1 comments about Italian Wines 1999 (Italian Wines, 1999).

1. It's a very nice book, but the reader must know that it's not a guide to understand italian wine (beginner guide). You need to know a little bit about what Chianti, Barolo or Verdicchio are. "Italian wines 99" is more a book to help the reader to buy wines, to choose. Some regions are well described, as Tuscany or Piedmont, but Lazio (Frascati's region) or Basilicate are poorly represented.

2 comments about The Production of Grapes & Wine in Cool Climates.

1. As a complete beginner to viticulture I have found this book absolutely invaluable. It covers all aspects of cool-climate grapegrowing in a readable and accessible manner, with clear text and diagrams concerning site and variety selection, planting, establishment, pruning and training, pests and diseases, and winemaking. The section on grape varieties has excellent photographs, and a superb introduction gives an overview of the cooler grape-producing regions of the world. Written in New Zealand, this is however a "must" for all new grapegrowers, no matter where the "terroir". My copy is starting to show signs of over-use!



2. This is a very good reference book for growing grapes in cool climate regions. The section on the geopgraphical analysis of grape growing introduces the concept of LTI (latitude temperature index) which is another useful metric to compare climates. Soils and climates are tied together in the analysis. The diagrams on training and pruning are very well done. This is one of the few books that references the Sylvoz training method. The chapter on grape varieties has excellent color photographs with variety specific details. The one detail missing which can be crucial in some cool climate areas is some measure of winter hardiness (such as the 50% or 100% bud loss number). There is also good coverage of some of the more obscure cool climate varieties as well as rootstock characteristics.

5 comments about American Vintage : The Rise of American Wine.

1. In this work, Lukacs traces the origins of American grape growing and wine production from the early 19th century to present. Much of the work is focused on the last 30 or 40 years when grape growing and wine production began to be serious pursuits in the U.S.

   This book is entertaining, interesting, and educational but I give it only 3 stars due to its highly repetitive nature. It is as if the book was written so that each chapter can be read independently and not lose the totality of the work. Obviously, this leads to undue repetition. I would have much appreciated Lukacs slimming the book down and avoiding his urge to tell once more what he has already told us.




2. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I loved the the history and, as a wine lover, it helped me understand the product and the industry in a way I never did before. I am a management professor at Stanford, so the best part for me was reading about the innovative practices used in the wine industry, the constant experimentation and information sharing that should serve as model for other industries. After reading this book I realized that the wine industry, not the computer industry, is the best model other firms and industries that want to flourish. I'd give this book six stars if I could.



3. I agree with all the above praise. The book was meticulously researched and well written. Great personal recollections from the people who were there.
   
   There were two minor annoyances
   1. The author repeats himself fairly often.
   2. You get bounced back and forth in time a bit. From pre-prohibition to post and then to the 90's then back to WWII.
   
   Minor issues that probably won't bother you unless you're reading the book on and off over the course of a couple of weeks.



4. Early America wasn't noted for its wines: so what influenced the birth of the industry, and how did it so quickly rise to become a world wine influence? Paul Lukacs provides a history which begins with 17th century grape-growing and winemaking experiments right up to modern times, following the course of wine industry development from individuals who contributed to its rise to families and economics which fostered its evolution. Paul Lukacs is the wine columnist for the Washington Times and Washingtonian, and AMERICAN VINTAGE: THE RISE OF AMERICAN WINE is a winning study for any interested in wine development.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



5. I have enjoyed this book a lot. I have learnt a lot about american wine, its history, its specificities, its wineries, its stakes...
   After reading this book, you have a rather accurate overview of the american wine industry.
   
   I was just not always comfortable with the very scholar format.

1 comments about Compendium of Grape Disease (Disease Compendium Series of the American Phytopathological).

1. If you grow grapes, you'll probably want to have a copy of this book. Nice color photographs of grapevine diseases, damage done by pesticides, and injury from climate. While the collection has a large number of pests and diseases covered, there are some issing, such as the grape cane girdler and grape cane gallmaker. The life cycle and discussion of each type of disease is somewhat useful, although most of the technical aspects of the diseases can probably be more appreciated by someone with a better understanding of biology. The book is a bit pricey, and most of the photographs of the diseases can be found on the Internet although it is convenient to have them all in one place.

No comments about Daughter of the Vine: A Remembrance.

No comments about Grapes Indoors and Out (Wisley Handbook).

2 comments about Strong Wine: The Life and Legend of Agoston Haraszthy.

1. This is a book that often manages to take a colorful and fascinating life and reduce it to the tedium of everyday minutiae. Still,the research is great,the issues addressed are interesting. It is worth reading, though it may put you to sleep at times. There are certainly large portions that will be of interest to no one but a descendant (as the author is), and the prose is dense and not conducive to page-turning at times. You'll wade through this if you're a real geek--but not otherwise.



2. The acclaimed British wine writer Hugh Johnson once wrote: "No novelist could have invented Haraszthy. There is a surprise around every corner of his life-and how many lives have had so many corners?"
   
   In Strong Wine: The Life and Legend of Agoston Haraszthy, Brian McGinty explores, analyzes, and describes every "corner" of Agoston Haraszthy's remarkable life, taking readers on fascinating excursions into the history of Habsburg Hungary, Jacksonian America, Gold Rush California, and post-Civil War Central America. It is an absorbing story, and an important one, too, for Haraszthy made real contributions to the development of agriculture in California during the almost twenty years (1849-1868) he lived and worked there.
   
   As history professor William K. Crowley attests in his review of this book, "McGinty comes through as the true authority on Haraszthy, provides the peruser a well written read and substantiates the claims of Haraszthy as the `Father of Californian Viticulture'. His meticulous footnotes and mountainous bibliography lend testimony to his scholarship."
   
   In his review, John Wills of the University of Bristol calls Strong Wine "an impressive biography." P. D. Travis of Texas Women's University calls it "a wonderful book for agricultural, ethnic, and western historians, and for those with interests in Americana." Bernard Demczuk of George Washington University describes it as "masterful." Jacob Vander Meulen of Canada's Dalhousie University says it is "fluid and engaging." Robert J. Chandler, of the Historical Services of Wells Fargo Bank, says it is an "ably written, well-researched study." And Richard Steven Street, author of Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farm Workers (2004), labels it "the finest biography of any California agriculture figure."
   
   Recommended!

1 comments about Winegrowing in Eastern America: An Illustrated Guide to Viniculture East of the Rockies.

1. This is a well written book on viticulture in the Eastern United states. The history was very good and broked down by state. The current state of viticulture needs updated and there is not enough dedicated to vinifera, but the American and French-American hybrid information was good.

5 comments about The New York Book of Wine: A City and Company Guide (City and Company).

1. My name is Matthew DeBord and I am the author of THE NEW YORK BOOK OF WINE. I welcome any feedback readers can give me and hope that at least some folks will take the time to review the book here on Amazon. Good and bad are both greatly appreciated.

   By the way, my rating is only on this review because Amazon requires that the stars be assigned.




2. I found this book to be well written, informative and educational. It was a good read and will be very helpful in my future wine purchases even though I do not reside in New York. The author's writing style held my interest and the information in Chapter Six should help people interested in a wine weekend realize that they are not limited to Napa.



3. This is a well-researched and highly entertaining read. For someone who loves wine (like me) but can't remember from one dinner to the next what to order (also, alas, like me), it is an excellent guide. It fits in a pocket (I'm not going to carry Hugh Johnson around) and is chock-full of great tips & no-nonsense info about enjoying wine in and around and from New York. But the best thing I can say about the book is that the author seems to love wine for its own sake, not because he's trying to prove anything or show off. On the first page, Debord writes, "The decision to go snobby is yours and yours alone. I advise against it." This sums up the philosophy of "The New York Book of Wine" and sets the tone for a volume that's as witty and tasty as it is underpriced.



4. Being a native New Yorker I was delighted to learn of this book. One of things that I hate is being in Manhattan and not knowing where to find things, like a wine bar for example. Now at least I have the beginnings of where to go to have a wine by the glass or purchase my favorite bottle of Shiraz. The book is set-up so that it is a VERY easy, breezy read. I picked this book up last night at the mall and was half-way through it my the time I got home. Being a wine nut, not just a hobbyist, I can tell you that the listing of specialty wine shops in NYC is worth the price of the book. It also gives the best description, one that I have been touting for years, of NYC, on page 67, that I have ever read. I do have two minor complaints with the book. Firstly, it is a bit light on the wine bar scene. I know of at least five more wine bars that definitely needed to be included. My other complaint is that it is a bit light when it comes to substance. Points are made in just a few sentences and that's it. Certain topics and sidebars throughout the book definitely could have been flushed out in greater detail. This I found very surprising given the fact that the authour is an ex-Wine Spectator contributor. Their writers usually go on and on so I found it ironic that the text was a bit laid back. I also found it funny that the author said that the Wine Spectator is the best wine magazine out there. Would he have said anything different? Overall, a good effort.



5. There are much better books on wine to read and study than this pretentious and deadly dull book. The book is written poorly and makes an interesting subject dull and boring.

5 comments about The Oxford Companion to the Wines of North America.

1. "Waiting on Petite Sirah hoping for elegance is like marrying a stripper in the hope of witty conversation in old age."

   This is the wonderful kind of wit that you find throughout this book. Bruce Cass, Jancis Robinson and the other fine wine writers who are responsible for the book's substance all appear to have a tremendous love of wine but don't need to deify it. I laughed out loud several times as I read descriptions of wines and wine characters.

   The Wisdom is even more amazing. There is a wealth of factual information and interpretation. Just open up the book to any page and start to read. Within 45 seconds, you will utter, "Wow, I didn't know that."

   This is the best book on wines written in a long time.




2. The Oxford Companion To The Wines Of North America is the definitive guide for wine connoisseurs, weaving the knowledge of 21 wine academics and writers from all over American into a set of compelling introductory essays. The comprehensive 302-page compendium includes an A-to-Z survey of North American vineyards and wine terminology. The informative, "reader friendly" text is further enhanced with superb color photography, twenty maps, and an exhaustive index. The Oxford Companion To The Wines Of North America is an invaluable, fundamental reference for all wine enthusiasts and would make an excellent Memorial Fund acquisition selection for community library collections.



3. I bought this book for our public library's reference collection. Reviews indicated that this book would be an excellent source of information about wine. It falls far short of that. One example: I needed it for a definition of "syrah" (which they refer to in an article) - neither the alphabetical arrangement of the book nor the index yielded anything. This is a coffee table book and nothing more.



4. The "Oxford Companion to Wine", edited by Jancis Robinson, is the definitive modern reference on wine. Not intended to be read as a book, the entries nevertheless make compelling reading and following the cross-referenced entries can easily consume a pleasurable evening. This "supplement" doesn't live up to the original in terms of quality, comprehensiveness or value. If you were expecting a version of the companion tuned to American wines, you'll be sorely disappointed. On the other hand, if you can't get enough of the original and long for more information on California growers, this isn't a bad start. We can always hope for a revised, expanded, second edition.

   For the North American supplement, Jancis Robinson served only as a "consulting editor". She apparently corrected the editor's English usage (see the preface), but she didn't write any of the entries. She did write two throwaway pieces in the beginning of the book on "How Good are North American Wines?" and "Commentators and the Wine Media". There are roughly 60 pages worth of introduction to North American Wine, most of which I did not find deep enough to be particularly informative.

   Almost all of the cross-references on vinification, wine-making, cellaring, tasting, defects, grapes, etc. are in the "Oxford Companion", making it essentially impossible to use the North American guide alone.

   Compared to the "Oxford Companion", the entries are relatively breezy. The font is larger, the margins are wider, and the book is much shorter. Like the "Oxford Companion", the maps are truly horrendous; you'll remember them from coloring assignments in grade school. Invest in Hugh Johnson's and Jancis Robinson's wonderful new "World Atlas of Wine" for maps. The Atlas's coverage of North American wine styles, grapes and regions isn't half bad, either.




5. Given some of the less than stellar reviews of this book, I was expecting far less. This is a collection of excellent information specific to North American winemaking, wineries, producers, etc., that can't - to my knowledge at least - be found anywhere else "under the same roof". There are also some good introductory articles that are educational, especially for the neophyte.
   
   True, the maps in the back of the book are fairly useless. They display towns, highways, mountain ranges, elevation, but no AVAs. That left me dumbfounded. I now know that Hwy 101 can take you from LA to Ventura and further north into Washington State, but - so what? I already knew that, and I live in Illinois. If you're going to include maps in a book like this, they need to be specific and informative.
   
   Still, as I said, the fact that there is excellent information in the A-Z section, and that in the text of that section references are directly made to the Oxford Companion to Wine if the reader wants more information, makes this a very good reference.