1897 Letter from the California Wine Association Industry History San Francisco

Description

Original February 1897 letter from the California Wine Association, the early San Francisco organization (some might say a cartel) that distributed and controlled wine in California. The engraved letterhead includes images of their main facilities, their elaborate logo, and list of their officers. The letter is to a Mr. Chas. Jacobsen of Reddin, thanking him for his wine order and telling him it has been shipped. Signed by their Asst. Manager. As an aside, the CWA president Percy T. Morgan later killed himself with a shotgun. An early and difficult to find piece of important California wine history, less than three years from the formation of the organization in August 1894.
Mounted on board and framed under glass. Letterhead top art is in nice condition, but letter appears to have been mounted with rubber cement, which has darkened and stained edges and center over time. Small chip at base. Frame is in very good condition.
From the SNAC website (snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w68t0cdh): “The California Wine Association was formed during the depression of 1894 from seven leading California wine firms, in order to raise prices and stimulate trade. As Peninou and Greenleaf remark, "From that time until the coming of Prohibition, the history of winemaking in California is largely the history of the California Wine Association." The C.W.A. became a syndicate or cartel, the single buyer for ripe grapes from winegrowers. The wine wars of the 1890s, between growers and distributors, helped stabilize the quality of California wine. By 1914 the Association controlled 84% of the wine manufactured in California.
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