American Vintage

This book traces the development of the American wine industry from its founding in Ohio in the early nineteenth century to its triumph over French wines in blind tastings in 1976 and since, to a place of respectability on the American dinner table and throughout the world. Along the way, the reader encounters the impact of Prohibition on the industry and American taste, the devastations of phylloxera, and role of twentieth-century science and technology in grape growing and winemaking. The entrepreneurial efforts of Robert Mondavi, Jess Jackson (Kendall-Jackson), Warren Winiarski (Stag's Leap), Mike Grgich (Grgich Hills) and others that led to changes in the American taste for wine, and the growth of winemaking throughout the country are documented in a lively, interesting, and readable style. The history, the people, the culture, and of course, the subject make this an interesting and engaging book.