"Meticulously researched history…look[s] at how wine and Western civilization grew up together." —Dave McIntyre, Washington Post Because science and technology have opened new avenues for vintners, our taste in wine has grown ever more diverse. Wine is now the subject of careful chemistry and global demand. Paul Lukacs recounts the journey of wine through history—how wine acquired its social cachet, how vintners discovered the twin importance of place and grape, and how a basic need evolved into a realm of choice.

Winner of the James Beard Foundation, International Association of Culinary Professionals, and Clicquot Wine Book of the Year awards How did a country with no winemaking traditions of its own suddenly become a world leader? Paul Lukacs offers a full history, from seventeenth-century experiments to the fall of wine during the dark days of Prohibition through its remarkably rapid upswing in recent decades. The tale is replete with quirky heroes and visionaries who changed the course of wine history: from Nicholas Longsworth, a diminutive, nineteenth-century real estate tycoon and the founding father of American wine, to the Mondavis and Gallos, the powerful first families of American wine in the modern era.

The world's most trusted annual wine guide. Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book is the essential reference book for everyone who buys wine - in shops, restaurants, or on the internet. Now in its 45th year of publication, it has no rival as the comprehensive, up-to-the-minute annual guide. It provides clear succinct facts and commentary on the wines, growers and wine regions of the whole world. It reveals which vintages to buy, which to drink and which to cellar, which growers to look for and why. Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book gives clear information on grape varieties, local specialities and how to match food with wines that will bring out the best in both. This latest edition of Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book includes a colour supplement: The Ten Best Things About Wine Right Now.

The figure of the putto (often portrayed as a mischievous baby) made frequent appearances in the art and literature of Renaissance Italy. Commonly called spiritelli, or sprites, putti embodied a minor species of demon, in their nature neither good

From the hills of Napa to the mountain slopes of Piedmont, writers Nick Wise and Linda Sunshine went in search of great wine and famous people who are also winemakers. In the past few years, helming a winery has become more and more popular among the rich and famous. But how much involvement in the actual process of making that wine did those celebrities actually have? Were they merely name endorsements or were they part of the incredibly difficult process of creating great wine from a field of grapes? Travelling around the world, Wise and Sunshine interviewed such winemakers as B. R. Cohn, manager of the Doobie Brothers; screenwriter Robert Kamen of The Karate Kid fame; race car drivers Mario Andretti and legendary football coach, Dick Vermeil. Written for fans of wine, travel, and the rich and famous, Celebrity Vineyards is a fascinating journey into a world that, for most of us, is only a dream. Here are artists and entrepreneurs, dreamers and businesspeople who share a love of wine, a respect for the grape, and the joy of creating something amazing out of the land.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' PICK “Thrilling . . . [told] with gonzo élan . . . When the sommelier and blogger Madeline Puckette writes that this book is the Kitchen Confidential of the wine world, she’s not wrong, though Bill Buford’s Heat is probably a shade closer.” —Jennifer Senior, The New York Times Professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn’t know much about wine—until she discovered an alternate universe where taste reigns supreme, a world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavor. Astounded by their fervor and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a “cork dork.” With boundless curiosity, humor, and a healthy dose of skepticism, Bosker takes the reader inside underground tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, California mass-market wine factories, and even a neuroscientist’s fMRI machine as she attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: what’s the big deal about wine? What she learns will change the way you drink wine—and, perhaps, the way you live—forever. “Think: Eat, Pray, Love meets Somm.” —theSkimm “As informative as it is, well, intoxicating.” —Fortune

"Wine is made in the vineyard" is the mantra of many a winemaker. But what does it mean, really? Esteemed winemaker and biodynamic pioneer Nicholas Joly believes a wine that is well-made in the vineyard must express its unique terroir—the character imbued by a vine's particular plot of well-tended earth. In Biodynamic Wine, Demystified, Joly shares the core philosophy behind biodynamic viticulture and why such practices result in wines of regional distinction. This process treats the vineyard as a self-perpetuating ecological whole influenced not only by terrestrial forces but those of the sun, moon and cosmos. He explains why the use of foreign substances such as pesticides and fertilizers in the vineyard, and aromatic yeasts and enzymes in the cellar, as well as mechanisms such as electric motors and pumps, disrupt this synergy and are ultimately counterproductive to a wine's best, consistent expression.