here."

So he came back, and I said, "I'd like to talk
to you and your father. This deal is in the worst
shape it's ever been since I've been over here,
and you should know it, you should realize it, you
should be aware of the fact." So when he came
back after lunch he called his father, and we
went into his office. He was the only one that
used a private office, and so we went into his
little office.

I said, "Well, I'm going to talk to you from
the standpoint, not as an employee. I picked up
my papers this morning, and as I have a considerable
number of shares of stock, and I'm going to talk
to you as someone who has an interest in the

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

business. Some of the things I'm going to say
you're not going to like. You'll have to sit there
and take it if you want to know."

Of course they first wanted to know what was
the prospect of the brandy pool. I told them, "It
has a possible salvage value of a few dollars, but
not very much. The wine business is in such shape
that there's going to be a lot of brandy made, you
see, and it's going to be competitive, and there
won't be very much money in it." I said, "Well,
to start out, I might Just as well tell you one
thing about what the people think. So many people
in this state think that you folks have a personal
interest in the wine business, that you're part of
Petri Cigar Company* and Roma Wine, because you have
extended a great deal of credit to them and they
have grown up." The old man swore like a trooper.

"We don't have a damn side interest or any other

interest, except the customers!" Well, we got that
all settled.

"Now," I said, "I've reached the point here
where I've been trying to work out a program, but
the conditions around here are such that I can't
get any help. There's nobody I can talk to that
has a friendly, constructive attitude." And. I said,
"You're facing a debacle. There's a lot of these
wineries that are sitting there without any firm
commitment from the bank except such outfits as
Martini and Roma Wine or Petri 's, who can undoubtedly
borrow on their own. So," I said, "you've got a
hundred communities here in California that are
going to be sick, because six dollars a ton won't
give them anything. The three dollars and a half
advance for picking doesn't mean anything to them.
You're going to have a lot of bankruptcies on your
hands . "

Then L.M. said, "What do you think can be done,
Burke?" I outlined my plan to him, and he said,
"I'll go along with you on that. Have you got it
written up?" Now, this is during a conversation
that lasted from about 2:30 or quarter to three
until it was around seven o'clock.

My word!

I could Just imagine that Mr. Sbnrboro was figuring
that I was lashing at him. I never mentioned his

*The Petri Wine Company was for many years a
subsidiary of the Petri Cigar Company.

Critchfield:

Teiser:

name, never. After we got that operation underway
I used to come up. I almost lived at Fresno, you
see, in the hotel there. I'd come up and so to
dinner with Mario and tell him, but he'd call me
every day. He called ne every day from the bank.
•They were vitally interested in this program.
So A. P. said, "Burke, I don't know as I'd waste
my time on them. They're just a bunch of boot
leggers." That was his viewpoint on the wineries
in general, except the Wentes. He knew they were
doing a good job. He knew that we did a wonderful
job when we put those wine packages out.

Well, some of the people in the industry had a
noor reputation.

Critchfield: Yes, there were ex-bootleggers.

C.C.W. OPERATIONS

Gritchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

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Well, we got a good sign-up on that. We got about
*K) per cent.

Of what?

Of the wine in California.

Did the Bank of America then lend you to this
organization, in effect? How did it work?

They loaned me to the industry to run this business,
still as a vice president of the bank, active in
the bank, keeping my desk and secretary.

But you were general manager of Central California
Wineries?

Critchfield: That's right.

Teiser:

Gritchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:
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I have a list of the winery members here.*

Let's see — Acampo, Alta, Bisceglia. Now,
Bisceglias had been bankrupt when they couldn't
get this three dollars and a half a ton [that had
earlier been tentatively agreed upon]. They with
drew that right away.

You mean the bank withdrew the three dollars and
fifty cents?

Yes. Then, of course, Bisceglias were instructed
to hunt me ur> and join this program. And they
said, "What are we going to do for money for
operating?" You know, to start a plant and get it
ready. I said to Mario, "What are we going to do
with Bisceglias for money?" He said, "You folks
haven't got any money yet, but take care of them,"
(to me). So I loaned them two or three thousand
dollars of my personal funds, knowing that he was
in back of me, and. got them started in Central
Winery — that was where our operation was.

Central Winery was your headquarters?

Yes. And we had this law firm who were next door
to us. And right there where we discounted our
paper we could start drawing all the money we
wanted. Now, there are a few thing I must tell

you.

Let's see... [looking at list of C.C.W.

members]** DaRoza... Sierra Vista — that was one

*Acanpo Winery & Distilleries, Acampo; Alta Winery
Winery & Distillery, Dinuba; Bisceglia Bros. Wine
Co. , Fresno and Reedley; Central Winery, Fresno,
Kings burg and St. Helena; Colonial Grape Products
Company of California, Elk Grove; Crest View
Winery, Fresno; Da Roza Winery, Lodi; Di Giorgio
Fruit Corporation, San Francisco and Delano;
Franzia Bros. Winery, Ripon; J. Fraslnetti & Son,
Florin; Fresno Winery, Fresno and Clovis; Italian
Vineyard Company, Los Angeles and Guasti; E«
Morello, Kerman; Mount Tivy Winery, Fresno; F.
Pirrone & Sons Winery, Salida; St. George Winery,
Fresno; San Joaquin Winery & Distillery, Fresno;
Tulare Winery Company, Tulare; Village Winery,
Bscalon.

**See Appendix III.

Critchfield;

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of Di Giorgio 's plants I think. We had to whip
some of these boys into the project; Franzia was
one of them. They didn't sell at low prices
because they needed money, necessarily. They had
their lands, a good big vineyard, and a winery
was a new deal. Now, the Italian Vineyard Company,
I think, bought some wine from us, the Guasti
nlant there. Mount Tivy. Pirrone.

Mount Tivy was Lucius Powers'?

No. Mount Tivy was Fred Vieth. Fred Vieth was
an accountant who was made president of that firm.
I think at one time the Powers were in it, but by
that time they had no voice in it. This was quite
a group.

I should say so.

The Acampo [Winery] was the Mondavis. Mondavi* was
one of the head men in Acampo. He was one of the
active members, he and a man, Barengo, who was a
distributor at Reno.

I think Dino Barengo now heads that winery.

I think they bought out the rest of the fellows.
We held them up by their shirttails, see; we held
them up by the seat of their pants. They couldn't
have operated at times there without that operation
underway. Well, we got the deal going and financed
it as I told you. The bank did all the financing.
But we had the little Farmers and Merchants Bank
at Lodi take a small part of it. And we tried to
get Security in, but they dumped Tulare [Wine
Company], so they were Bank of America customers.

We established a fifteen dollar price for
grapes and made everybody pay it, and pay cash. Up
to that time they would buy their grapes and give
them an advance for picking and say, "Well, we
can't give you any more now. We have to sell some
wine." And so forth. It was a sick industry.
And this was a stabilizer, because we put the
financing into it — we'll say controlled financing —
so we knew that the money we paid them under this
contract was going where we expected it. We paid
off their loans at the bank on money we borrowed
from the bank, see; we paid off their loans so that

*Cesare Mondavi

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they didn't owe the bank anything. Their statements
looked much better. But they had no wine, nothing
to sell.

Now, it wasn't long before some of the smaller
wineries up around Lodi started to dump through
brokers. There were three wineries there — Mokelumne
and a number of small wineries. Mario and I talked
this over every day, you see. He knew all of the
operations. And I told him what was happening, and
he said, "What do you want to do?" I said, "I want
to go up there and buy their wine." He said, "Go
ahead and draw on us. Draw on head office for the
money." So I didn't ask the directors of C.G.W.
if it was all right, because if I did. the word
would get out before you knew it. So I went up
there and got ahold of those people and bought their
wine at the price they were offering it out, in the
lower twenties, and took all of it under control.
We didn't have to worry about moving it right away,
because I think at that time... We did eventually
move some of it to Martini's and sold some directly
from those wineries.

The word got into the paper, then, did it?

Sure, it got into the paper. Then we came up here
and bought up the wine of those wineries that I
started to tell you about. Some of the names have
got away from me. It was table wines over in
Sonoma and here, and Chapln Tubbs' wine in this
valley and the Tubbs output and four wineries'
output. Eventually, see, we knew we would have to
have a place to put it. So the bank had repossessed
Greys tone from the Bisceglias when they closed them
out.

The Bisceglias were closed out?

Oh, yes. They were closed out before they went
to Fresno. And when I financed them down there
they were closed out. They had some equipment, but
not much. They built; they bounded back pretty
fast, because you couldn't tell with some of those
Italians whether they had a sock full of money put
away somewhere even if they went bankrupt.

They built a big plant down there. I don't
know how they've done lately. The first generation
died, and then they got down to one man, Alphonse

Critchfield!

Teiser:
Gritchfield!

down there, and three or four nephews. And then
Alphonse died and the nephews ran the plant. They
went into a non-alcoholic wine, or grape Juice
business, remember? They did it and lost their
shirt. I think any of those deals where you're
taking a grape juice of that type, that was potable,
it was hard to sterilize it enough to avoid some
trouble.

Now, as the next season came on, one winery
was sold out from that group. We had a penalty
clause. We had a provision that if they sold out
they lost any interest in the assets, and they
could get their wine back by paying their loan and
a certain amount to cover the general organization
expenses of getting it started and underway. Along
came a man from Chicago with a letter from one of
the Roosevelts addressed to A. P., but he was away
somewhere and not available, and Mario was in the
hospital, so I got word. When he got sick I was
supposed to see Russell Smith. Russell Smith was
directed to do what Mario would have done, see, and
to keep the wolves off my back. This man came with
a letter. This was after we had operated and
bought the Martini plant and the Greystone.*

How did Martini happen to sell his plant to you?

Martini had a small operation up here [in the Napa
Valley] , and he had a couple of partners in San
Francisco, Sinsheimer. Did you ever hear of the
Sintons or the Sinsheimers? They were big bean
operators.**

Anyway, I think they wanted to get their money
out, and Louis wanted to get up here. Our whole
group didn't look upon that as too good a deal,
see, but Di Giorgio*** was the fly in the ointment
there. He was for taking over the brandy from the
Grape Products Company, that C.C.W. take over the
entire brandy pool.

*Both were bought in 1940.

**Bernard Sinsheimer was president of Sinsheimer
& Company, grain and beans; Silas D. Sinton was
with Sinsheimer & Company.

***Joseph Di Giorgio

Teiser:

That C.C.W. do it, not that he do it?

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:

No, no, that C.C.W. do it. We shouldn't have let
Di Giorgio in. He was a bad actor. Dl Giorgio is
known for either running a thing or destroying,
and he destroyed this. He broke it up.

He did?

Yes. He was responsible. And I've seen him... he
just had to conplain to Mario right away that they
vrere all going to go broke. And so Mario had him
and his treasurer over and had me come up.

Who was Di Giorgio* s treasurer?

A man named Kelly, wasn't it? I can't remember,
but he was a very astute fellow. He wasn't as
mouthy as old Joe was. So they sat there and made
their charges to Mario, again repeated what he had
said. Old Joe did the talking; he didn't let anybody
else talk. And I said, "That's a God damn lie, Mr.
Di Giorgio, and. you know it." And I looked him
right in the eye. "Well," Mario said, "Well, Joe,
get out of this. We'll finance your wine for you.
Get out of this movement. You don't belong here.
You're a bad. actor." But this was his salvation;
he could make all the punk wine he wanted, to, and
we had to take care of it. v/e sold it. We moved
along. We'd realized that we had to have some
storage at both ends of this business — up here for
table wine, and down there for sweet wine, dessert
wines as they're called.

So that's why you bought Greys tone?

That's why I bought Greys tone. I think we paid
the bank $175,000 for Greystone.* They got out in
good shape. That's a beautiful plant. I'd like
to have had money enough at the time to have
bought it. It's not a good money making plant
unless you've got big operations like [Christian
Brothers]. I don't think they've ever made any
money operating that as a plant, but it's a good
deal for them to popularize, and they retail a lot
of wine out there.

Do they?

*See Interview History, pp. xii-xiii and xvi-xvii.

Critchfield:

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Oh yes. Have you even been up here on a Sunday
when these winery yards have been full?

I haven't for a long time, but I have in the nast.
It's worth corcing up to see them.

Now, at this time I was getting pretty well
played, out, physically tired, didn't sleep very
good. Mr. Di Giorgio was the cause of my losing
interest in it. But along came Mr. Lou [Louis]
Golan with this letter to the head of the bank
from one of the Roosevelts, introducing him and
saying that he had been sales manager for [Lewis
S.] Rosenstiel of Schenley. And Louis was on his
own now, apparently, or was representing Schenley,
and he was going to take over the whole thing,
lock stock and barrel, right away. And he did.
So I was out then. I was ready to go back to the
bank.

I went back to the bank and then took a long
vacation. I've forgotten what I decided to do,
but that was about the time I had that contract
with the government.

For the wheat bins?

For the grain bins, yes. I shipped about a train-
load a day from six lumber mills that I didn't own
but I had contracts with. That was a rabbit out
of the hat.

That was wonderful, yes.

Did you know who Louis [A.] Benoist was?

Yes. He owned Almaden, didn't he?

Yes. He at one time was the so-called owner of
Almaden. But Louis was the head of the Lawrence
Warehouse Company, and when I was working on that
grain bin deal I happened to tell Louis about it,
because they had warehouses on a lot of lumber
mills, and he wanted to get in on it. In fact I
wasn't going to do any more than to submit the
idea to someone and then get somebody to manufacture
it. That's what I really did. Then my function
was performed. Well, my mother was out that winter,

Critchfield:

Teiser:

and I took her back in the spring, and I found out
when I got to Denver and Kansas City that the
greatest t>roblein facing the nation was what to do
with the srain crop, the wheat crop especially.
So I stopped in at Senator [Arthur] Capper's
office in Kansas City to see just how bad the
situation was there. I hadn't been in touch too
much with the East. I knew there was going to be
a storage problem anyway with a big wheat crop.
They told me that Senator Capper was devoting all
of his time to it back there, and he was. He was
on a committee with Secretary [Henry] Wallace [or
the Department of Agriculture] . They were trying
to find some idea that would work and give them
storage buildings quick. I decided that I was the
guy that could supply them.

I'm going to make a note of that issue of the
Pacific Rural Press. That'll tell quickly why

they were there.
cover article.

It's the September 5» 19^2,

ANTI -TRUST CHARGES

Teiser:

Critchfield:

I wanted to ask you about the suit against the
wineries. How did it come up?

How did it develop. Well, Mario always considered

this* a legal operation, not an extra-legal one,
see. And he had a lot of trust In people, so he
would call in Louis Petri and Cella and Vieth of
Mount Tivey. Now, Vieth of Mount Tivey should
have known better. But Russell wouldn't go, and
we decided that neither of us would appear at such
a meeting where they discussed prices. Neither of
us ever sat in on a meeting where there were prices
discussed, so our skirts were clean of price
discussions. These men didn't have any background
of laws, of what you could do and couldn't do, so
one would go home and sit dovm and write to his
sales manager, "I just came from a meeting. So-and-
so and so-and-so was there, and we all agreed that
we would hold for 28 or 29 or 31 cents for such-and-
such. Now you can go ahead and with certain of your
customers and shade that a little." Which was
typical Italian, see.

•Central California Wineries

Critchfield;

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How did. this come out? Because the government
subpoenaed all of their records of all this group.*
Before long we heard that a grand jury had been
called to investigate the activity of the Bank of
America and a few other banks and the wineries in
fixing prices, anti-trust violation. Well, I had
kept in touch with my two classmates in Washington
in the Department of Agriculture that were working
on that raisin deal. I used to call them up
sometimes three or four times a week, because I
discussed certain phases with them. I had to have
counsel, see, on some of these phases of the thing.
How would you do this and keep from getting into
Sherman Anti-Trust trouble, see? So I built up a
background back there so that these boys knew
everything about what we were doing.

And about the time we announced our buying of
grapes for the co-op, this non-profit institution,
why they came out and made the raisin loan. And one
of those boys I had brought out to California for
a couple of years as my assistant over in Sacramento-
Ed Gaumnitz. He was very close to Wallace. He was
on Wallace's strategic materials purchasing group.

So the threat came?

Well anyway, it was decided to send Mount Wild
back. By that time I was out, but I was closely
in touch with what was going on, through the
underground channels. So of course when the
discussion was going on about Mount going back, I
told him who to see. And when he got to a point
where he needed to use those fellows, he could use
them. So he was in Washington very nearly a month
or so, and he got the California congressional
delegation together and they had these experts
from the Department of Agriculture over. Who was
the great artist from Philadelphia — one of the
family was Attorney General? A great artist family.
He was Attorney General of the United States and
little Joe was working for him in the Trust
Department.

Joe [Joseph L.] Alioto?

Yes. Joe thought he had a bear by the tail and
was sivinrring it good and easy. And if you were to
get the Examiners of that period, you would probably
see where a telegram came fros the Attorney General

*June 20, 19^2. See Interview History, p. xiv.

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of the United States to the grand jury telling
them to lay off the wine business. He'd got to
where they had had a meeting of the lawyers of all
the people that are named in it and all the
Institutions. My lawyer was there, Dan Hadsell.
He said it was one of the outstanding groups of
lawyers ever to get together. I think there were
probably a hundred lawyers. There were a lot of
people named in that complaint.

When was it filed? Do you remember?

I think it was

And was it a federal case?

Yes, a federal crand jury.

Was it filed in the San Francisco district?

Yes, San Francisco.*

Now that was a good stabilizing move. That
took the deal after prorate. Prorate temporized
with it there for that one year, and if there hadn't
been a big crop the next year and the next year...
We had brought the price level up to where the
growers could afford to give good tillage to their
land and raise crops.

Later your brandy was sold at a good profit, wasn't
it?

Oh yes. The brandy was sold. Nothing was expected
out of it, you see. It was sold and brought pretty
near twenty dollars a ton,

But it brought a good profit?

Yes, to the growers. The growers got that money.

When did it sell? A good deal later, didn't it?

In the next five, six, seven years. You don't sell
brandy much under five years old .

*See also Appendix I.

reiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:

Critchfield:

I have here a clipping from the San Francisco
Chronicle of 1950", "April 13th. The headline is
*xapp Asked About Wine Organization at T.A Hearing. "
At that time Jesse Tapp was asked about Central
California Wineries and said that the winery
organization was dissolved because It had the
opportunity to dispose of the various wineries at
profitable prices.

Well, that's wrong, because they didn't own any
wineries. Oh, those two wineries, the storage
plants.

And he said the wineries were t>ur chased by two
large national distillery concerns.

Well, one of them was Schenley, and...
National Distillers?

National Distillers bought Shewan- Jones over at
Lodi, and they also bought Italian Swiss Colony
out. 'They are a little bit mixed up on what
they're talking about there.*

But everything was disposed of, was It?

Essentially it was Louis Golan who went in, and
blew up in quite a short time. I don't know
whether he thought he was going to sell it to
Rosenstiel, but Louis was a fast operator. He
offered me a big salary to come in with him, and
Andy [Prericks] a big salary too, Andy was a wine
chemist, a good wine man. He knew how to make it;
he knew what was good. Well, Andy agreed that he
would go with Gowan, and I tras going back to the
bank, at least temporarily. But the kind of work
that I was doing, industry organizations, wasn't
needed so much because we had a national program
on where an agricultural industry could go in and
organize under it and work under a national law
and under the state laws. Well, I got busy on my
grain bins at this time.

Well, you certainly did play an interesting part
in stabilizing the industry. You had done what you
intended to do.

Yes, I did what I started out to do, and I went
back to my desk in the bank. The Gianninis assured

*3chenley alone was the buyer.
History, p. xvi.

See Interview

iritchfield:

Peiser:

Critohfield:

me, with Mr. Sbarboro sitting there, that "We're
,<roing to run this; this isn't going to be an R.^.C.
deal." Because when they had that deal with the
3.F.C., they couldn't be keeping their finrer on
it like they did this, see. But in this one Mario
knew what was going on every day. Well, he said,
"Burke Critohfield is going to manage this deal,
end he's going to do it as a vice ^resident of
this bank, an officer of this bank. He's done a
fine job for us in the few years he's been here,
and he's got a job for life." And that's what
they thought about me.

Let He go back and ask you a question. The
Central California Wineries disposed of their
t>ro"Derties. Was that because of the threat of
ant i- trust, or was it because nrosnerity had
returned?

Oh no. Prosperity had returned, and the members
wanted to get out. They didn't want to be hired
men any longer, see. Stabilization had worked,
and they wanted to make the money that they could
make on their own.

I think it was an effective job. You had the
tot) men of the largest bank in the world knowing
what was being done and satisfied that it was
going to be a good stabilization move. I needed
friends here. Mario was in the hospital, so
Russell Smith, his assistant and one of the tot>
vice ^residents there, was the man I was sutmosed
to see when Mario was gone if I needed to knock
anybod.y in the head or if I needed money. So Bill
[Williair T. ] Dunn came down, a nice-looking young
fellow, and we [Central California Wineries] signed
a lease for a floor of that bank, almost half a
floor of that big bank. That was the Helm Building
in Fresno. And then there was the question of
where we would get the furniture. Well, I said,
"Go up to Rucker-Fuller's; I know one of the vice
presidents there and I'll tell him to get them for
you." We made out a list. I said, "You know,
Bill, what we need here now. It's going to be
mostly accounting, see." It was an accounting job.

So he came up and reported to Smith, and.
Smith called me and said, "Who is going to pay for
this?" I said, "Don't make me laugh, Russ. Get
that furniture started down here as quick as you

Critchfield:

can. We want to make a show of being in operation,
see." That helped a lot. The psychology of how
you do something is a very important thinar. And
I'm a nromoter, you understand. You've talked to
me long enough to know — I'm a promoter and I <?et
somebody else to do lots of the work. But the
psychology you use, and that was a well thought
through deal. And we had the growers back of us.

WICTK INSTITUTE PROGRAMS

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield.:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Now, in the meantime, to ^et that advertising
nrograin we had to go out and virtually take a lot
of those little Italian wineries. To get them in
we had to say, "Mr. A. P. says you're to be in. "

This was with the Wine Institute, was it?

Yes. The Wine Institute had taken nart in their
advertising program and in any other moves that
were made .

Well, that's interesting. I know that Mr. Herman
Wente and John Daniel Jr. worked hard getting it
started.

Yes, but I did more than anybody else, without
too much noise. 1*11 say that. I had the big
stick, sec; I knew how to wield a big stick. I
didn't go personally down to Santa Clara County or
any of these other sections and say, "You're going
to come into the Wine Institute." I sent word to
the [bank] manager, called the manager and told
him or whoever was supervising their credit. I
think it was a legitimate use of credit — of the
power of credit extension.

So they've done a good advertising job, I
think. Well, we put that over. Then Mario says,
"Now who are you going to mit in there to handle
the advertising?" Well, I said, "What do you and
A. P. think about it? Will you give me the right
name?" Now, we could have put in the people who
were handling the raisin deal, the orange deal —
they were good friends of the bank --but we gave it
to J. Walter Thompson [advertising agency). We

Gritchfield:

Teiser:
Gritchfield:

Teiser:
Gritchfield:
Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield:

Teiser:
Gritchfield:

had everybody submit a rxLan. When the board or
committee were named to select the agency, we saw
that the right men were put in there, enough of
them so that we weren't outnumbered.

Did you have anything to do with naming the
people in the Wine Institute jobs too?

No, we did not. Harry [Caddow] had been with
Gonn. And I will say that they held their reins
nretty tight, [Jefferson] Peyser and Caddow and
[Leon] Adams, on that deal. I was surprised that
they didn't attempt to name the agency then. We
didn't tell them that we were going to do it, but
we did it. J. Walter Thompson at that time was
a good friend of A. P. 's and a good friend of the
bank and a customer. Those were the days when you
reciprocated with favors, see. "You scratch my
back and I'll scratch yours."

Did you know that I put in most of a year
loaned by the bank to correct wine legislation?
That's when I had my contract with Adlai
[Stevenson] .

What year was that?

1935-

Who were you working for then?

The bank paid me, but the Institute mid the
expenses and was supposed to furnish me with all
the money I needed to grease the skids. That's
one good way to express it.

You were what's known as a lobbyist?

I was. I was a super-lobbyist, because I would
fly from Columbus over to Madison, up to St. Paul.

Was all this concerned with getting legislation?

Corrective legislation in the states, in the big
potential wine-consuming states.* It was tough

*See also Appendix II.

Critchf ield: work; it was awfully tough work. And we should
have got that Illinois deal through. Adlai and
I both felt bad.

[Shows pamphlet, "Memorandum Concerning Proposed
Amendments to the Illinois Liquor Control Law
with Regard to Wine" by Adlai Stevenson, Of
Counsel for Wine Institute, May 30, 1935]

This contains a very good set of arguments
why Illinois should pass this bill. Well, we got
it through the Senate, but the Speaker of the
House was a family friend of Adlai 's and he said,
"Don't submit it to the committee here. They're
a bunch of thieves." Any bill that had to do
with liquor, you see, was a money bill, and he
said, "They're hungry." But he said, "At the last
session we'll take it up. I'll maneuver it into
a vote." And we got a vote on it, but we were
short seventeen votes of passing it. We had a
good bill. It was just like California — very low
tax, a few dollars for the storing of some wine
only. That would have put an outlet there that
was worth millions and millions to the wine
industry.

Adlai was a gentleman. I met him first when
he was out here working under Hugh Johnson's blue
eagle. Do you remember what the blue eagle was?
A national program. Hugh Johnson was given the
Job as national price fixer, more or less.* They
would, hold hearings with industry and hear the
buyers and sellers, the manufacturers and consumers
and buyers, give their opinion of what was fair
prices. And Mr. Johnson would put his seal of
approval on it and it became more or less law
then. And Adlai was working for Hugh Johnson,
for that organization, in agricultural prices,
and was sent out here to hold a hearing of the wine
industry. Now this is something you haven't got
yet. This is a chapter that really belongs in
here. They held hearings for two or three days,
and one day we took him up to Asti. I went along,
and Bob Wilson of the State Chamber of Commerce,

^Director of the National Recovery Administration.

Critchfield:

Teiser:
Critchfield;

Teiser:

Critchfield;

and. Harry Caddow, and we were invited to get back
to Beaulieu in time for a mid-day meal that was
out of this world. The old man who ran that was
[Georges] de La tour. We were held ur> a little by
a prairie fire somewhere, but we got back and
started in I sunt>ose about half past one with
champagne cocktails. And then they brought in
bis platters of first breasts of doves.

What year was that?

This was before '35» because '35 was when I got
into that work in Illinois. And then he brought
his finest wines out. And then another platter
with pheasant. I was sitting next to Harry Caddow,
and I said, "Harry, is this the main course?" on
the first dish, the doves. And he said, "Yes."
We were late, and we were hungry. But we sat
there for about three hours and ate. One course
after the other. And the old man was then in his
eighties and could hop up those steel stairs in
that winery like a goat.

Then the next day I didn't go along. They
took him down to the wineries at San Jose and
then to Del Monte.

So Adlai Stevenson got a good look at the
California wine industry.

Stevenson knew a lot about the business, the wine
business. When I got ahold of him and hired him,
he was with one of the leading law firms in Chicago.
He had. two good traits: one was his ability to
meet people and get along with them well, and the
other was the prestige of the Stevenson family.
You see, his grandfather was a former vice president
of the United States, Adlai Stevenson.

Final Typist: Kay Suglmoto

APPENDIX I

Memorandum by Burke H. Critchfield, 1970

The government presented a case to the federal grand jury
in 19^2 against the wine industry of California. The title USA
vs Bank of America was used, because the industry organization
plan was developed by Burke H. Critchfield, vice president of
the 3ank of America, and some members of the industry and some
of the bank officials apparently are said to have had conversa
tions about wine prices from time to time (not 3.H.C.).

Critchfield. had kept USDA officials in close touch with
the development of the program. These officials were considering
a loan program for the raisin grape industry and made their
decision tie in with this wine program and more or less contingent
on its development .

When word got out that the federal grand jury were about to
bring an indictment of industry leaders we sent Mount K. Wild,
of Fresno, who helped develop the contractual documents, to
Washington, B.C., to contact the various government men
Critchfield had worked with and with the anti -trust people and
Attorney General Biddle. General Bid die sent word to the Grand
Jury in San Francisco to "lay off" the wine industry.

The program developed by Critchfield did not warrant
adverse legal action, and helped to bring fair prices to all
grape growers in spite of tremendous crops.

APPENDIX II

Report by Burke H. Critchfleld to the Wine Institute, June 1935

4. REPORT BY BURKE II. CRITCHKIBLD

llr. Burke H. Critchf ield, who has been assisting the Y»ine Institute in
meeting Eastern and Midwestern legislative and marketing problems, has made a most
interesting and highly significant report. The following are excerpts from
Mr. Critclifield1 s statement:

The keystone of the program of the Wine Institute has been the im
provement of wine quality. Without quality it is impossible to exttect
to educate the buying public in the use of wine. Wine must taste good,
not only to those who know wine, but to those who are unacquainted with
it. Most Americans are in the neophyte class as far as wine Is concern
ed. It is essential th-it once wine is purchased, the buyer will react
favorably and be encouraged to continue its use.

While the program of quality improvement is now taking positive
effect in California, its effects nationally rri.ll ^robn.bly be rather
slow, for various reasons. One of the principal r orisons is that there
arc scores of so-called wineries throughout the country, and especially
in the metropolitan Now York area and oth'jr large populous centers,
which although securin" thoir basic supnlios from California, have not
been and vdll not be governed by the California wine quality standards.
Many of these are in the business only for an immediate profit and ap-

. parently care nothing about building for the future. If the quality,
or rather lack of quality, of their product is any indication, they do
not intend to remain in the wine business long. The conclusion is that
as long as we continue to supply that type of distributor with our wines

• and such distributors are allowed to prostitute our wines, there naturally
will be offered to consumers lerge quantities of substandard and compounded
products which should under no circumstances appear on the market. The
solution to this problem is definitely in the hands of the California
vendors if they will confine their sales to the reliable distributors,
For without wine to blend, sugar, aneliorate and generally ruin, this
disturbing element would be almost immediately eliminated from the
picture. To emphasize further, instances are common where California

! wineries, In addition to maintaining listribution in a particular market^
i iro /elliri, no operators of the ty/p above mentioned and the latter are
i Irr.c.vr. to ur. .'-r.nell the di.c'_ributir:r wineries. Raisins, dried r.rapes,
'concentrate, extracts, watp;- and ,'v. r,ar are in no small measure entering
into this picture. These com: ounds are rut out as "wine" in elaborate
packages, with intriguing vintap-' 5t?.tenentr, sometimes "guaranteed,"
It is small wonder that the cov.sur.er purchaser of this type of merchan
dise loses interest in wine.

sVhile defini^- prof'.rens is being made in the correction of adverse
and discri-.inato»y legislation affecting wine throughout the country.
it is imperative that the wines of California be of such quality that
they will be greatly superior, according to type, to the inferior pro
ducts which have been offered for sale. And while on the subject of
quality, it is our suggestion that the most meticulous oare be exercis
ed as to quality when a new brand is being introduced into a lukewayra
market. This applies especially to the situation when the wine trade
is moving into the many new markets which are being opened up by the
legislative reforms for which the Wine Institute has been working.

Much work is yet ahead of the <rrape and wine industry in a legis
lative way before the marketing channels now clogged with unfavorable
wine legislation are fully opened. It will take several years.
Progress will be greater if the wine industry has cleaned its house
and definitely established quality wine with the trade and consumers,
A continuation of activity on the part of the Wine Institute nationally
and throughout the states where and when such is possible will probably be
tho most inexpensive method by which channels of distribution can be
opened and wine consumption increased. Wine merchandising methods must
be improved. The California grape grower and wine producer can expect
a market for their light wines only from the consumers of the present
25 to 30 million gallons of homemade wine when the aforementioned condi
tions are met. To develop a market among the American people generally
is going to take patience and a tremendous amount of educational work,
This will probably involve creating a taste and liking for table wines
and some clmnge in drinking habits, jefore prices can be stabilized
it must be fully recognized that there are just as distinctive grades
of wine as there are distinctive grades of canned fruit or makes of
automobiles.

APPENDIX III

Members of Central California Wineries, Inc.

Acampo Winery & Distilleries, Inc.
Acampo, Calif.

Alta Winery & Distillery
P.O. Box 36
Binuba, Calif.

Bisceglia Bros. Wine Co.
Mattel Bldg. ,
Fresno, Calif. , and
Reedley, Calif.

Central Winery, Inc.
Bank of America Bldg.
Fulton & Tulare Sts.
Fresno, Calif.

Box 303
Kingsburg, Calif.

St. Helena, Calif.

Colonial Grape Products Company

of California
Elk Grove, Calif.

Crest View Winery, Inc.
P.O. Box 1425
Fresno, Calif.

Da Roza Winery
P.O. Box 707
Lodi, Calif.

Di Giorgio Fruit Corporation
433 California St.
San Francisco, Calif., and
Sierra Vista Ranch
Delano, Calif.

Franzia Bros. Winery
Rt. L, Box 124
Ripon, Calif.

J. Frasinetti & Son
P.O. Box 113
Florin, Calif.

Fresno Winery, Inc.
911 Helm Bldg.
Fresno, Calif., and
Shaw & Winery Aves.
Clovis, Calif.

Italian Vineyard Company
815 Transamerica Bldg.
Los Angeles, Calif., and
Guasti, Calif.

E. Morello

Rt. 2, Box 187
Herman, Calif.

Mount Tivy Winery, Inc.
P.O. Box 1588
Fresno, Calif.

F. Pirrone & Sons Winery
P.O. Box 226

Salida, Calif.

St. George Winery
P.O. Box 326
Fresno, Calif.

San Joaquin Winery &

Distillery, Inc.
P.O. Box 134
Fresno, Calif.

'.Pulare Winery Company
P.O. Box 1^8
Tulare, Calif.

Village Winery, Inc.
Box 216
Escalon, Calif.

THE FRESNO BEE

THE REPUBLICAN

FRESNO, CAL., TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 12, 1940

RESERVOIR FOR VALLEY'S VINTAGE WINES

e«m, it

trttl Cod/or** *1

» c i$vp«*rrt*n'f <•«*«*•

ori<rinaKj/ in/ the f«rwtrr Italian »«•**» <&•»? «U|fr
*** jw^ttton $?•«% *$/ CaH/omio \

ssociation of ivliicli the Italian Swiss bed
ter the plant was acquired by th? late a
ently purchased by Mnrtini who made vj
repeal and two v ars ago complm

Jttafe

me Stabilization Groupf
purchases Kingsburg
iPlant Of Martini Firm

Winery Will Be Used For Blending,!
Aging Product; Vintners Say Move-
Will Strengthen Grower Prices

Officers of the Central California Wi.veries. Inc., today fn-
pounced the purchase of the L. M. Martini Winery at Kingsburg
land plans for an additional large storage and blending plant, in-
Ivolving a total outlay of more than $1,000,000 in what they termed
I the most important step taken by th* wine inrlyfctry since the
[repeal of prohibition.

Facilities made possible through
1h<« deal, they said, will accomplish
various objectives for th« mutua'
benefit of growers «nd vintner
and lik»wi»» assure tht> 'r»s1e ar>
the pnWk o€ the highe-t qualit
of fully aged sxveet wines.
At-qulro Inventory

The entire 2000,000 gallon Inver
fory of vintage swept win' in tb
Martini plant was acquired wit
(he property which will bt e?
inrged to provide storage ar
hlending facilities for more thi
10,000,000 gallons. About halt
the present inventory dates back
the time of the prohibition law i
peal.

Construction plans call for t
less than 5,000,000 gallons art,
tional storage, in addition to otl
added storaga under thp pros
roofs. Both concrete and woo*
tanks will be installed us will J
design refrigeration, laborat- .
electrical and steam equipment;
Release St»nur« Firilltle*

The CCW officla ' said the j
ect also will revise the
facilities of mpmb.'r wineri^-.
production of new wines fronf-
coming crops . ijid enabl«-
w,r.er1?5'*tTr hold « S*»ii««W«
perctntag*! of present i,loii<
'further maturing.

Growers, tli
provided with]
(for gr«p«s,'<
ulrenglh the b*f
I !ucers may exp<
'ontinued CCW
| :ash on deilvenl
C»1vtn L. Rui(
[president, said: i
"The purch«M
[riant from Leut
I issociatei repr«
r in the '
ot

. Hlirh QOJ

'Ttfl* far r

ussfll said, "n

the hands of (X

well, balanced

! crade wines b

hhe most impw

that has been ta

Idustry since r*p

[able to the tri<

• ujniog public

igh grid* vln
l-.uure.

"Equally Imp
[plans still in th
lation, crystalli
[nieetings of th
of Cehtrtl' I
line., together w
I fprenccs b«tw*e
of CCW and UK
[headed b^ the 1

VINTAGE WINES

a H c.

1 CHFlf ;

c\ in CM i a

- M TA

FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

tsoeiat'.on of which the Italian Swiss became a stibaid-
tter the plant was acquired by the late E. Y. Foley and
ently purchased by Martini who made rnricd imjirove-
follou-inr) rrpealjind two years agn completely remodeled

it as seen Irony thg
St

iclllties made possible through

deal, they said, will accomplish

iBUj objectives for the mutu*'

»flt of growers arrt vintner

likfwiw assure the '.rade an

public of the hictiext quaht

Wf aged sweet wines;

Acquire- Inventory

to entire 2,000.000 gallon inven.

' of vintage sweet win* in the

ftlni plant was acquired with

property which, will b« en-

;ed to provide storage and

iding facilities for more than

00,000 gallons. About half of

Growers, they explained.

'Mil

"Of primary in0 •:
ers and to business ge.'TmT in ft*
San Joaquln Valley will he » c '«•
tlnuation of the policy, ann-'uni •<!
when CCW was organized Intf
Summer of paying cr.«h- to grown
ers on delivery of their grapes."

Acquisition of the winery to*
gether with Its Inventory, brings
ithe total volume of win* now i*j
•the hands of CCW to approst*
mately 16,000,000 gallon*. This in*
eludes all of the unsold wtnei mart*
by CCW members during th« 1939
season plus all of the aged wine*
held by members and includes,
blocks of wines acquired in inter*
winery transactions for storing
aging and blending purposes.

^Through the facil I'ies of trie lifw
ant, it was pointed out, various
vantages will b» made possible,
he following were stressed:
First — Facilities not nov. avail-
le for agin* and blending of over
,0,000,000 gallons of In, al wine
stepping CCW's totnl mr.arlty up
J.000,000 gallons i, making it pos-
ible to as=ure the highest stand-
irds of sweet wines and to further
Establish for Central California the
rowing reputation ttiat here is

recognized sweat wi
America.

Brandy Market Aided
Second— Jtelease. the storage fa-

gsrg. S3Sf.^«rjarrsB

^n|tk8th.e UW» J£r&5^ S°Und' fUllyi
lucers may expect to rec.tve on l"?jJlrV0^Men'facimie. for mer-

•ontmued CCW policy o£ pay!
of T«,ar.

•resident, said:

an epochi

associates represent*

in the wine and gn
of California.
High Quallry'Altaired

present inventory dates back to . "TtfU far reaching . progra:
time of the prohibition law r*- Russell' said, "not only brings in._,_.. _ — __. ..

the hands of CCW an exceptionally vintage wines. '

«nstructlon plan* call for not well balanced Inventory of high out frequently that at certain sea-
' ttan 5,000,000 gallons addi- grade wines but also represent! sons there has been less than oni

chandising commercial brandy and
[fortifying spirits while developing
[an energetic sales campaign for
[California brandies in competition

now

(subject to the same strict regula
tions that are required of domestic
liquors under state and federal
regulations.

.Fourth— Enable the Industry to
Imitablish, for the f;r«t tm-e since

Hi Storage, in addition to ot
l«l storage under the pres

• Both concrete and wo<
te will he installed as will
ign refrigeration, laborato:
:trleal and steam equipment.

Beleaut Storage Facilities '

te CCW officials said the jjfr
also will release the stor
Ullles of memfcer wineries^
"lUttlon of new wines froni
Dbg. crops atid enable t
HHSrtB- hold * 4««caM»' lar
:«ntag* , of present, stock*
ther maturing.

the- >no»t importan^-fa»tward_ step
.that has been taken in the wine in«
idustry since repeal in making avail.
lable te the trade and ot the con«

year's supply of wines on hand,
whereas normal trad- requirements
for quality wines necessitate a
storage of aging wines equal to at

surnia
hfgh t

robahilify tha7 'he storage fa

^-•s may later h» further expanded

*> more then ri-,':ble the present

tontrmplated capacity was indl-

i-ated by Russell.

More StoniKe Needed
"It probably will be necessary,"
he s»td. "to have more storage c*-
Dtci'v for our wines before thK
\" finally completed. Aging
In fv in California should ulti-
.;>• !>•> of sufficient capacity to
ve the grapes offered and t«
care of wines manufactured
jnonmembT* who do not havcj,
capacity for storing and «gin»J
r wines and must have some
where they can be stored
and cared for at a minim"*

Individual plant capacltlwf
would then be available to
care of each season's crush during)
the vintaee season and an adequate ]
:upply of properly matured w<ne|
wo-ild bf avsilati>«? to -tht?-merchan-J

- factors In the Industry. Thls|

• avoid the forcing of young nr j
hnmature wine into consumption Inj
the, future."

ArTive In the negotiation* In a<J-S
ditlon to Ruisell and B^ H. Critch-J
field, vl

field, ylcejgreside
'Sroerlca and •< :
~ ~'

'resident or the

leading vintners including Joseph
Di Giorgio, CCW director and pro
prletor of the Dl Giorgio and Ear
Fruit Company vineyards.

' frits** Move
Enroute to New York, DI Glorg
said: "The ne» program of
accomplished with the

least two or three years total pro
duction.

New Grower OoH«U Re#n

of the major commercial end coop
erative winerie*, together with »»j
progress thf j have warte in balanc
ing inventories during the last six
months, represents one of tht most
far reaching developments for the
benefit of California agriculture.
•j he policy of cash p«yni*n>s to grow
er* for their grap** will ot course
be continued."

Dl Giorgio paid tribute to Presi
dent L. M. Ginninni and other of
ficers of the Bank of America.

"\v.!h their farsighted leadership
jn financing the Industry and with
y-^a fi»e cooperation of'a jcore and

y-^a
a ti

fi»e co
alf of

grower 'minded w;

concerns," he saW, "we now have
available adequate finance*, mpptox-
jSo.OOO.fXXTTind during the

ag public a wide variety of
grade vintage wine* in th«
future.

"Equally Important are «thei Fifth -Provide the grower* addi-lnexl tw«nty months we have ^very
ilan* stUl In the process « negoj t[onal outletg-. frea»on to believe v. e wiU b« si>c-

•stion, "ystallued I. : a , ™l~£ sixth-Provide storage »ufrk-ient|.essful in putting into effect con-

•po that the crushing of grape* <-an§structive policies many of us have

done more ra^ldijr Growers
lus will
peir g;
an a

that
|pes de!
c mature

._ J at Central California Wineries,
Inc., together with a (trie* of con*

fences between the management.]
CCW and the financial agencies7 1
Headed b» the Rank of

een hoping and working for «ver
ine* repeal."

Loaned By

Critchfield was loaned to CCW by
he Bank of America. Commenting
n today's announcement h» said;

Group Buy
lartini Kingsburg Plant

nils expanded program willll
nil out the plans developed by'|
nber wineries of CCW when thej

inizatinn \vi. • conceived and PS-'
lished las- full «•> avoid th«' '-ha-:
• tfraatlfln W-irh then trueat-;
J.- the grape industry and the|
wers with prospects that grapes]
lid seii as low as from S3 to $5
in.

One of CCW's primnr-' nbj«ctiv«l
I to provide a cy-i' n rk t for'
pen. During the d":Afi> srason
wer- vote paid in fuU eac-h week)
men:- avrapme frrrm $11 to $1"
•Y^ Under 1M- expanded pro-;
•j the I--, -mi '.vflfare of th
pe gr<;'*- Will ' H suhstnnt
B in «-t- ••' t« i s'ntiilize t
Barul •*<•- ! durtns th

1 f * '

BWies

^^ com-

l^p> i*K*c»re of the
•ge tOTmaR" in "

Not Renirirted I •> Members
*0ur fae.'.itics for storing, aging
d blending of wine will not nece—
fjjy be restricted to member j'
but will be available to]
Ii>. fart s number of thej
» [dependent, wineries arel

'•templatinR participation -
th CCW in a national sales pro-
un."

With the **> of th-- Kings-ijurg
BSt wa- understood that Martini
H devo' h,< efforts to the ron-
Hjed development and merchan-
ilng of t K>I gra'ie dry wines in
I Napa Val'ey \v-ere he has ex-j
bve vir.ev&rd interests and up'
date cellars.

Other Of V • rr» and officers
Uve in handling the negotiations!

• J. B. Gundert, vlqj prcii4<inl
•CCW, former pre :(•••.!( . of the)
irnif? and Men-Hunt -i Rank a^t
A and president of. the .TOOO.OOT't
lion Acampo Winery at. Lodi '
tfRes nubhf, president of the Altai
Bjfy »nd Distillery at Dinuba.j
fti. K. V. i!d, attorney «nd CCW|
li«or.

Member* Are I i.t<<d i

Other rr/irnb' v .i.eries are Ear!
•alt CompatM 11- • Wallace Wine-j
" Delan» " la ' W .-:•--> Com-!
Tularr; A a Wine;; '

Dinu^a; '-'. ueorge, San Joa-|
Fresno: California Winerie^
and Crestview.'1
Mo'ello Winery,
Bro?., Kscalon;

«., Wuhtf'ke: F::i/inettl, Florin
Bipo am. : :' - 'M; Colonie)

.pe Prod .. ; v. ] ..k • 4\'e,
Iher wine ind :str,. ^ todi*

as foiiows:

• B. C>11«. president of !. •
tat Comp^r,;. : Our company ' -
tjvely pari:,--;iaip'i with the inri
^and \vitii i' e few gro«!p in
•IJKative program to st

dUltry and hr'ins bettev ,
•growers. \Ve»re;lated
Sanded program and extend n;u-
flgrai'i'.ations on its concur, ma
in. Inder the able management
.Calvin !,. K- -sell and Kiirke
ichfieid it Is sure to surreed. i

S. W. ^Tarkleroad, president
\V!ne Ingf <ute an1 general
grr of Man*! Winrries— The _. ,,
Company and ourselves kn«w thai
this anno-^nfmenf marks 'he b*
ginning of a new- rhapf in lh"
progressive d''.ei :>ntent ot the Ca! .
ifornia win* I is!. »ss It means ad#
ed prospei '\ i: »verv < ommunit
where g;apes arv jr

Termed Forward "-»»-p

Frank Gianni^ni president of Ihe
Tulsre Winery Company— This is a
great forward Mep in a struggle
ai-iinst h*avy odds to rebuild the
v.ne bus!t;e«- of Central California.
^Krarn means great
r n/resi! fir the grape and wine in-
C. '•-•"

ihek. eashler, Farmers *

]Wf '-'-., nvs Bank of Lorii— This Is

th<- bisccst thing in the industry

F-, •• repeal. Through the added fa-

ri'-.tips made )>o«=ib;e by present fi-

nancinc. far tin «r wines will be

lilv to 'he consumer in the

-. This will broaden our mar-

U-ts ".nd. coincini-g as it does with

the $2.000.C:On ii ^-isiry advertising

program, it will 5. t the wine busi-

again on B solid foundation.

This will bring prosperity to Lodi

Pj\ri all other wine producing com-

rn'initie?."

A. R. Morrow, vice president of
Kruit Industries and chairman of
the hoard of Wine InMimte— This
Is not only good news 10 the win*.
industry which has been struggling
«"<;r since repeal to establish itself.
on a sound basis, but it will he
equally good news to the trade.
There is a constantly growing mar
ket for better wines and the fact
that <>ie industry as « whole i"
launching Into a program of matur-|
Ing and aging i'.s nrod.K-ts should!
bring about !n<-: "a.-.ed consumption
of our wines wi:h b'-fter prices thin
hav<- pr»vai!~d :n 'he j-ast wh-n
unme of 'if '.rventories were «o
\vrnk'' held that they served to de
press the whole niarke'

.7. V. Bare, Lodi distri « vintn*r--
•This marks the beginning of great
forward strides jn the production o'
vintage wines and In the develnr-
ment. of grenter markets for Califoj-
nia varietif?. It is of vital import
ance to growers and should be of
great benefit to all frape growing
romjrt1 nines.

A. S-trakiar '•'«! 'ornia Growers
Coopp' stive W .< -y - I have been
ndvo'-attng an -nrtust-y stabilization j
program 1*' *»««. "'his Is a great,
- for tr.» s s-je E.rowe--s and for
ine tn.-iii'5tr>. W» owe a debt ofj
Rra'i'iirie t-i the Bank of America;
and others for p'ovMing the lead-j
*rsh!p and fh** '^ran'.ng which hasj
made thi^ ' • .->.

Home Economics Unit
Tu'lare

HELEf

HELENA, \AVA <;OUNTY. < AUFOJ

—.—~*m—m—m— ——*-**

•

Greystone winery, which has been

wirii rip.-, located in the important grapi
soW by Bank of America, ~.vhJc!i recenl

In an exclusive release to the Star
[yesterday, ;-';ile of the Greystone

ry. ;it St. Ht-l"::a's Northern vrtv
Ihmlts, v.-: y annuunc::d by

I Central California Wineries, which
aiquired the big pUint from ISanK oL ,
America. CCW, a non-profit eorror- '
ion, opornting >vith a membership
lot 19 wiihiics located in thr> prinoi- .
J vinta.;-' )'' ' trio S! ne, is

Ifieaded bv f'nivin itussell. president,
and B. H vice p'x-sident

tr.d g£."v.-

"T5fe>- ••• "^-ilt 'i the

^.ale. will i fCDinc- ;: ren'. ral point lor

I CCW's dry vine- O.iv^i'in .:id op-

;(jns, wiiikini; vvitli ihc 19 other

units and .:iii/.;.-tii>n's 'listtih-1

f.tihg plan' in the East. Kiiie old

stocks ot ; .iMd S-inoma county

c"ry wines, rKiw ageing in the ^ak

I casks, as well ^ the agem.7 t'in-

' nels of Greystoticr \vcrc also pur-

I chased by CC\V. The grouo v.ill

now be in poyi1 >n to acquire a se-

Ice ted inventory of Sonoma and Men-

i dcrino county wines, from other

; wineries m the district, as well as

(crushing a large amount of grapes

ithis Fall.

Gr«
2,000,
plateil
t,alloj
ir.sUU

\vas

V l.i)

yea*
i edtt

the d||
r.iercl

tages..

ELENA^SfA

XU'A ( 01 VI V. < 'AIJFOIJMA. ri{IJ>AV. APRIL 1I>, I'.MO

Changes Owners

Greystone winery, which ha^ he- n |,i;,vi:avrd :.y Central C';.h*i.»'->ia V'.neries, non-profit organization of 19

wincne..;. located in the imonrhiiit prape grooving regions of the 3!.;-.;e. The famous old show place was

ik of Americn, -vh'ch recently inquired the property. Star Photoengraving.

In ; ii xe'.usive release to the Slar
:ni t\ side ill' the Gn:vst'-ne
i; ' I's NV'trif, n •. ;;.v
its. : illy annuuiic-.:d ay

ntral Cal -.111111:1 Wineries, which
quired th- big plan! from Hank 01
ineru-.-j ( C'.V, a non-profit rort-or-
tion, uj-'Cr. tint^ \vith a membership
19 wi. < . located in thr prirv-i-
1 vinti •.<• ', . , in> of the .Si-ue, is
aded i • i Hassell. preside-nt.

d B^ 1 1 i . it ->'i< 1:1, vice preside!.'.
d J[en<

Grey i if :'•• th- Vi^iilt • '.' the
le, will :.(••• mile- a central point l,ir
.'W's ii • .vine division iind op-
.ing with the i9 ot'u r
knits and 'h- organization's distub-
uting plan- in the East. Fiae old
stocks of Na;>a and Sonoma county
dry wines IK v ageing in the oak
casks, as well as the agein? t".R-
nel? of G: cy-ton .;. were also pur
chased by CCVV. The group v/iil
now be in position to acquire a se
lected inver.tory of Sonoma and Men-
docino county wines, from other
Wineries in the district, as well ns
crushing 3 large amount of grapes
this Fall.

Greystone cellar has a capacity of
2,000,000 gallons, and it is <•, ntem-
ploted ttiat an additional 1.000,000
gallons of storage cooperage may b-j
installed.

01 the 2,000,000 gallons o: pn

cooperage, some 700,000 is line on I.

ige for which the old winery

V.MS Ion? famed. BiM-cglia B:othe.-s,

v. h-> purchased the plant some nine

yer.o ago. added 1,000.000 gallons of

r>od cooperage, which, with n.is-

ieous storage, makfs up the

pn ent capacity. Also included ii.

the deal is the still for making com-

r.:< i.'ial brandy.

Greystone will cooperate v ith
<Mher extensive dry wine wineries
in the campaign, to popularize and
increase sales of ' quality table vin
tages. Entrance of CCW into the
dry wine field is certain to exercise
a stabilizing influence on the indus
try, leaders are agreed, inasmuch :;s
tht lM"it will act as a storage res-
ervoiwfor wines made by smaller
lu-od«:ers of the dry wine area.
Throfgh this holding capacity, a
dampening effrrt upon price fluc-
tuat;ons Is exp*ct d resultin" in pr>r-

(ti-. ular benelit to smaller predi.
Another. ;ind equally ii- -
J; etor, is' the decisum to make iiic
i. la winery once again a show plain
who will be ta!%en
•i iiHigli !he plant and shown how
St. Helena's vvoi'ld famous vjiii
. are made.

Greystone has an interesting iis i
h-ry. Built by the late W. B. Bourn ;
land FArrett V*i.-.o. in the late '80* •
in the heyday of the old wine indus
try, it was later acquired by the late
: Charles Carpy, and subsequently
! .era ted by Carpy, as head of the old
i California Wine Association, Near1
the end of the prohibition period it
was bough' by Bisceglia Brother:., j
, v ho operated other enterprises in i
San Jose. It was long known as the
largest stone winery in the world,
j and the largest under one roof. No
. change in personnel is contemplated
! by the new owners, it was reported.
Russell end Critchfield were Jn
I St. Helena last Saturday to inspect
i the property. CCW, of which the
I two men are the heads, recently
j bought the Martini plant in the S-in |
Joaquin valley.

Lite
New Community Plan

GroWer memb H of the Com-' ^atically pays back th* loan a
mumty Grape Corporation are -' me sale, «mjd

enthusiastic .bout t,e new man-,
cing plan whereby $18 cash |l

vances P« tor. will be mad e th,, , Uhate
'.fall by the biK cooperative. W. A., m all
, Spooner, secretary man.g-rf -

^
f()rmt, fjnancia, af.

and declared that
^^ ^j CQ.

a ^ Berkeley

agency onJy h,r-

ca. Under

ic- level ex-

indic;(1

transaction auto- i justified.

August 13, 1937

Comr.unity Grape Corporation - Lodi Branch
Secured commitment $-575, 000

The Sub-Committee of the General Finance Committee
approved of a commitment of $575,000 to the Community Grape
Corporation to be utilized approximately as follows:

Advances of 20^ a gallon on old wine of
approximately 650,000 gallons - $130,000

Advances of 50^ per proof gallon for old
Commercial Brandy in new oak cooperate - 30,000

Advances of 20^ a gallon on 1937 vintage

sweet wine on approximately- 1,750,000

gallons - 375,000

Advances of 50^ a gallon on 1937 distilla
tion Commercial Brandy in new oak cooperage
on approximately 75,000 gallons - 37,500

Total $572,500

Upon receiving proper authority from the borrower, wine may
be released to the Fruit Industries, Ltd. sublet to receiving an assign
ment of tne proceeds thereof from the borrower accepted by Fruit Industries,
Ltd. The old sweet wine is to be released upon payment of 20^ a gallon
for 1937 vintage on the basis of '&£ a gallon. All brandy is to be released
on the basis of 60f^ per proof gallon. It is understood that Fruit Indust
ries, Ltd. is to remit to the Bank the full proceeds or sui sales and thai
v: t excels ever and above the release value is to be credited to the bor-
rcwers account.

This loan is to be further secured ty an assignrent of the
proceeds to be derived froin the sale of wine and brandy now held by Fruit
Industries, Ltd. having a value of approximately £275,000.

San Francisco Chronicle
October 24, 1970

CRITCHFIILD. Burin Heraee • In
St. Helena. Oct. t3. 1970. Burke
Horace Critchfield. loving hue-
band of Helen B. Critchfield.
brother of Harry Critchfield of St.
Helena. Catherine Edwards of
Baytown. Texas: also survived bv
numerous nieces and nephews: a
native of North Dakota, aoed 82
years; vice president of the Bank
of America of San Francisco for
many veers.

Services will be held Monday.
Oct. 26. at 2 p.m.. at the MORRI
SON FUNERAL CHAPEL. St. He
lena. Inurnment. Mountain Virw
Cemetery, Oakland. ._ ._

Oakland Tribune
October 27, 1970

Services Held for
B. H. Critchfielcf

Funerat services were held centege of the grape crop mto
in St. Helena yesterday for a storage commodity, grape
Burke H. Critchfield, 82, for
mer Bank of America vice
president and operator of a
tree farm near St. Helena,

brandy, thereby avoiding de
struction of almost -half the
crop and providing growers
with a financial return. i

who died last Friday after a After retiring from the'
brief illness. Otfr. «•*, /f ?o Bank of America, Btr ditch-
Following graduation from field developed a n a i 1 -I e s s:
North Dakota State Universi
ty, Mr. CritchfieW began a

long and distinguished career

grain storage bin during-
World WarE to save on criti
cal materials needed in the

in banking, agricultural eco- war effort. His bins provided
nomics and government serv- storage for more than 25 mil-
ice. H« worked for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture be
fore joining the Bank of

lion bushels of grain in the
wheat belt.

A resident of Berkeley for

America in 1927. more than 20 years, Mr.

During the depression he Critchfield p u r c h a s e d the
helped save California grape Glass Mountain Ranch on the
and

growers and wineries from
suffering great financial loss
es by working with industry
representatives in financing a
program to save the grape
crop. Under his leadership,
Mr. Critchfield organized a
program to divert a large per-

Silverado Trail north of St.
Helena in 1953 where be estab
lished the Critchfield Tree
Farm and Nursery, where
customers could cut their own
trees. He sold the tree farm in
1965.

He was a member of the
Scottish Rite Bodies of Fargo,
North Dakota, the alumni as
sociation of North Dakota
State .University and the Uni
versity of Minnesota, where
be did graduate work. He also
belonged to the Common
wealth Club of San Francisco.

He is survived by his wid
ow, Helen B. Critehfield, of St.
Helena; a "brother, Harry- M.
Critchfield also of St. Helena;' ,
a sister, Mrs. Catherine L.
Edwards of Baytown, ^Rfexas;-
He also leaves several nieces
and nephews, including Burke
M. Critchfield, an attorney
and ThomasQ. Critdtfteld, a-
dentist, bett'of Ltvettaore;:
William Critcnflekt of Berke-'
ley and Mrs. Efizabeth Hernr
of Orinda.

Services were held at the-
Morrison Funeral Chapel ji
St. Helena.

Carl Wente
Photograph courtesy of Bank of America Archives

Carl P. Wente was born into a prominent California
wine making family on March 27, 1889. He was the son of
Carl H. Wente, who established the winery near Livermore,
and the brother of Herman L. and Ernest A. Wente, who
continued it under the name Wente Bros. An account of the
winery is given in the interview in this series with Ernest
A. Wente, WINE MAKING IN THE LIVERMORE VALLEY.

Carl P. Wente became a banker, his special field being
agricultural economics. He served as president of the Bank
of America from 1952 until his retirement in 195^» and as
chairman of the executive committee until 1963.

When representatives of the Regional Oral History Office
talked with Mr. Wente in 1968, asking advice on the wine
industry series and discussing a projected series on
California agricultural economics, he suggested that Burke
H. Critchfield be among the interviewees. Because of that
suggestion, and because it was the intention of this office
to interview Carl P. Wente himself, the following speech on
the economics of the grape and wine industry is included as
a supplement to Mr. Critchfield1 s interview. Mr. Wente died
on February 1,

ECONOMICS OP GHAPS GROWING IN CALIFORNIA, 1918-19^2

Remarks of Carl Wente, retired President, Bank of America
Livefmore Wine Week Dinner, October 2^t 1962~~

Generally, when a speaker appears before a trade or
industry group, .he tells his audience what they would like to
hear. It pleases them and it makes the speaker feel good too.
Generally too, he is prone to tell them how successful their
organization has been and paints a glowing picture .of its future.
Today I am going to somewhat reverse the usual trend. I am not
going to tell you how well you have individually or collectively
done, nor will I forecast your future. I simply thought that I
would review the past-
It has been said that when a man reminisces, that's a sign
that he is growing old. I'm aware of that and I hope you won't
feel that I am purely reminiscing. I thought that a look back
into the history of grare growing in California since 1918 might
be interesting, particularly to those of you who shared in the
two severe depressions and some of the boom years in between and
following them.

Just to set the stage, I would like to remind you that the
18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was
ratified in January 1919 and prohibited the manufacture, sale
and transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes.
This law was repealed in 1933.

When this law became effective, the wineries in the state
naturally had to close up and go out of business. That still
left the wine grapes. What to do with them was a. problem.
There was a quirk in the law that permitted the householder to
make 200 gallons of wine for his own use and consumption. As
roughly 85^ of all grapes in U.S. were raised in California, it
appeared that this "home brew" wine would take care of the
California wine grape cron. Host of the market for wine grapes
was in the eastern states where the heavy wine-drinking population,
who were of European extraction, lived. As grapes had to be of
a tough skinned variety to stand this long 3000 mile trip, many
of varieties grown in California could not be shipped. Thousands
of acres of beautiful white grapes were pulled out, as such
varieties could not be shipped. The owners got nothing in the
way of compensation for their losses. The wineries that folded
up, sold their machinery and equipment for junk. Terrific losses

were taken. The growers of that day had not learned how to run
to Washington and ask for helr>. California, tinder today's
version, might well have been declared a disaster area.

Those growers who had black wine graces and particularly
those with tough black skins found that the Eastern demand was
strong for their crops. Some white varieties that would ship
and could be mixed with the dark juice blacks were likewise in
demand at better prices than the wineries in California had
paid. In the boom years of 1920 and 1921 following World War I,
raisin graces and fresh table grapes felt the effects of
Prohibition wine demand, and as a result all prices on such
varieties went up. Raisin prices that had been less than $100
per ton before the war started now found ready sale at about
$300 per ton.

What generally happens when fruit prices go sky rocketing,
happened in the San Joaquin Valley where most of the shipping
wine grapes and raisin grapes were grown. First the grape men
increased their plantings. By the time that the war was over
the raisin grape acreage had. increased from about 100,000 acres
to about 200,000 and the tonnage had gone up to about a million
tons, or double pre-war tonnage.

The main acreage was in Thompson seedless, as this variety
grow fast and on most any kind of land that water could be put
on. Everybody got in on the act. Everybody suddenly found he
could or thought he could, get rich on raising raisins. Doctors,
grocers, professional men and white collar workers got themselves
a vineyard. All you had to do was to get a piece of land, put
in a well and pump and plant the cuttings. And for awhile, you
could sell the newly planted vineyard at a handsome profit.
Fortunes were made in a few years, and you didn't have to wait
for many crops to d.o it, that is in some cases. But the day of
reckoning came too soon! Before I get too far along let me
relate to you an experience I had along this line with one of
these hoped to get rich growers.

I was in the bank one day when a doctor customer told, me
he needed some money and would like a mortgage loan. On
questioning him I learned, that two years before he had purchased.
80 acres of land and had planted it to Thompsons. I had him
give the legal description and location of the property. That
evening after closing time I drove out to see the vineyard. The
land had not been too well levelled and had. some streaks of
rather coarse sand running across it. The vines had mostly all
taken root but had made a very uneven growth. My inclination
was to reject the loan, but due to the fact that the applicant
was one of our bost customers, I decided to talk to the Chairman

of our Advisory 3oard. He was a retired farmer and had success
fully farmed in the County for years. I asked him if he would,
go with me to look at the doctor's vineyard and see if he
couldn't find an appraisal that would .justify a loan. So out
we went and we walked over the vineyard. When we got back to
the car, the Chairman stood there on one foot kicking the dirt.
So I asked him what about it. He said, "No." "Why" says I.
"Well, sir," says he, "if this vineyard had a shower of rain
and a shower of manure every other day, it would still never
make a vineyard." No loan! And before long, no vineyard!

When the fight was on in 1918 before the election to vote
on Prohibition, wineries and grape growers did all in their
means to bring about a favorable vote of the electorate. I can
recall how large signs were placed in wine grape vineyards
facing the roads which read: "This vineyard will be destroyed
by Prohibition." Nevertheless the grape men lost. Apparently
the saloon haters and the "prohibes" were more persuasive with
the public. It was a great day for Carrie Nation and her
temperance workers.

While practically all of the wine grapes in the Livermore
Valley were pulled out, the growers in San Joaquin Valley
prospered. Many vineyards there before the war and before
Prohibition could have been bought for around $100 per acre,
or at about what the bare land was worth. The same property in
1921 was sold for 1500 per acre and went still higher in some
areas. By 1923 it was not an uncommon experience to sell the
vineyard for $1000 per acre. The purchaser could go to an
Eastern grape buyer and get an advance of up to $200 to $250
per acre, secured, by a contract on next year's crop and use the
money to make a down payment on the purchase t>rice of the
property. I saw a lot of deals of this kind made. It seemed
fantastic but property changed hands at these prices. Remember
income taxes then were not what they are today and. most of the
profit that was made was kept by the seller.

Along in August the Eastern buyers would show up and wander
around the wine grape districts. Fresno and. Modesto were the
headquarters for these men. They were, may I say, an odd group.
Some used, their own money to buy grapes or had connections back
East from which to draw on. Only a few had an office or a place
of business. In Modesto, the lobby of the hotel was the head
quarters of these buyers. A carload of grapes would be packed
and loaded and an Order Bill of Lading would be issued to the
buyer. Then the active trading started. The car might have
been billed to Pittsburgh but the final buyer would have it
rerouted to New York City or some other final distination. Most
of these transactions were completed in the hotel lobby or on a

street corner. Papers were passed and the sale generally
finalized in the bank under a letter of credit, with draft
drawn under it, accompanied by the Bill of Lading. This kind
of trading was booming in 1920, 1921 and 1922. A bad break in
the market came in 1923 and gradually got worse and never did
recover. The Eastern buyers, these lobby-street corner traders,
left town and did not return. The selling of grapes, of course,
did continue but along the orthodox method.

Vfhile the Post War I boom lasted, the usual prosperity
signs prevailed. In those days around Fresno, the newly rich
man wore a silk shirt and he generally drove a Cadillac. New
clubs and hotels were built, as were many beautiful homes on
farms and vineyards. Stores did a flourishing business and
money flowed like water and everybody had it.

Let me just give you an example of what dollars a vineyard
could produce. I recall a twenty-acre vineyard near Exeter
planted to Alicantes. The crop was sold for cash. There were
twelve tons per acre and they were sold roadside at $80. It
was not unusual at all to sell the crop on the vines for $500
acre vineyard run, which meant that the crop was not graded
before weighing.

Table grapes also felt the general boost in grape prices.
Emperor vineyards in the Dinuba district sold for as much as
$2500 per acre. In a few cases, depending on location and
improvements, price per acre was even higher. The same vine
yards after the big bust in 1925 and 1926 could be bought for
$250 to $300 per acre. The improvements alone were trorth more
than the sales nrice. But what is a fine dwelling worth on 80
acres of vineyard, that will not pay for the care of the land?

You may wonder what the banks or insurance companies did
who may have had loans on these properties. I know what the
Bank of America did because I was in charge of some of these
valley banks. And I also know what most of the so-called
independent banks did because I had the job of cleaning up
after they could no longer stand the strain and they asked us
to take them over. A few of these banks were sold but most of
them were rescued by the Bank of America, converted to branches,
upon our agreement to pay depositors in full. How do I know?
I vaa dere, Cholly.

Before we get too far along, let me tell you about some
of the community efforts that were made to prevent a bust or
to salvage a situation. Following the boom days of the early
1920s, the raisin growers needed help. The California Associated
Raisin Conroany, which had. been a successful cooperative, had.

gotten itself into financial difficulty, apparently figuring
that high prices and prosperity would last forever. The banks,
who were the largest creditors to the tune of some $8-1/2 million,
agreed to malce further advances and save a bust if the Co-op
were reorganized. This was done and Sun Maid Raisin Growers
was the succeeding company. To keep the growers tied in, a
campaign was put on in the valley to not only keep the members
of the old Go-op but get all raisin growers to join. Management
felt that as long as this was a co-op, a better sales job could
be done if most of the tonnage was controlled. Sun Maid Growers
is still operating.

While all this was going on, the vines that had been planted
a few years before now were in full bearing and more raisins
were made than could be marketed. So another effort was made
by the growers. California Vineyardists Association was organized
in 1926. This organization was to assist growers in the problem
of overproduction and. aid in the orderly marketing of fresh
grapes. A part of the scheme was to let about half of the croD
hang on the vines.. This idea did not materialize as only about
6Q% of the growers signed up. Apparently the grape men felt
that it was a good idea not to pick the Cranes if they could
not be sold but they cooled off when some of their granes were
to be left hanging.

And so things rocked along until 1933 when the Prohibition
Act was repealed. What wineries were left were not in good
physical shape and lacked good management. It was almost 15
years since these wineries were in business. A few had made
sacramental wines and some others were alleged to be operated
by bootleggers. In any event, the wineries were not properly
equipped, nor did they have the best kind of grapes to crush.
Most of the graces available were of the kind that shipped well
to the East but would not make the fine quality wines California
had been famed for. Wine under ordinary conditions requires
some years of aging. However, with Repeal came a demand for
wine, and new wines were dumned onto an eager market.

Now that Prohibition no longer prevailed, and wine making
was a legal business, and good grapes scarce, the planting of
wine grapes was a natural sequence. When the 1938 cron season
came in sight, it looked like a million ton crush. Growers,
vintners and bankers again got together and evolved a scheme
to prevent some of this excess tonnage from going into wine. It
was agreed that 55$ of the crush, for which the growers were to
receive $15 per ton, was to be earmarked for wine. ^% was to
go into brandy and high-proof spirits, and. for this portion the
grower would receive ^12.50. The thinking here was that brandy
and spirits could be held in warehouses and, unlike wine,
without handling would improve with age while awaiting a favorable
time to sell.

Again the Bank of America took a lead in this scheme, not
only in management but in financing it. We loaned, about 36
million while the HFC and other banks put up about 1-1/2 million.
•The Bank of America and Security First National, Los Angeles,
each had charged, off ^1 million on the raisin loan. Such losses
are not soon forgotten. I might add that this d.eal showed a
good profit when the brandy and spirits were sold out in 19^2.
Not only that but the -pi 5 price the grower got would probably
have been $3 to $5 1* there had been no plan.

In the fall of 1939 it again looked like a big crop coming
on. It was obvious that with the brandy deal only one year old
it could not be repeated so soon. A few of the smaller wineries
who were under-financed had to dump their wine to get money.
Some of their neighbors felt that this raw, unaged wine would
hurt their sales. They proposed to the Bank of America that
this group form a co-op called Central California Wineries,
which the bank could finance, and then this would, put them in
a position to compete with their larger competitors. This would
enable the Central California Wineries to pay the growers a
decent price and to hold the wine which might otherwise be
dumped before it was ready for market. Again the Bank of
America put up most of the $4- million necessary to launch this
venture.

Before the C.C.W. started buying, grapes sold for $6, and
with the C.C.W. paying $8 to '$11 per ton, the price climbed to
§15. Naturally to carry and age the wine the Bank had to advance
another $4 million. Some of the non-members, jealous of the
growers and vintners in the co-op, complained of price fixing.
The Department of Justice in Washington was prepared to serve
papers on officers of the C.C.W. and the Bank for an anti-trust
suit. Then Schenley Distilleries bought a couple of C.C.W.
wineries and the government case fell on its face. 'The bank's
help to the wine industry during that critical period has not
been forgotten. The big wineries and. most of the others are
Bank of America customers.

Let me say here that in the coast counties when Prohibition
struck there were many small wineries operating. Some of them
owned vineyards but the bulk of the grapes were produced by
mostly small growers who sold their crops to the local wineries.
Most of these growers had no other crop, and when the wineries
closed there was no other market for their specialty grapes and
with most of the vines pulled they had little income. The
Livermore Valley growers did. not fare as well as the San Joaquin
Valley growers. With no irrigation, and. most of the land, rolling
hill land, with the vines off, the land reverted to grain or
pasture. What was a flourishing business, not only for the
people who were directly interested, but for the Valley generally,
was gone overnight.

Now when I think back and remember how raisin grape
acreages went from $150 and $250 per acre up to $2000 and back
down again to around |200 — all in a ten-year period; when I
knew a vineyard that netted the owner an annual return of over
$100,000 for five or six years, and then saw the land sold for
$50,000; when I smelled beautiful Emperor grapes fermenting on
the vines in the fall of 192^ because there was no market; when
honest growers borrowed on their lands and then offered deeds
if the Bank would release them of their obligations; when I
recall all these things and review the ups and down, I am glad
I was there, but I can't help but wonder if history will repeat
itself again. I don't think so. I don't want to experience it
again.

And if any of you present growers think you have r>roblems,
cheer up and be thankful that you were growers in the last 25
years, which r>eriod was a Sunday School nicnic compared to the
1920*8.

San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, February 3, 1971

Noted Civic Leader

Banker Carl F. Wente Dies at 81

Carl F. Wentc, an interna
tionally - known banker and
San Francisco civic leader,
died Monday at his home, 60
Normandie terrace.

Mr. Wente, retired presi
dent of the Bank of America,
was 81.

Private funeral services
were held yesterday after
noon.

A native of Livermore, Mr.
Wente began his banking ca-
eer as a messenger with the
Central Bank of Oakland on
April 1, 1907. The next year
he joined the First National
Bank of Livermore, staying
there until joining the Bank
of America (then known as
the Bank of Italy) in 1918.

He became president of the
First National Bank of Ne
vada in 1934 and three years
later returned to the Central
Bank of Oakland as presi-
:dent.

BANKING

Mr. Wente returned to the
Bank of America as senior
vice president in 1943 and
served as president from
1952 until his retirement in
1954.

Although a member of the
family, Mr. Wente had no
connection with the opera
tions of the Wente Brothers
winery.

He once said: "My father
always said he wanted one
son to be in the wine business

CARL F. WENTE
63 Yeart in finance

and one to be a banker. I'm
the banker."

Mr. Wente was extremely
interested in youth and de
voted much of his time to Ju
nior Achievement and Boy
Scouting. In 1954 he was
awarded the Silver Antelope,
scouting's highest award for
service to boyhood.

He served as president of
the State Chamber of Com
merce in 1954 and 1955.

Mr. Wente's wife of 55
years, Jessie, died last July.
ACTIVITIES

After his retirement from
the presidency of the largest
bank in the world, Mr. Wente
busied himself with a variety

of civic activities, in addition
to his work with youth.

In 1961 he served as chair
man of the Mayor's Commit
tee for Municipal Manage
ment. In 1955 he received a
special Treasury Department
citation for his work as vol
unteer chairman of the Unit
ed States Savings Bonds pro
gram in California.

In business activities after
leaving the bank, Mr. Wente
served as a director of Fore
most Dairies, Inc., Pacific
Gas and Electric Company
and Fireman's Fund Insur
ance Company.

Mr. Wente was appointed
to the State Fish and Game
Commission by the then -
Governor Earl Warren in
1950, and reappointed 101955
by Governor Goodwin J.
Knight.

He served as a commis
sioner on that body . until
1961.

GROWTH ••

Mr. Wente was a lecturer
in management at the Gold
en Gate College, and had
been a substantial financial
contributor to the institution.

A man of vision, Mr. Wente
predicted in 1954 that Califor
nia would be the largest state
in the nation in population by
1970. He said the state, with
a population in 1954 of 12.5
million, would have 21 mil
lion by 1970, and he was not
far off the mark. California's

population is expected to b«
20,218,000 by July 1.

At tiie Bank of. America,
Mr. Wente had actually re
tired at age 60, in 1949, as
senior vice president. But in
1952 he was called out of re
tirement to become president
on the death of L. M. Gianni-
nl.

Always interested in all as
pects of life in San Francis
co, Mr. Wente served for sev
eral years as chairman of
the board of trustees of the
San Francisco Bureau of
Governmental Research.

"All San Franciscans have
suffered a loss in the death of
Carl Wente," Mayor Joseph
L. Alioto said last night. "He
was a dynamic force in the
building of the Bank of
America and the economic
growth of our city.

"His personal activities
reached beyond the business
community to numerous con
servation programs and to
youth service organizations,
where he is fondly remem
bered," Alioto said.

Mr. Wente is survived by
his sisters, Mrs. George F.
Tubbs and Mrs. Edwin Hage-
marm, and a brother, Ernest
H. Wente — who operates the
winery — all of Livermore.

INDEX — Burke H. Critchfield - Carl Wente

Acampo Winery & Distilleries, Inc., xii, 37, 38, 55

Adams, Leon, 49

Adams , R. L. , 3

Agnew and Voechel, 19

Alioto, Joe [Joseph L. ], 44

Almaden [Winery] , 42

Alta Winery & Distillery, 3?, 55

Anti-trust action threat, xiv-xvii

Baccigaluppi , Harry, 12

Bank of America, iii-xvii, 8-63 passim

Barbieri, Henolds, 34

Bare, J. V., ix, x

Barengo , Dino , 38

Barlotti, James A., vi

Beaulieu [Vineyard], 12, 13, 51

Benoist, Louis A., 4-2

Bentley, Robert I., 6

Beringer Bros. , 16

Berkeley Bank for Co-Operatives, viii, x, 27

Biddle, Francis, xiv-xv, 52

Bisceglia, Alphonse, 39-40

Bisceglia Bros. Wine Co., xii, 28, 3?, 39, 55

Blauer, William E. , 25

brandy, x, 15-16, 22, 23, 26, 2?, 35, 45, 61-62

Caddow, Harry, 49, 51

California Associated Raisin Co., 60-61

California Fruit Exchange, 7, 9

California Grape Products, 12

California Grape Prorate, 14

California Lands [Inc.], 32, 33

California Packing Corporation, 6

California State Chamber of Commerce, vi, vii

California State Department of Agriculture, 2, 3, 18

California State Division of Markets, 4

California Vineyardists* Association, 10, 61

California Wine Association, 21, 22

Canners League of California, 4, 6, 7, 14

Capital Company, xiv, xvi, 32

Capper, Senator [Arthur], 43

C.C.W., see Central California Wineries, Inc.

Cella, John Battista, 28, 32, 43

Cellar, Emanuel, vi, xiv

Central California Wineries, Inc., ill, xi-xvii, 1?, 23, 26,

2?, 29-48, 62

Central Winery, Inc., xii, xvi, 37> 55
Christian Brothers, 26, 41-42

Colonial Grape Products Co. of California, 37 » 55
Community Grape Corporation, viii-x, 26-27
Conn, Donald, 9-10, 49
Cresta Blanca [Winery] , 33
Crest View Winery, 37, 55
Cribari, Angelo, 25
Cribari, Louis, 24
Critchfield, Mrs. Bruke H. , v
Critchfleld, Burke M. , v

Daniel, John, Jr., 48

Da Roza Winery, 37, 55

de Latour, Georges, 51

Di Giorgio Fruit Corporation, 30, 37, 38, 40, 55

Di Giorgio [Joseph], xii, xiii, 40-41, 42

Dunn, William T. , 47

Dunning, Allen, 30

Earl Fruit Company, xii

East Side Winery, 27

18th Amendment, 57 (See Prohibition)

Erdman, Henry E. , 3

Evans , Reuben , 9

Farm Credit Administration, 8

Farmers & Merchants Bank, Lodi, 38

Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, v, 8, 9

Federated Growers, 6

Franzia Bros. Winery, 37, 38, 55

Frasinetti, J. & Son, 37, 55

Frericks, Andrew G. [Andy], 19, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 46

Fresno Winery, Inc., 37, 55

Fruit Industries, ix, 9, 10, 13, 27, 33

Fulton Co-op, 27

Gallo [E. & J. Gallo Winery], 30
Gallo, Ernest, 21-22, 30
Gallo, Julio, 21-22

Garrett & Company, vii

Garrett, Paul, vii, xi

Gaumnitz, Ed, 4-4

Giannini Agricultural Foundation, v

Giannini, A. P., iii, v-vii, xi, 11, 12, 13, 18, 20, 22, 2

25, 33, 3^, 36, 4-0, 4-6-4?, 48, 4-9
Giannini, Prank, 23, 24, 28, 29, 31
Giannini, Mario [L.M.], 8, 10, 11, 13, 22, 33, 34-, 35, 36,

37, 39, *K), 41, 4-3, 46-4?, 4-8
Gock, A. J. , xii
Golan, Louis [Lon] , xiii, 4-2, 4-6
grain storage bins, 4-2-4-3, 4-6
Grape Products Company, 40

Greystone Winery, xii-xiii, xvi-xvii, 28, 39, 4-0, 4-1
Growers Grape Products Assn., 14-, 19, 2?, 29
Gundert, J. B. , xii

Hadsell, Dan, 4-5
Heaton, Ralph [S.], xiii, 24-, 31
Hecke, George, 5, 6, 10
Rowland, Wallace, xv

Italian Swiss Colony, 21, 30, 33, 4-6
Italian Vineyard Company, 37, 38, 55

Johnson, Hugh, 50

Jones, Jesse, 19, 20, 21, 26

Jones, Lee, 13

Lagomarsino, Fred, 24, 28, 29

Land Bank, 8

Lanza, Horace, 12, 16

Lawrence Warehouse Company, ix, 42

Lescher, Edwin, 20

Martini, Louis [M.] winery, Kingsburg, xii, xiii, xvi-xvii,

28, 39, 4-0
Mead, El wood, 4-
Mills, James, 5
Mitchell, Frank, 25
Mokelumne [Winery] , 39
Mondavi, Cesare, 38
Morello, E. , 37, 55
Morrish, Will F. , 11-12

f ; w

Morrow, A. R. , 13

Mount Tivy Winery, xii, 37, 38, 43, 55

National Distillers, 46

Padre Winery, 12, 33

peaches, 2-4, 6-7

Perelli-Minetti, A. & Sons, 27

Petri Cigar Company, 35

Petri, Louis, 43

Petri [Wine Company], 33, 35

Peyser, Jefferson, 49

Pirrone, P. & Sons, Winery, 37, 38, 55

Powers , Lucius , 38

Prati, Enrico, 21, 22

Prohibition, 21, 57-61

Prorate, iii, x-xi, 14, 18-21, 22, 23, 26-27, 45

prunes, v, 5-6

Raisins, 15, 18, 23, 29, 44, 52, 58, 60-61, 62, 63
Reconstruction Finance Corporation, xi, 7, 12, 18, 19, 20,

26, 47

Regional Agricultural Credit Corporation, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Roma [Wine Company], 28, 30, 33, 35
Roosevelt, Franklin D. , xiv
Rosenberg Brothers, 6
Rosenstiel [Lewis S.]» ^2
Rossi, Edmund A., 12-13, 21, 31
Rossi, Robert D. , 21, 31
Russell, Calvin L. , xii, xiii, 23-23, 28, 29, 31

St. George Winery, 37, 55

San Joaquin Winery & Distillery, Inc., 37, 55

Sbarboro, A[lfred] E. , 21, 22, 31, 35, 47

Schenley Distilleries, Inc., xvi, 26, 33, 42, 46, 62

Security First National Bank, 23, 28, 38, 62

Setrakian, A. , 17

Shewan- Jones, 46

Sinsheimer, Bernard, 40

Sinsheimer & Co., 40

Sinton, Silas D. , 40

Smith, Russell, 40, 43, 4?

Snodgrass, David E. , xv

Spooner, W. A., viii, x

Steer, Lloyd, 6
Stevenson, Adlai, 49-51
Sun Maid Raisin Growers, 6l

Tapp, Jesse, xvi, 46

Taylor, Walter, 27

Tenney, Lloyd, 10

Thompson, J. Walter, Company, xi, 48, 49

Transamerica Corporation, xvi, 21, 22

Tubbs, Chapin, 1?, 39

Tubbs Cordage Co. , 17

Tulare Winery Company, xii, 23, 24, 28, 37, 38, 55

Union Oil Company, 6

University of California, 2, 3

U.S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10

U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1, 3

United States District Court, xiv

United. States grand jury, xiv-xv

United States House of Representatives, vi, xiv

Vai, Jimmy, 33
Vieth, Fred, xii, 38, 43
Village Winery, Inc., 37, 55
Voechel, Bill, 19, 23

Wallace, Henry, 17-18, 43, 44

Warren, Earl, 19

Wente [Bros.], iv, 12, 13, 18, 36, 56

Wente, Carl P., 8-9, 12, 13, 56-63

Wente, Carl H. , iv, 56

Wente, Ernest A., 56

Wente, Herman L. , 48, 56

Wilk, Mount K. , xii, xiv, 31, 44, 52

Wilson, Bob, 50

Wilson, E. W. , 7, 8, 10

Wine Institute, ill, vi-viii, xi, xvi, 18, 19, 20, 48-51,

53-5^
Woodruff, Ed [E.D.], 32, 33, 3>+

Young, Governor C. C. , 3

Wines Mentioned in the Interview

burgundy, 12
Cabernet, 12, 13
sauterne, 12, 13

Grape Varieties Mentioned in the Interview

Alicante, 60

Emperor, 60, 63

Thompson Seedless, 16, 23, 58

PART III
Andrew G. Frericks

Andrew G. Frericks, 1958
President and Manager, St. George Winery, Fresno

INTERVIEW HISTORY

Andrew G. Frerlcks was interviewed at his home in St.
Helena, California, on August 1, 1972, after the editing,
indexing, and final typing of the interview with Burke H.
Critchfield and the talk by Carl P. Wente had been completed,
and Professor Amerine's introduction had been written.
Originally intended merely as an informational discussion,
the interview developed and is included here because it adds
a succinct unified account of matters discussed by Mr.
Critchfield.

Mr. Frerlcks, at 82, proved to have retained a clear
recollection of the succession of events. The transcribed
interview was sent to him on August 16. It was read to him
(his eyesight is poor); he added several paragraphs of
amplification, deleted a few speculative statements, and
returned it on August 22, 1972.

Ruth Telser
Project Director
California Wine Industry
Oral History Series

31 August 1972

Regional Oral History Office

bQ6 The Bancroft Library

University of California at Berkeley

In a letter of September 14, 1972, Mr. Frericks requested that the following
statement be appended to his interview:

"I sign the enclosed release with some reluctance because I had
to supply the information entirely from memory of events that
occurred some thirty-five years ago and there may be inaccuracies.
Had the complex documents and many contracts been available to
refresh my memory I am sure that a much better description of the
programs discussed could have been provided. Possibly a footnote
to my statements would point out that it is entirely from memory
and is much too brief."

(Interview Date - August 1, 1972)

THE PROBATE AND CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WINERIES

[This interview with Andrew G. Frericks on the
prorate, Central California Wineries, Inc., and
Central Winery, began after a preliminary discussion
of the wine industry's problems of the 1930's and
the organization of the prorate.]

Frericks: The first opposition came from the growers and

wineries here in this north coast country, because
they felt that the whole program was to benefit
the raisin growers in Central California. They
didn't think that their grapes should be partly
converted into brandy, see — that they were wine
grapes and they should be made into wine — that there
was no surplus of that particular type of grape.
That's where the opposition came in.

Teiser: This is the prorate you're speaking of?

Frericks: Yes, the prorate. I don't know what information you
already have on the whole prorate program.

Teiser: Some. Dr. Maynard Amerine spoke of it.
Frericks: Yes, Dr. Amerine was quite familiar with it.
Teiser: They had to do some quality judging, he said.

Frericks: I think what he was referring to there is probably
in connection with the brandy that was produced.

Teiser: Yes, that's it.

Teiser: What was your official position with it?

Prericks: Well, originally, when the program started, I was

given the Job of supervising the brandy production.
And that revolved around, attaining warehouse space
for the brandy, supervising the production in the
various distilleries of the state, providing for the
insurance, all the details surrounding production
of a tremendous amount of brandy.

Then later Joe Carey, who was the original zone
agent for the grape proration zone No. 2, (which
handled the whole program) was relieved of his duties,
and I was put in as zone agent. Which was in the
latter part of the program.

So I had both the Job of zone agent and manager
of the Grower's Grape Products Association, which
was the corporation set up to handle the brandy, and
to handle the loans that the banks made to the
association to finance the production of this brandy.

So I ran the show until the fall of — well, the
program was originally set up for two years, but at
the end of the first year the continuance was really
impossible because of the litigation that developed,
principally from these north coast wineries and
growers .

They went to the legislature and had a bill
passed, which relieved them from any obligation
under the Prorate Act. So, the program committee
and the industry generally decided that it would be
useless to try to carry this thing on for another
year.

After it was decided that no further action
could be taken on the Prorate Act there were a
great many meetings held in various parts of the
state by representative growers and vintners as to
what could be done in the coming season. It appeared
another large crop could be anticipated, and in order
to save what had been accomplished something had to
be done. Nothing concrete came forth from these
meetings. So we had to hunt around, and try to find
another program that could be done, to provide some
relief which was needed for a succeeding year.

Frericks: That was how the Central California Wineries

project got started. It was a continuance, really,
of the original prorate program and the Grower's
Grape Products Association which held the brandy.
But it revolved around the organizing of all the
wineries who were in bad financial condition into
one group. And the bank, primarily the Bank of
America, was interested in promoting this thing
because they wanted — the object, of course, was to
save the industry from complete collapse and to
maintain grape prices that would save the growers.

So, then this — let's see, I have to go back a
little bit — when this program began, all the
wineries in the Central Valley, in the San Joaquln
County area and Lodi and Fresno, and three or four
or five wineries (the principal ones) in Southern
California, all joined this group.

And the grapes were purchased from the growers-
well, this is a little bit involved. First of all
there were a lot of contracts entered into between
this organization of Central California Wineries,
the banks, and the non-participating wineries. The
whole thing was tied together through a series of
contracts.

The grapes were purchased by the corporation,
Central California Wineries, Inc. They were then
turned over to the processing wineries who were
involved, who converted them into wine.

I'll have to go back a little to give you a
clear picture of what happened. I'm trying to think
of the mechanics of this thing.

The corporation, Central California Wineries,
Inc., purchased the grapes, paid the grower for the
grapes and the processor a fee for converting these
grapes into wine, and then the processor or winery
had the option of purchasing this wine back for
resale. The wines processed were stored in field
warehouses operated by independent field warehousing
organizations, and the warehouse receipts issued
by the organizations were then used as collateral
for loans made by the bank.

Well, it was a control device, primarily, to
provide that the growers would obtain a fair price

Frericks: for their grapes and be sure of getting their money.
Because previous to that time, the industry was in
such a state that when the grower sold his grapes
to the winery, he didnft know if he was going to get
paid or not.

Many of the wineries were in such financial
condition that they stalled the growers off. They
couldn't pay them and when they did they paid them
very little for the grapes.

But under this arrangement the growers were paid
what was then considered a fair price, considering
the market conditions generally.

Well, that was a fairly successful operation
for that year.

Teiser: What was the relationship between Central California
Wineries and Central Winery?

Prericks: Central California Wineries was the corporation that
was set up to manage the whole project of converting
the grapes into wine and paying the growers for their
grapes. Because of inadequate storage capacity in
some wineries, as well as [inadequate] facilities
for preparing the wine for market, it was thought
desirable to purchase a large winery or wineries
which would provide the additional storage space
required. Inasmuch as this would be a joint venture
participated in by some Central California Winery
members, but not necessarily all, the second corporation,
Central Wineries, Inc., was established. The management
for the committee that administered this project, this
corporation [Central California Wineries], the board
of directors let's say, which included especially
the larger wineries in that group, decided that they
could not depend on the individual wineries to market
the wines after they were produced, or to carry on
the whole project successfully.

The first winery that was purchased was the
winery that belonged to Martini* in Kingsburg.
Central Wineries purchased that winery. Then they
acquired the Greystone cellars that now belongs to
Christian Brothers. The Bank of America had a big
mortgage on that winery, so Central Winery corporation
took over that winery as a base of operations in this
[St. Helena] area.

*Louis M. Martini

Frericks: Those were the only two wineries that Central
Winery actually owned, purchased and owned. Both
of them are quite large and could accommodate the
taking in of a lot of wine and processing it and
turning it into a high grade product and a marketable
commodity.

Teiser: They were good wineries, were they?

Frericks: Oh yes. They were both good wineries, modern and
all. [But] that thing developed into kind of a
battle. The members of the organization as well
as the banks said, "What are you going to do with
all this wine? How are you going to market it?"
So there was a lot of by-play between the members of
the board of directors of the Central California
Wineries, Inc., which was really the parent company,
and there was a lot of disagreement as to policy
and procedure.

At about this time the Department of Justice
began investigating this set-up as to whether or
not anti-trust violation might be involved.

Well, all the wineries in the state, Including
those that were not members of Central California
Wineries, were involved because there were contracts
entered into between all these groups as to how this
wine was going to be disposed of, who was going to
take a certain percentage and market it — and some
of these contracts were rather loosely drawn. So there
may have been some justification on the part of the
Department of Justice. I cannot comment on the exact
nature of the investigation because at that time I
was no longer directly connected with the Central
California Wineries association.

Prior to this Department of Justice investiga
tion, Lou Golan* entered the picture, and through his
activities with the bank,** he sold them the idea that
he was the guy who could take over this whole project
and market the wine successfully. And then contracts
were entered into with him to take the wines that
Central Winery had taken in for processing and
refining and finishing, and he would take over the
whole marketing project.

*Louis Golan
**Bank of America

Rrericks

Telser:

Frericks:

Teiser:

Frericks i

Well, that's when I got out of the deal. I
was no longer involved after that because, oh,
there was a lot of bickering and there was a lot
of in-fighting among the members, and the thing was
set up in such a way that I was supposed to go with
Golan and undertake the supervision of the processing,
the preparing of the wine for market. I didn't like
Golan. Besides that, I had other interests. So I
dropped out of the picture, and that was my final
connection with the whole project.

As I told you, we talked to Mr,
his account jibed with yours.

Critohfield, and

Well, Critchfield and I really developed this
Central California Wineries deal. Vie sat down in
a Chinese restaurant one day and laid the whole
thing out on a tablecloth, Just how we were going
to do it. And of course I was still involved then
with the prorate operation, the brandy operation.
But he went down to Fresno and rounded up all the
wineries who were down there and were broke and were
ready to do anything in order to keep themselves in
business and carry this thing out successfully.

Then eventually, as the thing grew and developed
into a working organization, I got out of the brandy
end of it because it was almost all over then. The
brandy was all housed, and it was just a matter of
selling it.

Well, the war came along about that time and
that really took the brandy out of the market because
the big distillers all jumped in and bought brandy.
So the brandy operation was very successful. I mean
the growers all got paid, a reasonable amount for their
interests in the thing.

Was Central California Wineries, in the long run,
successful? Did the growers and the winemakers
gain by it do you think?

I think they did, until they got to squabbling about
the marketing. If Central Winery had never been
organized, I mean if the two wineries hadn't been
purchased, and if Golan hadn't entered the picture,
I think the smaller wineries would have automatically
sort of worked together and finally solved their
problems.

•

Frericks: And if the Department of Justice had stayed
out of the picture, that also would have helped.
But when the thing got into that confused state,
and litigation was impending which would have
involved the bank, then the thing really collapsed.

Transcriber:
Final Typist:

Marilyn Fernandez
Keiko Sugimoto

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•17 25

St. He^iesia, Ca, 94574

'/jhone. 707/9^3-4469

INDEX - Andrew G. Frerlcks

Amerine, Maynard [A. ] » 71
Anti-trust investigation, 75, 77

Bank of America, 73, 7^, 75, 77
Brandy, 71-72, 76

Carey, Joe, 72

Central California Wineries, Inc., 71-77

Central Winery, Inc., 71, 7^-76

Christian Brothers, 7^

Critchfleld, Burke H. , 76

Golan, Louis, 75 i 76

Greystone cellars, 7^, 75

Growers Grape Products Association, 72, 73

Martini, Louis M. , winery, Kingsburg, 74, 75

Prorate, 71-73, 76

Raisins, 71

United States Department of Justice, 75, 77

Ruth Teiser

Born in Portland, Oregon; came to the Bay Area

in 1932 and has lived here ever since.

Stanford, B. A., M. A. in English; further graduate

work in Western history.

Newspaper and magazine writer in San Francisco since

1943, writing on local history and business and

social life of the Bay Area.

Book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle

since 19A3.

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Full text of "The California wine industry during the depression : oral history transcript / and related material, 1970-1972"

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