Dec 30 2008

California Wine Country (Pictorial Discovery Guide)

Published by at under Wine Books

Stand at the edge of a valley in California wine country, and you’ll be welcomed by a variety of surprises for the senses. Sun-drenched grapes shimmering on the vine, hinting at the flavor that’s to come. Impressive century-old estates. A lush and pastoral landscape that invites you to explore the history and vibrancy of the region. And that’s just what you’ll do each time you open the pages of California Wine Country. From Opus One to Close Pegase, Stag’s Leap to the Rhone Rangers, trademark Zinfandels to world-class Chardonnays, California producers consistently produce some of the world’s most renowned wines. As The Wine Advocate’s Robert M. Parker Jr. states, "California is on a roll." California Wine Country opens with the history of winemaking in the state and how and why Californian wines have become famous around the world. Randy Leffingwell then guides you through the winemaking cycle and takes you on a personal tour of the state’s most breathtaking and popular wine making regions, including Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, San Francisco Bay, the Central Valley, Gold Country, Monterey Peninsula, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and more. He also provides details about the most beautiful and interesting times to visit vineyards and wineries. With his inviting lens and prose, Leffingwell captures the unique characteristics of each locale, making California Wine Country the perfect tribute to the timeless beauty of these wineries, vineyards, and destinations.

Customer Review: Gift for Mom

I bought this book for my mother for Christmas. She wanted a picture book about the wine country in CA so she could paint some of the scenes. She had just visited my sister in S.F. and loved every minute of her visit. She LOVES this book. It contains beautiful photographs of Northern California and she looks forward to painting many pictures.

Customer Review: Buy it for the pictures, not the text

This book is obviously intended to be purchased for its beautiful pictures, and does a great job at covering all wine regions in California - not just Sonoma or Napa, but Mendocino and Lake Country down through San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties.

If you are looking for a book with some great photos of wineries and vineyards across California, then I can heartily recommend the book. However, some of the text leaves much to be desired, with some obvious omissions and flatly incorrect information. Some examples:

On grape varieties: Petite Sirah is identified as being the same as Syrah and Shiraz (it isn't). Pinot Gris and Gewurtztraminer are not mentioned at all, but I would consider them more important than Sylvaner in California white grapes.

On locations: Livermore Valley is "to the west in Alameda County", which must surprise people living in the eastern half of the county. Woodside Vineyards in Woodside and Thomas Fogerty Winery in Portola Valley are listed as being in Santa Clara Country (they are in San Mateo County). Morgan Hill and Gilroy are identified as being in Santa Cruz County (they are in Santa Clara County), and there are others too.

The choices of wine labels are odd too. In a list of wine labels for a particular geographic area, often the wines come from someplace else. In the Mendocino County section, a wine made from Lodi (in the Central Valley) is listed. The San Francisco Bay section shows labels from three Monterey wines.

Despite these faults, the book is definitely interesting - containing many nice photographs, and reasonble listings of wineries with contact information in all parts of California, even fairly obscure ones missed in many books, such as the wineries in Santa Clara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Nevada, and Calaveras counties.


Click For More Details

Comments Off

Comments are closed at this time.