Under the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act there was issued, in August, 1909, an official decision which I had prepared defining the proper labeling of wines. The decision runs as follows:

"Wine" without modification is an appropriate name solely for the product made from the normal alcoholic fermentation of the juice of sound ripe grapes, without addition or abstraction, either prior or subsequent to fermentation, except as such may occur in the usual cellar treatment for clarifying and ageing. The addition of water or sugar, or both, to the must prior to fermentation is considered improper, and a product so treated should not be called "wine" without further characterizing it. A fermented beverage prepared from grape must by addition of sugar would properly be called a "sugar wine," or the product may be labeled in such a fashion as to clearly indicate that it is not made from the untreated grape must, but with the addition of sugar......No beverage can be made from the marc of grapes which is entitled to be called "wine" however further characterized, unless it be by the word "imitation." The words "Pomace Wine" are not satisfactory, since the product is not a wine in any sense, but only an "imitation wine" and should be so labeled.

Vigorous opposition was made to this definition under the Food and Drugs Act by the makers of wines, especially in New York, Ohio and Missouri. So powerful was this representation that a new decision was rendered against my protest under date of May 13, 1910, revoking in part the former decision and amending it by the addition of the following:

However, it has been found that it is impracticable, on account of natural conditions of soil and climate, to produce a merchantable wine in the States of Ohio and Missouri without the addition of a sugar solution to the grape must before fermentation...... Having regard to the fact that fermented beverages have been produced in the States of Ohio and Missouri by the addition of a sugar solution to grape must before fermentation and sold and labeled as "Ohio Wine" and "Missouri Wine," respectively, for a period of over 60 years, it is held a compliance with the terms of Food Inspection Decision 109 if the product made from Ohio and Missouri grapes by complete fermentation of the must under proper cellar treatment, and corrected by the addition of a sugar solution to the must before fermentation so that the resultant product does not contain less than five parts per thousand acid and not more than 13 percent of alcohol after complete fermentation, are labeled as "Ohio Wine" or "Missouri Wine" as the case may be qualified by the name of the particular kind or type to which it belongs. .....The product made in Ohio and Missouri by the addition of of water and sugar to the pomace of grapes may be labeled as "Ohio Pomace Wine" or "Missouri Pomace Wine" as the case may be.

Thus, in less than a year after the true definition of a wine was published it was amended so as to permit of extensive adulteration. This was done, too, in the face of a number of protests of the makers of genuine wine in those states against libeling all of their products by calling the adulterated wines "Ohio Wine" or "Missouri Wine" as the case might be. The experiments conducted by Professor Alwood during this period had also proved beyond question that most excellent wines, absolutely pure, made solely from the fermented must of grapes, could be made in all of these localities without any trouble whatever. This concession to the claims of the adulterators has fixed a stigma upon the wines of Ohio and Missouri which probably will not be effaced in half a century.