Books on history of California winemaking?

WINE TALK
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We’ve been working on a condensed, but hopefully thorough history of California wine that touches on many of the important bases from the 1800’s to today that you might find helpful. Complete Napa Valley California Wine History from Early 1800s to Today

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When I first starting buying wine, the classic book on California wine was by a guy named Leon Adams. This should give you a lot of older history. http://www.amazon.com/The-Wines-America-Leon-Adams/dp/0070003327

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Here’s another recommendation for the Judgement of Paris book. You’ll get the history and it’s also a very entertaining read.

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Many thanks for the recommendations.

I picked up a couple things on the real cheap from Amazon including the Wines of California and Bottled Poetry. I have read Judgment of Paris but it is such a good book that I might have to pick it up again for the entertaining read.

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Another vote. Bought this at the Strand several weeks back and have been reading the sections while drinking wine from that era made by the respective winemakers. It’s great fun.

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As someone else mentioned, the James Conaway book and its sequel cover exactly what you’re looking for.

Napa: The Story of an American Eden
The Far Side of Eden: New Money, Old Land, and The Battle for Napa Valley

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Am I the only one who felt a little dirty after reading those Conaway books? Didn’t finish the second. Tawdry stuff I thought.

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I found an online source for reading all of Thomas Lapsley’s book:


[u]Bottled Poetry: Napa Winemaking from Prohibition to the Modern Era[/u]
by Thomas Lapsley
1996


More Free Reading Resources from UC Press:

· Lapsley, James T. Bottled Poetry: Napa Winemaking from Prohibition to the Modern Era.
Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, c1996 1996. Bottled Poetry

· Pinney, Thomas. A History of Wine in America: From the Beginnings to Prohibition.
Berkeley: University of California Press, c1989 1989. A History of Wine in America

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For a couple of AVA specific books check Like Modern Edens: Winegrowing in Santa Clara Valley and Santa Cruz Mountains 1798-1981 by Charles L. Sullivan (1982)
and Wines and Winemakers of the Santa Cruz Mountains an oral history also by Charles L. Sullivan. This you can read online PDF's (Images)

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Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I enjoyed this one:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/american-vintage-the-rise-of-american-wine_paul-lukacs/493580/item/747134/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlsOW-pj68AIVxQN9Ch2lWgbvEAQYAyABEgLD4vD_BwE#idiq=747134&edition=4648235

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Another vote for Bottled Poetry.

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This is the way.

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Online resources that are pretty darn great:


· Australia’s Biodiversity Library: Link

Example: George Husmann’s [u]American Grape Growing and Wine Making[/u], 4th edition, 1909


· Wayward Tendrils: A Wine Book Collector’s Society:
Link

  • Directory of Wayward Tendrils Quarterly Journal Editions:Link

  • Directory of California Viticultural District Histories:
    Link


    · Sonoma County Library:
    Link

Sonoma County Winemaker Oral Histories at the Wine Library:
Link

Example: “Louis Pagani”


These are just a few resources I could conjure up on the fly. I strongly recommend that 19th Century CA wine history buffs check out the Biodiversity Library. It features many user-friendly tools for combing through books.

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I have listed a few more resources for history of California Winemaking.****


The first website is a catalog of hundreds of bibliographic entries on the subject. If you can imagine a book related to wine, it probably is named therein.

· Ininet:
“Catalog of My Wine Library:
Thomas Pinney, Claremont, California 2004”
Intro & Guide


· California State Library
Ex Libris: “Wine & Winemaking, California”


· UC Davis Press
E-Books Collection:
“Wine”


· Visit California Online
California History: “Notable Wineries by District & Region (1955)”

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Fine Wines of California by Hurst Hannum and Robert Blumberg. 1971

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I think I have two copies of this! Another one was commissioned by a major company that was an exhaustive listing of $9.00 Napa Valley Cabernet. [dance-clap.gif]

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I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this yet, but Rhone Rangers is a great read.

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UC Davis Prof. Maynard Amarine was a major figure and wrote a number of books on winemaking but, strangely, I don’t see any of them available on Amazon or eBay:

  1. Wine, An Introduction. Revised edition 1975 with Vernon L. Singleton.
  2. Wines: Their Sensory Evaluation, with Edward B. Roessler (W.H. Freeman & Company). Revised and enlarged, 1983.
    Table Wines and Dessert and Appetizer Wines, with Maynard A. Joslyn.
    Technology of Winemaking, with William V. Cruess, Harold W. Berg; revised with Ralph E. Kunkee, Cornelius S. Ough, Vernon L. Singleton, and A. Dinsmore Webb.
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Here are some other internet resources that might shed more light on California wine history:


Hogshead features several great articles on early European and American wine history:

· Hogshead - A Wine Blog
Articles tagged “History of Wine”
by Aaron Nix-Gomez & Lou French


Various entries list and describe CA wine producers of Italian descent:

· Terra Soffice, Uva Nera: Vitivinicoltori Piemontesi in California
Home Page (mostly English-language)


This downloadable file explores the history of California’s wine variety studies through the years, including Goheen’s research vineyard:

· UC ANR
“UC Davis’ Role in Improving California’s Grape Planting Materials” (PDF download)
· Visit California Online
Older articles tagged “California History”

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The book Amerine wrote with Roessler is basically a book on how to analyze the statistics of wine tasting results etc. For those of you with insomnia…
Hurst Hannum became a professor of International law at Tufts. Bob Blumberg was/is a physician at Kaiser and quite active in Medical Friends of Wine here. Back in the early '70s they, along with Bruce Neyers and the late Jim Olsen, started a series of classes at UC Extension here that have turned into a small industry.

I concur about the Lapsley book. It’s excellent on the period from the end of Prohibition to ‘modern’ times.

Dr. Richard ‘Dick’ Peterson’s autobiography talks about his life at Gallo, BV, Taylor of California. I enjoyed it. There are some who quibble about his memories of life at Gallo.

Speaking of Gallo, what about Blood and Wine by Ellen Hawkes. This can be hard to find.

Frances Dinkelspiel wrote a book called Tangled Vines. It is somewhat personal but there is a lot about the history of winemaking in Southern California. I also recommend her bookm on the Hellman family, her cousins.

Did anybody recommend David Darlington’s books??He is a terrific writer and I have even read his book on Area 51.His book on zin is great and I greatly enjoyed An Ideal Wine.

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