European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 2, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Lawrence m. Fisher new York times push to restrict wine split Industry a s efforts to curb wine consumption gain momentum in the United Stales american vintners Are deeply concerned but widely divided Aboul How to combat the movement. The nation s growing interest in health and concern Wilh alcohol abuse Are fueling a drive for greater regulation of the wine Industry. Stale and Federal measures thai have been considered or put Inlo effect in the last year include higher concise axes and requirements that labels disclose ingred Lens and provide warnings that alcohol can pose a health Hazard. They would apply to both foreign and Domestic wines sold in the United slates in recent years sales of table wino have Genc Raly declined and sales of wines of All types including coolers and up ailing wines have been relatively level. While wine makers say they do nol so a direct connection Between this performance and the Varmus advocacy groups which they Call Neo prohibitionist some vintners Aro nonetheless taking them As a serious threat. Still they disagree about what their response should be. Some vintners think that they should vigorously fight warning requirements Tor instance. Others fear that such a sir elegy would be self destructive and favor a focus on better wines that Are consumed in moderation. In general the wine Industry is trying to distance itself from Beer and spirits calling Alt lion to wine s role As an accompaniment to food rather than As a product for heavy recreational drinking ii is a lactic that carries Lille weight Wilh the Industry s critics. In general alcohol is alcohol is alcohol said Michael f. Jacobson executive director of the censer Lor science in the Public interest a custom caves for vintners tastes by Robert Lindsey new York times Ive Alf Burtleson a Mountain and hell give you a Cave in California s Napa Valley Aboul 45 Miles North of san Franciscono one is More in demand these Days than Burleson who Calls himself a Cave Man. He digs caves. But not Ordinary caves. Burrowing into hillsides he Creales spacious and Ole gang caves in Trie Earth that wine makers ill with barrels and Boll Les of aging wine. The Napa Vailey is experiencing a Cave digging Boom and Burleson digs them All. , makers Sheie Are More than 100 in the Valley Havo to queue up months in Advance to do business Wilh Burleson and his Cave diggers. When wine a first produced in tha Valley a Century ago the original vintners discovered As had their forerunners in Europe thai a Cave provided a near ported atmosphere for aging wine largely because the Earth enables it to age properly at a constant temperature of about 56 degrees fahrenheit. Since summer temperatures Here often exceed 80, the caves served As a natural wine cellar for producers. Alter nature s Supply of caves ran Oul. The wine makers hired chinese immigrants newly unemployed after Oom playing the transcontinental Railroad to Tunnel into Rocky hillsides with pick and shovel to create additional caves. The Artol Cave building was then Tost to the Napa Valloy nonprofit consumer advocacy group in Washington. There Are wine alcoholics. There Are Guys on skid Row sucking on bottles of wild Irish Rose Jacobson disdained the Neo  Label and said he did not preach abstention still because Shore is no effective Way to lower just problem drinking he added a viable alternative is to lower consumption across the Board toward that end lha Tenter has lobbied for a Federal ban on advertising of alcoholic beverages and higher excise taxes. But hip Center s major thrust has concerned chemical additives and contaminants in Beer wine and spirits. The Center was Active in the successful drive to Force the wino Industry to Label its bottles with contains sul files after the nearly ubiquitous preservative was Lound to cause severe allergic reactions in Somo asthma sufferers. That Federal regulation look cd decl in july. Most recently the Center has published a list of alcoholic beverages including wine containing urethane a Carcinogen that is sometimes a byproduct of fermentation. And it has asked the food and drug administration to ban products with Large amounts of the chemical. Some wines Alac contain traces of Hislam nes a compound that can cause headaches or other allergic reactions in some people. Our concerns Are about health Jacobson said. If people Are going to drink it might As Well be As Sale As  but John de Luca president of the Industry s lobbying organization the wine Institute said the Center was using scare tactics. Carry nation s a has been replaced by the Public health press release he said. They be moved the charge from alcohol abuse to saying that the product itself is inherently  de Luca said vintners had voluntarily acquiesced to until Burtleson revived ii. A 51 year old Stanford University civil engineering graduate he headed a construction company that specialized in Boring tunnels Lor flood control and Utility companies. In 1972. He was hired by the Benner winery to use his Tunnel digging machinery to restore Poneot the caves Buill by chinese workers in the 19th Century in the Early 19803, a time when the  n Boom in new wineries wine makers began Luming to Burleson to build new caves and since then he and his Crew a a Wondergem John main and Georgia Reynolds Havo done Little else. Burleson regards each Cave As a unique subterranean sculpture an underground work of Art sometimes sit Jated Many feet below a Lush Vineyard. We be mined to Scales and no two Are alike he said. Each project begins when his Crew bores horizontally into hillsides Wilh a thundering. 25-fwd-Long machine whose business end is an 18-Inch-Wido cull ing head Wilh rotating Carbide tipped Leech. The machine May penetrate hundreds of feel to the Earth carving Oul caves 20 to30 Leol wide and 12 feel or More in height. Alter the Hole is bored a Concrete floor is poured and Tho ceiling is coated with a two Inch thick crust of textured Concrete Tor structural support although some wineries prefer a natural look Wilh exposed Rock and earthen Elrama. Virtually All the wine makers want their caves to Tor Lite they were created by nature although Somo owners then entertain dinner guests on Fine furniture inside them. We re basically hired guns Burtleson said. We do Page 14 the stars and stripes tuesday it