Here is a practical, comprehensive guide to winemaking, wines, and wine appreciation, written by an expert uniquely qualified by many years of experience in the field. Looking at winemaking as a craft as well as an art, Philip Jackisch augments a wealth of information and theory with many detailed examples. "It is now possible for anyone with access to grapes or other ingredients of decent quality to make consistently palatable or even excellent wines," he writes.

In clear language aimed at the amateur winemaker, Jackisch explains the science behind wine and its application to winemaking. At the same time, he includes important material for commercial winemakers. Jackisch covers each step in the process of winemaking, from growing or purchasing grapes; choosing equipment; fermenting, aging, and storing the wine; to keeping records. By exploring in detail the various factors that affect wine quality, he shows which elements in wine production can be controlled to achieve certain sensory results.

Among the other subjects he discusses arc specific types of wine, ways of evaluating wine, common problems in cellar operations and how to prevent or correct them, and wine competitions. Five appendixes supply additional technical information. Since 1985, Modem Winemaking has proven invaluable for winemakers, both commercial and amateur, for wine educators and students, and indeed, for anyone who wants to know more about wine.

Wherever grapevines are cultivated, this book will be welcome because it fills a long-standing need for a clear, concise treatment of modern viticulture. During the past fifty years, more progress has been made in the science and art of growing grapes for table use and raisin or wine production than in any previous century. This new edition has been revised throughout. The chapters on vine structure, vine physiology, the grape flower and berry set, development and composition of grapes, and means of improving grape quality add to our knowledge of the vine and its functions. The text is designed to enable those concerned with either vine or fruit problems to arrive at considered diagnoses. The student will find the text and the cited references a comprehensive source of information. The grape and allied industries should welcome the updating of the major portion of the book.Here the emphasis is on modern practices in vineyard management in arid and semi-arid regions - with special reference to California. Full and detailed treatment is provided or propagation, supports, training young vines, pruning, cultivation and chemical weed control, irrigation, soil management, diseases and pests, and harvesting, packing and storage. The practices recommended in the book are based on the extensive research conducted in California and elsewhere by the authors and their distinguished colleagues.Examples of practices based on experiments are: methods of propagation which by-pass the usual one-year-in-the-vine-nursery; pruning as related to leaf area and time of leaf functioning, and its effect on berry set and fruit development; virus disease control through thermotherapy and soil fumigation; pests held in check by sanitary, chemical, and biological procedures; and, irrigation practices as related to soil texture. Tissue analysis are employed as guidelines indicating the mineral deficiencies or excesses of vines. Machine harvesting of raisins (with cane cutting) and some wine grape varieties with problems are described. The regional recommendations for table and raisin varieties are based on log years of observations, while those for wine grapes are the results of studies of the interrelation of variety and the heat summation of the different climatic areas. No one concerned with the cultivation of grapes can afford to be without this book.

California is home to more than 700 wineries, and California's premier wines are recognized throughout the world. This is a comprehensive guide which traces the Golden State's wine industry from its mission period and gold rush origins, down to the planting and vintage statistics of the year before publication. All aspects of wine are included, and wine production from vine propagation to bottling is described in straightforward language. The book includes entries for 750 wineries, both historical and contemporary, more than 100 wine grape varieties from Aleatico to Zinfandel, and wine types from claret to vermouth. Each entry is given a historical context.

Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne. The names of these and other French regions bring to mind time-honored winemaking practices. Yet the link between wine and place, in French known as terroir, was not a given. In The Sober Revolution, Joseph Bohling inverts our understanding of French wine history by revealing a modern connection between wine and place, one with profound ties to such diverse and sometimes unlikely issues as alcoholism, drunk driving, regional tourism, Algeria's independence from French rule, and integration into the European Economic Community. In the 1930s, cheap, mass-produced wines from the Languedoc region of southern France and French Algeria dominated French markets. Artisanal wine producers, worried about the impact of these "inferior" products on the reputation of their wines, created a system of regional appellation labeling to reform the industry in their favor by linking quality to the place of origin. At the same time, the loss of Algeria, once the world's largest wine exporter, forced the industry to rethink wine production. Over several decades, appellation producers were joined by technocrats, public health activists, tourism boosters, and other dynamic economic actors who blamed cheap industrial wine for hindering efforts to modernize France. Today, scholars, food activists, and wine enthusiasts see the appellation system as a counterweight to globalization and industrial food. But, as The Sober Revolution reveals, French efforts to localize wine and integrate into global markets were not antagonistic but instead mutually dependent. The time-honored winemaking practices that we associate with a pastoral vision of traditional France were in fact a strategy deployed by the wine industry to meet the challenges and opportunities of the post-1945 international economy. France's luxury wine producers were more market savvy than we realize.

"Dying on the Vine" chronicles 150 years of scientific warfare against the grapevine's worst enemy: phylloxera. In a book that is highly relevant for the wine industry today, George Gale describes the biological and economic disaster that unfolded when a tiny, root-sucking insect invaded the south of France in the 1860s, spread throughout Europe, and journeyed across oceans to Africa, South America, Australia, and California - laying waste to vineyards wherever it landed. He tells how scientists, viticulturalists, researchers, and others came together to save the world's vineyards and, with years of observation and research, developed a strategy of resistance. Among other topics, the book discusses phylloxera as an important case study of how one invasive species can colonize new habitats and examines California's past and present problems with it.

This volume collects the most important writings on viticulture by Nicholas Herbemont (1771-1839), who is widely considered the finest practicing winemaker of the early United States. Included are his two major treatises on viticulture, thirty-one other published pieces on vine growing and wine making, and essays that outline his agrarian philosophy. Over the course of his career, Herbemont cultivated more than three hundred varieties of grapes in a garden the size of a city block in Columbia, South Carolina, and in a vineyard at his plantation, Palmyra, just outside the city. Born in France, Herbemont carefully tested the most widely held methods of growing, pruning, processing, and fermentation in use in Europe to see which proved effective in the southern environment. His treatise "Wine Making," first published in the American Farmer in 1833, became for a generation the most widely read and reliable American guide to the art of producing potable vintage. David S. Shields, in his introductory essay, positions Herbemont not only as important to the history of viticulture in America but also as a notable proponent of agricultural reform in the South. Herbemont advocated such practices as crop rotation and soil replenishment and was an outspoken critic of slave-based cotton culture.

For centuries, France has long been the world's greatest wine-producing country. Its wines are the global gold standard, prized by collectors, and its winemaking regions each offer unique tasting experiences, from the spice of Bordeaux to the berry notes of the Loire Valley. Although grape variety, climate, and the skill of the winemaker are essential in making good wine, the foundation of a wine's character is the soil in which its grapes are grown. Who could better guide us through the relationship between the French land and the wine than a geologist, someone who deeply understands the science behind the soil? Enter scientist Charles Frankel.
In "Land and Wine," Frankel takes readers on a tour of the French winemaking regions to illustrate how the soil, underlying bedrock, relief, and microclimate shape the personality of a wine. The book's twelve chapters each focus in depth on a different region, including the Loire Valley, Alsace, Burgundy, Champagne, Provence, the Rhone valley, and Bordeaux, to explore the full meaning of "terroir. " In this approachable guide, Frankel describes how Cabernet Franc takes on a completely different character depending on whether it is grown on gravel or limestone; how Sauvignon yields three different products in the hills of Sancerre when rooted in limestone, marl, or flint; how Pinot Noir will give radically different wines on a single hill in Burgundy as the vines progress upslope; and how the soil of each chateau in Bordeaux has a say in the blend ratios of Merlot and Cabernet-Sauvignon. "Land and Wine" provides a detailed understanding of the variety of French wine as well as a look at the geological history of France, complete with volcanic eruptions, a parade of dinosaurs, and a menagerie of evolution that has left its fossils flavoring the vineyards.
Both the uninitiated wine drinker and the confirmed oenophile will find much to savor in this fun guide that Frankel has spiked with anecdotes about winemakers and historic wine enthusiasts--revealing which kings, poets, and philosophers liked which wines best--while offering travel tips and itineraries for visiting the wineries today.