The Finest Wines Of California

Unconstrained by tradition or viticultural regulation, California winemakers enjoy a freedom that has resulted in a remarkable range of world-class wines. Beautifully illustrated with original photographs and detailed color maps, this guide introduces California wine by exploring the best that the state has to offer —from lush Sonoma Chardonnay to spicy Santa Barbara Syrah to heady Amador Zinfandel. At the heart of the book, award-winning wine writer Stephen Brook offers 90 intimate profiles of top producers—from Napa and Sonoma to the North and Central coasts, the Sierra foothills, and beyond. Brook also includes general information on California wine history, wine culture, grape varieties, and more. Throughout, he searches for the characteristics that make California wine distinctive despite its tremendous diversity—and finds the answer in the state’s unusual climate, especially the shifting interplay between fog and sun, as well as a lively and constant questioning of received ideas about viticulture, vine age, terroir, and winemaking techniques, all of which have helped winemakers to create complexity,individuality, and nuance in their wines.

The wines of Tuscany were famous long before Leonardo da Vinci described them as “bottled sunshine,” and they are at the forefront of the remarkable renaissance of Italian wine over the past 30 years. In this groundbreaking new book, Nicolas Belfrage shares his insider’s knowledge acquired as a specialist wine trader and writer. Mindful of the region’s fascinating past, Belfrage brings its story up to date, discussing such subjects as geology and geography, grape varieties, and the latest research into Sangiovese, the variety used in the top wines of Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. He also clarifies the regulatory framework and follows the recent controversial developments in viticulture and winemaking, including the rise of the Super-Tuscans and the ongoing “Brunellogate” scandal that broke in 2008. At the heart of the book are in-depth, illustrated profiles of more than 90 of the most interesting producers, large and small, with insightful notes on the essential character of their finest wines. The author also offers a comprehensive review of vintages and selects his top 100 wines in ten different categories, while wines of special quality or value are indicated throughout.

Champagne is synonymous with celebration and success—but have its festive associations detracted from its status as a fine wine in its own right? Drawing on his intimate knowledge of a classic but rapidly changing region, Michael Edwards takes a radically different approach in this unrivaled, terroir-based guide to the world’s best sparkling wines. Ninety in-depth profiles of the best small growers as well as the greatest houses are organized geographically—from the finest producers of the great city of Reims, wine towns of Epernay and Aÿ, and the leading villages of the Marne, and to the rising stars of the Aube (Côte des Bar) and beyond. Edwards also discusses the culture of Champagne, reviews trends in viticulture and winemaking, and investigates controversial solutions to the current crisis of success in a region that cannot satisfy global demand for its wines. Additional sections explore the gastronomic traditions of the area, give advice on pairing Champagne with food, survey the vintages of the past 20 years, list the wines with the best price-to-quality ratio, and more, making this extensively illustrated work a true connoisseur’s guide to the most glamorous and perhaps the most enigmatic of French wines.

"I have depended on Charles Olken's Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine for more than 35 years. This new Guidebook is a perfect complement. No other book comes close to its thoroughness, accuracy, and usefulness. It is a must for travelers in California's wine country."—Charles L. Sullivan, author of Zinfandel "Olken's perspective on California wines is unmatched: he spans the landscape from the postwar pioneers to the newest garagistes, and wine criticism from before Parker to the age of blogs. This new guidebook is informed by his 35 years of careful, candid, and comprehensive attention to California wine."—John Winthrop Haeger, author of Pacific Pinot Noir

Bordeaux has long symbolized the peak of prestige for French wine. Yet, despite its outstanding reputation, the region has remained relatively closed to consumers. This book identifies 90 producers from both the Left and Right banks with the finest wines, and takes us inside their chateaux. It also contains chapters on history and winemaking.

- California is the largest wine region in the world, as well as one of its most-regarded - this book tells its story - Articles and extracts from some of the most loved wine writers of yesterday and today - An essential wine book for every wine lover and wine student - Beautifully designed and illustrated to bring the region to life on the page On California explores the grapes and the people who have made California wine great. The pioneers, the boffins, the whizz-kids and scientists, many of whom tell their stories on its pages - some in precious archive material, others have set down their thoughts mid-pandemic in 2021: Randall Grahm, Gerald Asher, Steven Spurrier, Paul Draper and Warren Winiarski take a bow.... Includes: California wine and the future: where will the 'California spirit' lead next? The 'Hollywood Grape' our authors chart the path of Cabernet Sauvignon, from the wish-list of Thomas Jefferson to the hallowed hillsides of Stag's Leap and Screaming Eagle 1976? Of course it was a competition! Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher look back at the motivations behind the famous Paris wine tasting Top New York sommelier Victoria James tells of her near-death introduction to the whacky world of winemaking in Sonoma Will the real Zinfandel please stand up? Paul Draper seeks out the true heritage of California's versatile orphan grape Contributions from top California writers: Elaine Chukan Brown, Mary Margaret McCamic MW, Karen MacNeil, Esther Mobley, Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Liz Thach MW, Clare Tooley MW, and Kelli White Hugh Johnson, Jane Anson and Fiona Morrison MW introduce California's intrepid wine pioneers Rex Pickett's Sideways heroes, Jack and Miles, clink glasses over the Central Coast's finest Pinot Noir A-Z: from 'Bob' Mondavi to Xylem sap-sensors and pink Zinfandel - California wine in bite-size Hugh Johnson pays tribute to Bordeaux master Michael Broadbent.

A compilation of fifty-three articles on the history and making of California wine by forty-four authors.

"This is arguably the best of the titles so far in the 'Finest Wines' series and the best book about German wines in English for a generation." --John Winthrop Haeger, author of North American Pinot Noir "The author's voice is consistently engaged and enthusiastic, and his book should appeal to a general readership of wine lovers as well as to anyone with a professional interest in German wine." --David Schildknecht, German wine authority for The Wine Advocate and the Oxford Companion to Wine