The Wines Of America

In the same series as Assouline’s original The Impossible Collection of Wine: The 100 Most Exceptional Vintages of the Twentieth Century this addition to the Ultimate Collection envisions a cellar brimming with the most remarkable American wines. The Impossible Collection of Wine: The 100 Most Exceptional and Collectible American Wines highlights wines from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries produced by the finest vineyards. Celebrating vintages from the legendary 1964 Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour to the more recent yet striking 2010 Ultramarine Blanc de Blancs, this collection reflects all the diversity and beauty that American wine has to offer. Author Enrico Bernardo, Best Sommelier of the World 2004, explores the world of endless surprises that wine has to offer, as well as the joy and memories that it can bring to all those who appreciate it. Including wines from Napa to Walla Walla Valley, the selection takes into account rarity, terroir, taste, and historical mystique. Bernardo celebrates the most exquisite vintages, inviting the reader on a journey through the unique history of American wine, from its beginnings with the Founding Fathers to the momentous Judgment of Paris and the distinct Napa Valley culture of today. Bringing readers on a journey from 1955 to 2016, Bernardo curates a list any connoisseur could only dream of.

Abstract: An historical and current encyclopedic view of wine growing and wine making for hobbyists and connoisseurs alike covers wine production in North America over the past 400 years, and the great American wines of the past and present. The text is organized according to the various wine-producing regions throughout the US, ranging from the Finger Lakes of New York and the middle Atlantic states to Napa Valley and Southern California. Ancillary topics include the wines of Canada and Mexico, wines from "varietal grapes", hobbyists and small wineries, and a glossary of wine terms. A wine map of the US and maps of the vineyard district of various states, Canada, and Mexico, are appended.

In 1975 there were 125 wineries in eastern North America. By 2013 there were more than 2,400. How and why the eastern United States and Canada became a major wine region of the world is the subject of this history. Unlike winemakers in California with its Mediterranean climate, the pioneers who founded the industry after Prohibition—1933 in the United States and 1927 in Ontario—had to overcome natural obstacles such as subzero cold in winter and high humidity in the summer that favored diseases devastating to grapevines. Enologists and viticulturists at Eastern research stations began to find grapevine varieties that could survive in the East and make world-class wines. These pioneers were followed by an increasing number of dedicated growers and winemakers who fought in each of their states to get laws dating back to Prohibition changed so that an industry could begin. Hudson Cattell, a leading authority on the wines of the East, in this book presents a comprehensive history of the growth of the industry from Prohibition to today. He draws on extensive archival research and his more than thirty-five years as a wine journalist specializing in the grape and wine industry of the wines of eastern North America. The second section of the book adds detail to the history in the form of multiple appendixes that can be referred to time and again. Included here is information on the origin of grapes used for wine in the East, the crosses used in developing the French hybrids and other varieties, how the grapes were named, and the types of wines made in the East and when. Cattell also provides a state-by-state history of the earliest wineries that led the way.

The Vikings called North America "Vinland," the land of wine. Giovanni de Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who first described the grapes of the New World, was sure that "they would yield excellent wines." And when the English settlers found grapes growing so thickly that they covered the ground down to the very seashore, they concluded that "in all the world the like abundance is not to be found." Thus, from the very beginning the promise of America was, in part, the alluring promise of wine. How that promise was repeatedly baffled, how its realization was gradually begun, and how at last it has been triumphantly fulfilled is the story told in this book. It is a story that touches on nearly every section of the United States and includes the whole range of American society from the founders to the latest immigrants. Germans in Pennsylvania, Swiss in Georgia, Minorcans in Florida, Italians in Arkansas, French in Kansas, Chinese in California—all contributed to the domestication of Bacchus in the New World. So too did innumerable individuals, institutions, and organizations. Prominent politicians, obscure farmers, eager amateurs, sober scientists: these and all the other kinds and conditions of American men and women figure in the story. The history of wine in America is, in many ways, the history of American origins and of American enterprise in microcosm. While much of that history has been lost to sight, especially after Prohibition, the recovery of the record has been the goal of many investigators over the years, and the results are here brought together for the first time. In print in its entirety for the first time, A History of Wine in America is the most comprehensive account of winemaking in the United States, from the Norse discovery of native grapes in 1001 A.D., through Prohibition, and up to the present expansion of winemaking in every state.

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.

Introduces the variety and quality of wine available in ten South American countries, exploring the regions, styles, and prominent grapes of the continent's two leading producers, Argentina and Chile, as well other nations' evolving industries.

An authoritative guide to wine production in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, highlighting geographical, philosophical, and commercial variations throughout the region. It consists of a series of introductory essays, discussing in depth key topics such as prohibition, cybersales, wine auctions,microbiology, labor, and viticulture, followed by more than 500 A-Z entries, including individual wineries and winemakers, regions, grape varieties, technical terms, and more. The text is complemented by 20 beautiful full-colour illustrations, and by an extensive map section. The text is closelylinked, for example by the use of cross-references, to the Oxford Companion to Wine, to which it serves as a complementary volume.

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"