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.

Madeira wine is currently experiencing a renaissance. It is a wine that behaves like almost no other. Heat and air, the sworn enemies of most wines and winemakers, conspire to turn madeira into one of the most enthralling of the world's wines as well as the most resilient. Madeira wines from the nineteenth and even the eighteenth centuries still retain an ethereal, youthful gloss. Once the cork is removed, the wine comes to no harm, even if the bottle is left open and on ullage for months on end. If ever there was a wine to take to a desert island, this is it. Although Madeira was only discovered in the fifteenth century, the island and the wine trade have a long and involved history. After a short historical introduction Madeira: The islands and their wines rounds on the present: the physical character of the archipelago, the state of the vines and vineyards and the way in which the wines are made. A guide to the current producers follows along with a detailed appraisal of their range of wines. There is also a chapter for collectors of older wines, many from shippers that no longer exist but whose names live on in bottles of wine that are still found in cellars all over the world. Wines dating as far back as the eighteenth century are featured in the book, along with quality appraisals. Madeira is without doubt one of the most difficult wines to describe but it is certainly the most uplifting. There is a short section on the language of tasting madeira as well as information on buying, keeping and serving the wines. The book concludes with a travel guide for anyone visiting the islands. This unique book on the islands and their wines explains what it is that makes madeira so special. Madeira: The islands and their wines was shortlisted for the Andre Simon Food and Drink Awards 2015.