Download or read book The Wild Vine written by Todd Kliman and published by Crown. This book was released on 2011-05-03 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rich romp through untold American history featuring fabulous characters, The Wild Vine is the tale of a little-known American grape that rocked the fine-wine world of the nineteenth century and is poised to do so again today. Author Todd Kliman sets out on an epic quest to unravel the mystery behind Norton, a grape used to make a Missouri wine that claimed a prestigious gold medal at an international exhibition in Vienna in 1873. At a time when the vineyards of France were being ravaged by phylloxera, this grape seemed to promise a bright future for a truly American brand of wine-making, earthy and wild. And then Norton all but vanished. What happened? The narrative begins more than a hundred years before California wines were thought to have put America on the map as a wine-making nation and weaves together the lives of a fascinating cast of renegades. We encounter the suicidal Dr. Daniel Norton, tinkering in his experimental garden in 1820s Richmond, Virginia. Half on purpose and half by chance, he creates a hybrid grape that can withstand the harsh New World climate and produce good, drinkable wine, thus succeeding where so many others had failed so fantastically before, from the Jamestown colonists to Thomas Jefferson himself. Thanks to an influential Long Island, New York, seed catalog, the grape moves west, where it is picked up in Missouri by German immigrants who craft the historic 1873 bottling. Prohibition sees these vineyards burned to the ground by government order, but bootleggers keep the grape alive in hidden backwoods plots. Generations later, retired Air Force pilot Dennis Horton, who grew up playing in the abandoned wine caves of the very winery that produced the 1873 Norton, brings cuttings of the grape back home to Virginia. Here, dot-com-millionaire-turned-vintner Jenni McCloud, on an improbable journey of her own, becomes Norton’s ultimate champion, deciding, against all odds, to stake her entire reputation on the outsider grape. Brilliant and provocative, The Wild Vine shares with readers a great American secret, resuscitating the Norton grape and its elusive, inky drink and forever changing the way we look at wine, America, and long-cherished notions of identity and reinvention.
Download or read book Kevin Zraly s American Wine Guide written by Kevin Zraly and published by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. This book was released on 2006 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering vineyards from all 50 states, this volume will quench readers' need for information and advice on this booming topic. A map of each state indicates the grape-growing areas and notable labels.
Download or read book American Wine written by Jancis Robinson and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past three decades, a wine revolution has been taking place across the United States. There are now more than 7,000 American wine producers--up from 440 in 1970. This is the first comprehensive reference on the wines, wineries, and winemakers of America.
Download or read book American Wino written by Dan Dunn and published by Dey Street Books. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A professional booze writer whose life spins out of control tries to piece it back together by embarking upon an epic wine-fueled adventure that takes him to every corner of the U.S. Part vision quest, part guidebook, part journey into the bizarre tapestry of American life, it will make you laugh, make you cry and teach you a whole lot about wine. Former Playboy magazine nightlife columnist Dan Dunn has a made a career out of drinking. Yet this man’s man—a connoisseur of beer and whiskey—knew next to nothing about one of the major drinks enjoyed the world over: wine. When a fateful tasting experience coincided with a serious existential crisis, Dunn decided to hit the road on a journey of discovery. To quench his thirst for knowledge (and be able to throw down with the experts), he would educate himself about the industry glass by glass, from winery to winery, in nearly every region in the United States. His bold 15,000-mile road trip took Dunn from Sonoma, California, to Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, where he twirled, sniffed, and sipped glass after glass of a vast array of wines with vintners, savants, and celebrities, including Kurt Russell and “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” Jonathan Goldsmith. Dunn’s mission was to transform himself from a heartbroken schlub who barely knew the difference between Merlot and Meritage, into a confident connoisseur capable of wowing others simply by swirling some fermented grape juice around in his mouth and pronouncing it “troubling, yet brilliant.” In American Wino, Dunn shares it all—the good, the bad, the sublime. As his wine knowledge grows and becomes more complex, he shares it with the reader in the form of digestible, actionable nuggets in each chapter. It’s like a wine-tasting course at your local community college extension program, only with more sex and less crushing despair. An intoxicating blend of travel writing, memoir, and booze journalism that pairs earthy humor with fine wine for hilarious and enlightening results, it is the story of one man’s journey to find himself—and everyman’s journey to better understand the true spirit of this divine elixir.
Download or read book Empire of Vines written by Erica Hannickel and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-10-09 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lush, sun-drenched vineyards of California evoke a romantic, agrarian image of winemaking, though in reality the industry reflects American agribusiness at its most successful. Nonetheless, as author Erica Hannickel shows, this fantasy is deeply rooted in the history of grape cultivation in America. Empire of Vines traces the development of wine culture as grape growing expanded from New York to the Midwest before gaining ascendancy in California—a progression that illustrates viticulture's centrality to the nineteenth-century American projects of national expansion and the formation of a national culture. Empire of Vines details the ways would-be gentleman farmers, ambitious speculators, horticulturalists, and writers of all kinds deployed the animating myths of American wine culture, including the classical myth of Bacchus, the cult of terroir, and the fantasy of pastoral republicanism. Promoted by figures as varied as horticulturalist Andrew Jackson Downing, novelist Charles Chesnutt, railroad baron Leland Stanford, and Cincinnati land speculator Nicholas Longworth (known as the father of American wine), these myths naturalized claims to land for grape cultivation and legitimated national expansion. Vineyards were simultaneously lush and controlled, bearing fruit at once culturally refined and naturally robust, laying claim to both earthy authenticity and social pedigree. The history of wine culture thus reveals nineteenth-century Americans' fascination with the relationship between nature and culture.
Download or read book The Makers of American Wine written by Thomas Pinney and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-05-07 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for Thomas Pinney's "A History of Wine in America" "Exhaustively researched. . ..invaluable to serious scholars of the grape. Fascinating reading." --"San Francisco Chronicle" "Revealing a sharp eye for detail and a dry, low-key wit, Pinney writes in an engaging style and with remarkable clarity." --"Wine Spectator" "Definitive. . ..an important work of historical literature." --"Wine & Spirits" "An indispensable view of. . .a remarkable time." --"Decanter"
Download or read book American Wine written by Tom Acitelli and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Beard Book Award Nominee 2016 Readable Feast Winner 2016 From the author of The Audacity of Hops: The History of America's Craft Beer Revolution comes the triumphant tale of how America belted France from atop its centuries-old pedestal as the world's top wine-producing and wine-drinking nation. Until the mid-1970s, most American wine was far from fine. Instead, it was fortified and sweet, and came from grape varieties prized less for their taste than for their ability to ferment fast. Even in big cities, a bottle of domestically made Chardonnay or Merlot was hard to come by—and most Americans thought wine like that was for the wealthy anyway, not for them. Then a series of game-changing events and a group of plucky entrepreneurs transformed everything forever. Within a generation, America would stand unquestionably at the world vanguard of wine, reversing centuries of Eurocentrism and dominating the Field. This change spawned hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in sales. European vintners found themselves altering centuries-old recipes and techniques to cater to these newly ascendant, free-spending tastes. The most popular fine wines worldwide became big, powerful, and loud—American, in other words. American Wine tells that story. All the big players and milestones are here, with never-before-told details and analyses based on fresh interviews. Written in a fast-moving, engaging style free of wine jargon, American Wine is the first of its kind: a book focused solely on the rise of fine wine in the United States since the early 1960s, in California and elsewhere, and how that rise altered the way the world drinks—for better or worse.
Download or read book Wine Heritage written by Dick Rosano and published by Board and Bench Publishing. This book was released on 2000-10-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mondavi, Martini, Sebastiani, Gallo, Bargetto and Perelli-Minetti. Who could deny the importance of Italians to the development of America’s wine industry? It is little known that Italians have been planting vineyards and making wine in America since the early colonial days when Filippo Mazzei was the vineyard consultant for Thomas Jefferson. Grapes were planted and nurtured in virtually every corner of America where Italians settled. Wine making was as sacrosanct as making bread or pasta. Here is the story of Italian immigrants whose descendants now dominate American wine making. How they struggled and endured. How they persisted in the face of Prohibition and facilitated legislation permitting home wine making of 200 gallons per family. The intrigue, the feuds, the love affairs and financial triumphs are all in this authenticated history from the earliest days of America to the new Italian/American wine makers.
Download or read book American Rhone written by Patrick J. Comiskey and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Thoughtfully conceived and very well written, this is essential somm reading."—The Somm Journal "This is the most important wine book of the year, perhaps in many years."—The Seattle Times "Crisply written, impeccably researched, balanced if fundamentally enthusiastic, scholarly but accessible, and full of unexpected details and characters."—The World of Fine Wine No wine category has seen more dramatic growth in recent years than American Rhône–variety wines. Winemakers are devoting more energy, more acreage, and more bottlings to Rhône varieties than ever before. The flagship Rhône red, Syrah, is routinely touted as one of California’s most promising varieties, capable of tremendous adaptability as a vine, wonderfully variable in style, and highly expressive of place. There has never been a better time for American Rhône wine producers. American Rhône is the untold history of the American Rhône wine movement. The popularity of these wines has been hard fought; this is a story of fringe players, unknown varieties, and longshot efforts finding their way to the mainstream. It’s the story of winemakers gathering sufficient strength in numbers to forge a triumph of the obscure and the brash. But, more than this, it is the story of the maturation of the American palate and a new republic of wine lovers whose restless tastes and curiosity led them to Rhône wines just as those wines were reaching a critical mass in the marketplace. Patrick J. Comiskey’s history of the American Rhône wine movement is both a compelling underdog success story and an essential reference for the wine professional.
Download or read book Pioneering American Wine written by Nicholas Herbemont and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2010-01-25 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume collects the most important writings on viticulture by Nicholas Herbemont (1771-1839), who is widely considered the finest practicing winemaker of the early United States. Included are his two major treatises on viticulture, thirty-one other published pieces on vine growing and wine making, and essays that outline his agrarian philosophy. Over the course of his career, Herbemont cultivated more than three hundred varieties of grapes in a garden the size of a city block in Columbia, South Carolina, and in a vineyard at his plantation, Palmyra, just outside the city. Born in France, Herbemont carefully tested the most widely held methods of growing, pruning, processing, and fermentation in use in Europe to see which proved effective in the southern environment. His treatise "Wine Making," first published in the American Farmer in 1833, became for a generation the most widely read and reliable American guide to the art of producing potable vintage. David S. Shields, in his introductory essay, positions Herbemont not only as important to the history of viticulture in America but also as a notable proponent of agricultural reform in the South. Herbemont advocated such practices as crop rotation and soil replenishment and was an outspoken critic of slave-based cotton culture.
Download or read book American Winescapes written by Gary L Peters and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-12 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winescapes are unique agricultural landscapes that are shaped by the presence of vineyards, winemaking activities, and the wineries where wines are produced and stored. Where viticulture is successful it transforms the local landscape into a combination of agriculture, industry, and tourism. This book demystifies viticulture in a way that helps the reader understand the environmental and economic conditions necessary in the art and practice of wine making. Distinctive characteristics of the book include a detailed discussion of more than thirty grape cultivars, an overview of wine regions around the country, and a survey of wine publications and festivals. Peters discusses the major environmental conditions affecting viticulture, especially weather and climate, and outlines the special problems the industry faces from lack of capital, competition, and changing public tastes.
Download or read book Cucamonga Valley Wine written by George M. Walker & John Peragine and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-11 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cucamonga Valley was once America's largest wine-producing region, crafting quality vintages decades before Napa and Sonoma. Secondo Guasti, an ambitious and enterprising Italian immigrant, established the region's first vineyard in 1901, and others soon followed. Wineries like the Vai Brothers, Padre, Galleano, Brookside and more made the valley the epicenter of a burgeoning industry. Not even Prohibition could halt production. While domestic breweries and distilleries shuttered, Cucamonga's brandy and sherry continued to be legally made for culinary and medicinal purposes. Yet by the late 1970s, harvests had dwindled and vineyards vanished. Urbanization, vine disease and property taxes effectively ended production. Today, local vintners and wine enthusiasts are reviving the region's proud heritage. Authors George M. Walker and John Peragine uncork a legacy too delectable to die.
Download or read book Wine Country USA written by Matthew Debord and published by Rizzoli International Publications. This book was released on 2005 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wine Country USA is the first and only book to cover this new phenomenon. Full of gorgeous photography that shows the picturesque landscapes of these new wine areas, this book will inspire you to explore the amazing wineries in your own backyard. In ten "Vine Routes" features, there are recommended vineyards mapped out to plan your visit-from Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley to North Carolina's Piedmont, from Colorado's Grande River to California's Napa Valley. The "Ten Labels to Look For"
Download or read book The Road to Burgundy written by Ray Walker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intoxicating memoir of an American who discovers a passion for French wine and gambles everything to chase a dream of owning a vineyard in Burgundy Ray Walker had a secure career in finance until a wine-tasting vacation ignited a passion he couldn’t stifle. He quit his job and moved to France to start a winery—with little money, limited command of the French language, and no winemaking experience. He immersed himself in the extraordinary history of Burgundy’s vineyards and began honing his skills. Ray shares his journey to secure the region’s most coveted grapes. The Road to Burgundy is a glorious celebration of finding one’s true path in life and taking a chance—whatever the odds.
Download or read book The New California Wine written by Jon Bonné and published by Ten Speed Press. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive guide to the must-know wines and producers of California's "new generation," and the story of the iconoclastic young winemakers who have changed the face of California viniculture in recent years. The New California Wine is the untold story of the California wine industry: the young, innovative producers who are rewriting the rules of contemporary winemaking; their quest to express the uniqueness of California terroir; and the continuing battle to move the state away from the overly-technocratic, reactionary practices of its recent past. Jon Bonné writes from the front lines of the California wine revolution, where he has access to the fascinating stories, philosophies, and techniques of top producers. Part narrative, part authoritative purchasing reference, The New California Wine is a necessary addition to any wine lover's bookshelf.
Download or read book San Luis Obispo County Wine A World Class History written by Libbie Agran and Heather Muran with the Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2021 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid-1800s, fortune seekers from around the world flocked to California, but not all of them ended up in the gold fields. Many settled in San Luis Obispo County, drawn by the Mediterranean climate perfect for planting a familiar crop: grapevines. Local viticulture originated with the Spanish Missions, but it blossomed with the influx of intrepid adventurers. Growers and winemakers like Pierre Dallidet, an immigrant who helped save the French wine industry, and Henry Ditmas and James Anderson, who were the first to plant Zinfandel grapes, established vineyards and set about crafting award-winning wine in the fertile soil of Central California. Join the experts at the Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County as they share the unique stories of these legendary winemakers.
Download or read book Gold in the Vineyards written by Laura Catena and published by Catapulta Editores. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2020 Gourmand Award for Best in the World Wine History Book, Dr. Laura Catena's Gold in the Vineyards is an illustrated book about the family struggles, triumphs and vineyard secrets behind twelve of the most famous wines and vineyards in the world.
