These important artifacts known as wine spouts and spigots or taps, are used in making wine and they are made from brass, bronze, metal, copper, and stainless-steel. They are in a range of small, medium and larger sizes and have a gradually narrowing thread usually made of brass for use with wooden wine barrels, kegs, and casks. This type of taps, spouts and spigots are ideal to be fitted to small, medium, and larger wooden barrels and apothecary glass, porcelain, and ceramic jars. They were used for wine, olive and vinegar oils, whiskey, beer, cider, juices; both storing and dispensing these liquids.
Spigots of this type were developed for use in the United States between 1879 and 1911. The concept wasn’t new; ancient Greeks and Romans first used spigots in their bathhouses for obtaining water. Here are five of the Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County collections’ eleven artifacts. The exhibit will help with your wine education and understanding how liquids were dispersed in earlier times.
WHP ID#: S&T59
Middle of photo, lower row
Name: French polished brass barrel tap faucet with a key.
Key keg tap for brandy or cognac kegs with
locking mechanism.
Location: Found in Sonoma County
Years: Circa 1880-1900
Size: 3 ½” H x 5” L
Condition: It has a screw-in taper and is in working condition.
No markings or provenance.
WHP ID#: S&T91
Left corner, top row
Name: Spigot or Spout
Unusual, elongated nickel-plated brass wine tap
Location: Originally French. Found on Brutocao Cellars Hopland,
CA estate.
Years: Circa 1860-1870
Size: 6” H x 7 ½” L
Provenance: The story begins with the grandfather, Irv Bliss, whose passion for agriculture grew through his years of farming in Sonoma County. Irv grew pears, prunes, walnuts, and a large family garden just outside of Healdsburg, in Sonoma County, California. For years Irv dreamed of planting a vineyard in Mendocino, which he believed to be one of the best places to grow grapes. In 1943 Irv Bliss got his chance to purchase a plot of land in Southern Mendocino County, immediately planting the original vineyard. He farmed those vines for over 35 years before his son-in-law, Leonard Brutocao (pronounced brew’ tuh coe), took over the business. Leonard, with his love of vino, immediately saw the potential for supplying friends and family a handcrafted Mendocino wine. The Brutocao family released their first wine with the 1980 vintage. Shortly thereafter, they chose the Lion of St. Mark, modeled after the lion on top of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Italy, as their symbol of family tradition and quality. That quality comes from the location of their 400 acres of vineyards in southern Mendocino County.
WHP ID#: S&T92
Right corner, bottom row
Name: Spigot
Location: It is a French tool. This tool was found at Latour estate,
Napa, CA.
MACON is inscribed on the object.
Fortoul is also inscribed on the tool.
Years: Circa 1860-1870
Materials: Bronze
Size: 8” H x 11” L
Description: Hippolyte Fortoul (1811–1856), was a French man-of-letters and politician.
Beaulieu’s French founder, Georges de Latour. Beaulieu has been in the business for 119 years. Beaulieu Garden was a private family-owned estate and one of the oldest premium quality wine-producing vineyards in the Napa Valley.
It all started in 1883 when Georges de Latour traveled from his native France to California. This well-educated chemist, who was also refined in the arts and spoke fluent Greek and Latin, continued with his profession as a chemist and executive at Stauffer Chemical Company. He would soon, however, follow his true passion for winemaking.
When the new century had yet to begin, in 1899, the Frenchman began to implement this dream of producing world-class wines. Georges de Latour spent several years analyzing the soils and microclimates of California, specifically in the Napa Valley, before he purchased his first parcel of agricultural land for its unique terroir. He decided to surprise his wife, Fernande, with this stunning piece of land. When she saw the property, she exclaimed, «Quel beau lieu!» “What a beautiful place,” and thus this remarkable, secluded estate in Rutherford had a name.
In 1923, Georges and Fernande’s daughter, Hélène, married into the well-established de Pins family in Gascony, in southwestern France. Hélène became the wife of the Marquis de Pins, whose father was the well-known Senator of the Gers Department and whose grandfather was the French Ambassador to Denmark. The de Pins family roots in the wine industry trace back centuries.
The de Pins added to the uniqueness of the Beaulieu property and entertained often, putting the stamp of their personalities on the estate. They continued the family’s multigenerational fascination with the production of world merit wines in this soon-to-be well-known winemaking region of the world.
WHP ID# S&T37
Left Corner, bottom row
Name: Spigot
Years: Circa 1860-1880
Condition: Nice patina on this. No markings.
Found: Spigot found in the San Francisco area.
Size: 4 ½” H x 7” L
Description: In London, England in the late nineteenth century, there were wine and spirit merchants who published a catalog. The company was known as Farrow & Jackson. Farrow and Jackson was a London engineering, manufacturing, and distribution company supplying equipment and merchandise to the wines, spirits and aerated beverages trades for more than a century.
After reviewing some of the pages in the Farrow and Jackson catalog, I would describe this screw-in type spigot as a copper taper, threaded tap with a hammer-shaped valve handle.
WHP ID#: S&T82
Right corner, top row
Name: Spigot
Years: Circa 1880-1890
Location: German
Materials: Nickel-plated brass
Size: 4 ½” H x 11” L
Description: This is known as a barrel spigot. It has F.H. Langenkamp, IND-P-LIB, and “Germ Hall” marked on the body of the object. The item was located and obtained by a collector in Sonoma County. Germ Hall, from what we can deduct, stands for German Hall.
According to the book “History of Contra Costa County,” written in 1882, Frederick Langenkamp was born in the kingdom of Hanover on November 20, 1817, and he resided on a farm until his twenty-sixth year. He then emigrated to the United States, and first located in Baltimore, worked on a farm about three miles from that city for one summer; found employment on the railroad building from Baltimore to Harpers Ferry. In January 1844, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, served with General Scott in the campaign in Mexico, took part in all prominent engagements of the campaign, and on the surrender of the Mexicans to the U.S. forces, he was stationed in Mexico City until the expiration of his term of service. He returned to New Orleans, got married to Miss Maria Hogan (native of Ireland), moved to Macon County, Illinois. Eventually, the family (5 children) came to California by way of New York and Panama, arriving in San Francisco in October 1863. Went immediately to Napa County and purchased his ranch of 180 acres of farming land in Ygnacio Valley. He experimented extensively in the hop and fruit business, for which his farm was well-known.
