The Ruskin Wine Legacy

Both methods of salesmanship proved equally successful, and both houses prospered. As for the quality of the rival wines, it is probably safe to say that there was very little to choose between them, as they were all excellent. The name of John James Ruskin is found in many reference books simply because he was the father of John Ruskin, the Victorian aesthete and socialist.

Such reflected fame is an in­dignity for Ruskin senior, who was the greatest English sherry shipper of his time. Although his career was less spectacular than his son\'s, he was a man of vision, character, and intelligence. In this psychoanalytical age, we should probably label him with some complex: it was his whim to employ inferior clerks.

The mistakes they made while he was away pleased his vanity and he enjoyed putting things right when he came back. He could not stay in the office and leave them to do the travelling, as he knew they would have done more harm than good. Inquisitive biog­raphers can find something ludicrous in almost any man\'s life, and it is enough that Ruskin, by his industry and intelligence, did much to raise the house of Domecq to the high position it enjoys today. His energies in business were honored and admired by his son:

\"... the letters to customers were brief in their assurance that if they found fault with their wine, they did not understand it, and if they wanted an extension of credit, they could not have it. These Spartan brevities of epistle were, however, always supported by the utmost care in executing his correspondents\' orders…His domiciliary visits were productive of the more confidence between him and the country merchant, that he was perfectly just and candid in appraisement of the wine of rival houses, while his fine palate enabled him always to sustain triumphantly any and every ordeal of blindfold question which the suspicious customer might put him to. Also, when cor­respondents of importance came up to town, my father would put himself so far out of his way as to ask them to dine at Heme Hill, and try the contents of his own cellar.\"

The mistakes they made while he was away pleased his vanity and he enjoyed putting things right when he came back. He could not stay in the office and leave them to do the travelling, as he knew they would have done more harm than good.