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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1989)
Page 16 The Battalion Thursday, January 26,1989 Rothschild winery buys pure vineyards in Chile PERALILLO, Chile (AP) — Gen uflecting in the field, Gilbert Rok- vam points to a thick and twisted trunk sprouting clusters of tiny new grapes. “These vines are very old,” he says with quiet authority in French-ac cented Spanish. “You won’t Find them anywhere else in the world.” Rokvam says these venerable plants lured his employers, the Rothschilds, out of the Bordeaux re gion of France for the first time in more than a century of wine-mak ing. The owners of the legendary Cha teau Lafite and three other French wineries have become partners in a little-known Chilean vineyard called Los Vascos. Los Vascos is near Peralillo, a small farming town in a sun drenched valley named Canete some 95 miles south of Santiago. It is typ ically Chilean: straw-hatted cowboys kick up dust as they amble beneath tall eucalyptus windbreaks, with brown Andean foothills as a back drop. But it has something more French than in France itself: its grapevines. Chile’s rootstock, imported in the mid-1800s, was untouched by the plague of a root-chewing parasite, philoxera, that swept most of the rest of the world. To halt the infesta tion, vineyards in Europe, the United States and most other grape growing countries introduced a ge neric American rootstock that, while immune to philoxera, upset some wine purists. And the Rothschilds are, in many ways, purists. “In fact, nobody at LaFite ever thought we’d leave home and get in volved abroad,” says Rokvam, tech nical director at Chateau LaFite. He says Los Vascos passed judge ment because it is family-owned, by Jorge Eyzaguirre and his wife, Maria Ignacia, and because it makes wine only from its 500-acre harvest. The winery never buys from outside vineyards, as do many others. “They have the same kind of op eration as we do in France,” Rokvam says. “Family production, it’s very important.” Before reaching a decision, Rok vam said he had brought a promi nent French oenologist to Chile to taste-test 156 local red wines and 45 whites. “To be fair, I can’t say that Los Vascos came out above all the others,” he says. “But it was right there at the top.” As a final step before approval, Eric de Rothschild, who heads the family operations in France, spent several days with the Eyzaguirres at their country estate. Eyzaguirre says he sought a for eign investor who could bring Old World technique to his operation, but attracting the Rothschilds was more than he had hoped. abroad. They are now exporting vir tually all their wine: 80,000 cases a year of Cabernet Sauvignon, Caber net Blanc and Chardonnay. The big gest buyer is the United States, where Los Vascos sells for about $5 to $6 a bottle. Chilean exports in general are ris ing as the country begins to earn a reputation for good wine at a very good price. The new French partners believe that reputation can be improved. “We believe we can contribute some details in quality, in finesse,” Rokvam says. It will mean some radical changes at the winery, which uses antique barrels made from a Chilean hard wood, rauli, to store wine while it ferments. The vats leave a slightly bitter aftertaste that Chileans enjoy, but that European and American critics consider a flaw. The rauli barrels will be replaced by big stainless steel vats with “all the ugliness of a milk plant,” but which help ensure quality, Rokvam says. Author says Bush’s ’88 campaign reminds him of McCarthy ism day NEW YORK (AP) — When George Bush labeled campaign rival Michael Dukakis a “card-car rying” member of the American Civil Liberties Union, frightening memories flooded back to How ard Fast. In the 1950s, Sen. Joseph Mc Carthy achieved notoriety for his purges of suspected Communists, brandishing a piece of paper in his hand and charging that he had a list of “card-carrying” members of the Communist Party. Fast was one of those members. He confronted McCarthy at a hearing of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and went to jail in 1950 for refusing to submit names of alleged “subversives.” Thirty- eight years later, Fast has recons tructed that time in a novel, “The Pledge” (Houghton-Mifflin, $18.95). “Bush’s campaign had some thing of the same feeling. That ‘card-carrying ACLU’ device was worked out very precisely,” said Fast. “‘Pledge’ is based on a part of my life that was a great time of fear in the United States, and this generation should learn that this happened. None of them know,” he said in an interview. “The Pledge” begins in post- World War II India and centers on a war correspondent, Bruce Bacon, who has reason to believe that the British government played a role in the famine then sweeping Calcutta. His actions come to the attention of the Brit ish and U.S. governments and he is ultimately forced to leave the country. Back home, Bacon resumes! job as a prized newspaper E orter for the New York Tr une, but his world becomesy raveled. Determined to pursy his theory of British collusion the famine. Bacon attracts the tendon of the FBI and issubp naed by HUAC. When questioned by [\ HUAC, he angrily refuses ton swer any questions about his girt riend, a communist party i her, lashes out at the committed ^ and goes to jail for contemptB nt 0 f Texas Congress. ■ fail the rea “ I Ins has nothing to do f res hrnai democracy,” Fast said. “It liP® nothing to do with the Unit! States. This book is a true I Eighty percent of it happened! me. What didn’t happen to it | happened to people I know.” Old bank stays small, quaint and profitable tnt are estu irtion unde jhursday by lordinating More than ■edicted to f ■st, which w ■assing score Wianiinously Bite. The cut-ofi “I cast out my line,” he said, “but I never expected to catch the biggest fish.” He and his wife come from fami lies involved in winemaking for more than a century. But they only took over the Los Vascos vineyard and began making export-quality fine wines six years ago. In 1983 they shipped 1,000 cases Only some wines will touch wood, in barrels of French oak imported from Chateau Lafite. Rokvam says there will also be strict control of the vineyard’s yield per per acre. If the vines are pushed to produce too many grapes, the quality drops. Rokvam says the changes will take at least a year. Will the result be very, very good wine? “It will be fine,” Rokvam replies. “Let’s leave off the ‘verys’ until next year.” LOWES, Ky. (AP) — The narrow two-story Bank of Lowes looks like a place Jesse James would go out of his way to visit. Little has changed in the 85 years of Kentucky’s smallest bank. The teller cage is a genuine antique. Ac counts are kept in a ledger book, and the closest thing to a computer is an adding machine. “A lot of people like small banks and don’t like computers,” says Do rothy McClellan, cashier and chair woman of the board. Founded in 1903 by a group of lo cal businessmen with a pool of $15,000, the bank remains in the hands of local residents. It pays de positors no interest, but it thrives in an isolated corner of Graves County, serving about 500 customers with checking accounts and loans. The bank charges no fees, except for returned checks. Bank officers help customers with bookkeeping chores and will type important pa pers and provide notary services. All without charge. Customers who can’t make the 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. banking hours make appointments or give their deposits to McClellan at church on Sunday. McClellan’s father, Col. Paul Wil- kerson, used to write loans on the kitchen table at his home lor who couldn’t do their banking mg regular hours. “Most of what we handleiscki and paperwork,” McClellan “We barely have enough cast hand to operate.” The Bank of Lowes is rega one of the state’s healthiest tions. Its cash reserve, surplusl undivided profits are enougk| cover all its loans. Earningsasa centage of assets have in the topped the state’s more than banks. Staying small is one of the goals, McClellan says. Irotests from legal Defer [und, which :rnine mino . ISLAMAB. ■nviet gunne milages and s! 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