Tardieu, Hoover & Juice

If it is legal for U. S. wine to be made in U. S. homes from U. S. grapejuice by U. S. experts, then it must also be legal for French wine to be made in U. S. homes from French grapejuice by French experts!

This arresting thought came recently to the militant United Syndicate of French Wine Growers. They have read of the strides made by California juicemen in the West (TIME, Oct. 20, Nov. 24). They have read, too. the weekly advertisements of New York's Vineyardists Inc. offering to come with juice into the client's home and there make guaranteed, "strictly legal" champagne, or any of several other wines. Acting on what they read, the French winemen strongly petitioned Prime Minister Andre Tardieu last week, asked him to ask the Hoover Administration through diplomatic channels whether it is legal, for sure, to make wine in U. S. homes and, if so. whether there could be any possible objection to making French wine there.*

In French cellars lies a surplus of more than 100,000,000 gallons of "green juice," for this year's crop was uncomfortably bumper. "Hitherto we have never attempted to market the 'green' product," said a spokesman for the French vintners last week, "but that was only because the buyers have always preferred that it be made into wine in France. If the Americans prefer, all our classic vintages can be shipped green, and, as they say, 'developed' in their homes.

*That there still is some doubt about the Hoover Administration's attitude toward home-fermented wine was further indicated last week when Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, onetime Dry prosecutor for the U. S., announced she would insist upon a clear statement from Washington. She is attorney for Fruit Industries Inc. (TIME, Oct. 20, Nov. 24).

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