On Jan 13, 8:02*am, pmata > wrote:
> 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.