As many of you already know, over the years I have been culling the herd, as it were, and reducing the corkscrew collection from anything-corkscrew to American patented and manufactured corkscrews. Not that I don’t appreciate English, French, and German corkscrews, it just seemed to make sense to me. Limited space, limited funds, and American stuff does turn up whilst traipsing around looking for corkscrews.
Still, there are some German, British, and French corkscrews that remain in the collection. Some are a good fit for where we live. Celluloid Mermaids do somehow fit given we live on an island 14 miles off the mainland, for example.
And, as of yesterday, another German corkscrew is headed to the collection. This isn’t the rarest of German corkscrews, as it is a simple Steinfeld waiter. And, I have had others, but this one also seems to fit as it carries an advertisement for an early California winery; Mont Rouge.
Mont Rouge was a winery in Livermore California started by Adrien Chauché in the 1884.
An article from an 1886 issue of the Livermore Herald explains:
The Mont-Rouge Vineyard was planted by well-known wine expert MR. A. G. Chauché, in 1884. Its name is taken from the celebrated Mont Rouge in France, resembling the same in general style and principally in soils. Mont Rouge (Livermore) contains as fine an assortment of wines as there is in the state.
The location of the vineyard is on a slightly elevation within a mile of the town of Livermore.
The winery is constructed for the best conveniences for the proper wine making and ageing of wines, a fact most important in the making good wines, as the handling of properly fermented wines is the sure road to a good article.
Mr. Chauche’s one ambition in entering into the California wine business was to make such goods as would in the course of time sell on their name as well as merit, the same as well-known European wines are sold to-day…
For Chauché, his grape of choice was Zinfandel, and in 1889, his Mont-Rouge Zin won gold at the 1889 Paris exposition. Clearly he lived up to the ambition mentioned in the 1886 article.
There are several other Steinfeld waiter corkscrews that carry early California advertising. Featured on Dean Walters’ Facebook Early California Wine Trade Museum page, he lists the following wineries and wine merchants that appear on Steinfeld waiters…
A. Finke’s Widow, San Francisco
Korbel’s Champagne.
California Winery, Sacramento, Cal., Cordova, the Wine of Quality.
The Winedale Co., Oakland, Cal., Copo D’Oro Wines.
Mont Rouge Wines (near Livermore).
The A. Goux Co., Santa Barbara, Cal.
I. DeTurk Wines (Santa Rosa).
Montebello Wine Co., S.F., Cal. (winery near Cupertino).
Theo. Gier Wine Co., Giersberger Wines. (Oakland, Livermore, & Napa).
Do you have a Steinfeld waiter with California wine advertising? Are there others that we could add to Dean’s list?
josef@vintagecorkscrews.com corkscrewing around 