Just wanted to get the word out that I am searching for old bottles of Malaga wine made by Companias Mata during the 1800's and early 1900's. I have already found a few that were imported in Chicago before and after prohibition. These wines were made by my family. Unfortunately in 1964 the winery was sold and one of my greatest hopes is to recover some of these bottles.
I will be very grateful if some of you can help me find some of these wines.
Thank you, Patrick Mata.
I have a single bottle of Mata Malaga that I bought at auction many years ago.The source likely was the Chicago Wine Company auctions, but I am not absolutely certain of this. Although my bottle is not for sale, I will give a description of it to aid in your search. The bottle, including the bottom, is completely covered in a silver colored foil that seems to be glued on.There is a string mesh around the bottle with a very large spacings. There is a large red-orange front label and no back label. The top has been dipped in wax, but one can see the bottom of what appears to be an official seal. There is a small State of Illinois tax stamp for 1/5 gallon attached to the side of the bottle. Someone has penciled in PCR 1944 at the top of the label. This could be a bin number, auction number, or who knows.There is a little label damage, so I will have to use ? in a few places. Net Contents 1 pint 8 fl. oz.; Alcohol 16% by volume:; Gran Muscat Wine;
1816 vintage; Grown by Compania Mata; ?ion de Bodegas Andaluzas S.A; Product of Spain Malaga; Imported by ?rco Importing Co. Chicago IL.; Import License I-31 (or could be 1-31).It is interesting that 1816 often is called the year without a summer: "The Year Without a Summer (also known as the Poverty Year, Year There Was No Summer and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death[1]) was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities destroyed crops in Northern Europe, the Northeastern United States and eastern Canada.[2][3] Average global temperatures decreased about 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1.3 °F), [4] enough to cause significant agricultural problems around the globe. Historian John D. Post has called this "the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world".[5] It may be that the climate anomaly was caused by a combination of a historic low in solar activity with a volcanic winter event; the latter caused by a succession of major volcanic eruptions capped off by the Mount Tambora eruption of 1815, the largest known eruption in over 1,600 years."
Since Malaga comes from such a warm area, there was likely a grape harvest there in 1816. However the Malaga wine made might be more like a sweel wine made in Northern Europe in normal years.
I was about to advise you to contact Roy Hersh of
Mark Lipton
The above link no longer works.
The above link no longer works Mark.
just left off the .com
I have a bottle circa 1930's 10 years Malaga in very good shape. I can forward pictures. I live in Chicago. Sincerely, John Pickering
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