Customer Review: An entertaining and very highly recommended addition to personal reading lists

When people think about trips to the 'wine country', Michigan does not readily come to mind. All that will change with "From The Vine: Exploring Michigan Wineries", a collaborative travel guide by Sharon Kegerries and Lorri hathaway who showcase fifty-one wine country destinations throughout the upper-Midwest state of Michigan. Organized by four designated 'wine trails' and 'beyond the trails', "From The Vine" includes anecdotal stories, features on artisans who handcraft chocolate and cheese, Old World grape stomping, cherry mead, hard cider, ice wine, and more. Profusely and beautiful illustrated throughout, "From The Vine" is enhanced with a useful glossary and a bibliography that travelers through Michigan's wine country will find of immense interest. Informed and informative, "From The Vine" is an entertaining and very highly recommended addition to personal reading lists for anyone traveling through Michigan whether as a day trip or part of an extended vacation. Needless to say, no Michigan college or community library should be without at least one copy of "From The Vine" in their collection!

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Nearly two million people visit Central Coast wineries each year, drawn to the breathtaking scenery and stellar wines of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Due in part to the success of the Oscar-winning movie Sideways, the region has experienced a surge in popularity yet maintains its warm hospitality and low-key atmosphere. This entirely new installment in our popular series is the first illustrated book of its kind on this region. Stunning color photography makes the guide as evocative for armchair travelers as it is functional for those getting ready to hit the tasting rooms.

Customer Review: Service and quality A+

Received the book quickly, and the product looked brand new. Highly recommend this vendor.

Customer Review: California's Central Coast

Mira Advani Honeycutt describes the central coast, its wineries and the people that live there in a personal and endearing way. Her book makes me want to get off the fast track, take time and relax in the beautiful and lush area that is the central coast and learn more about wine.

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This moving, evocative memoir, woven with lyrical descriptions of the sights and smells of vineyard life, tells the inspirational story of one woman's journey to success in an industry run mostly by men. At Home in the Vineyard, filled with colorful characters and unexpected experiences, brings a local rural community vividly alive as Oregon wine pioneer and industry icon Susan Sokol Blosser recounts how she fell in love with a vineyard, learned how to run it, and ultimately achieved her vision of producing Pinot Noirs to rival those of Burgundy. An intimate family story, At Home in the Vineyard also gives a candid insider's view of Oregon's flourishing wine industry.
Sokol Blosser begins her narrative in the 1970s, when, as a young, idealistic wife, she helped her husband make his wild idea of planting a vineyard in the Dundee Hills become a reality. By the book's final pages, she has become president of Sokol Blosser Winery, widely respected for gaining national visibility and for producing world-class wines, especially the elusive Pinot Noir. Along the way, Sokol Blosser tells how she learned to do everything from driving a tractor and managing a picking crew to selling Oregon wine in Manhattan. She also shares some special accomplishments: how she instituted values of environmental sustainability and social responsibility at the vineyard, integrated family and business life, and successfully brought the second generation on board.

Customer Review: Sour grapes? No way!

Well, except when the weather deals them an unwelcome clout....

I live smack dab in the middle of wine country (California) myself, but am no vintner. And it happens I took a scouting trip to the McMinnville vicinity in Oregon last year, thinking it a prospective new home. So, when I spied the lush, green-vined cover of AT HOME IN THE VINEYARD, I was hooked and had to investigate one woman's (and her family's) experiences establishing and nurturing grapes from plant to bottle.

Susan Sokol Blosser writes a chatty, wide-ranging history beginning in late 1970, when she gave birth to her first son and her then-husband Bill "closed the deal on our first piece of vineyard land." She traces the stages of the vineyard and the winery that was built later with an easy, honest style that disarms and charms. It is soon apparent that this woman is an engine of energy. During the years her three children are small, she mainly toils in the vineyard, tilling, planting, picking, spraying, fertilizing, etc. But she also finds time to join the school board and various associations. She also teaches briefly at a McMinnville college. Later, she is twice a candidate for state public office, once losing by a questionable "whisker." As the family wine business expands, so does the wine industry in Oregon. Susan and Bill do their part to uphold and promote the burgeoning reputation Oregon wine slowly acquires -- particularly its Pinot Noir which grows full-bodied in the cooler Northwest climate. In 1990, Susan takes over from Bill as president of their winery and slowly refinances and then gains full ownership of the enterprise. She changes winemakers to improve quality. She travels widely and often to see distributors and explore new markets. She modernizes the labels on their bottles and gains national attention with a blended white wine. She deals with lawsuits and legislative hurdles. She also decides to shift to organic operations and embraces sustainable agriculture. Then, in the early years of the new millennium, she decides she will focus on gradually handing over the reins of power to the son and daughter who have decided to follow their parents into the family business.

While the author relates the chronology of the vineyard and winery she owns and manages, she doesn't ignore the personal side. AT HOME IN THE VINEYARD includes some cute anecdotes about farm pets, and it mentions family concerns such as her father's Alzheimer's without dwelling on them. At one point, I wondered how in the world anyone could juggle so many balls in the air -- family, business, many friendships, and political activism. Something seemed bound to tumble. Well, something did, and the author unflinchingly, and without wallowing, tackles the changes in her life after the children grew up and left the nest.

For anyone who has ever considered starting up a winery, AT HOME IN THE VINEYARD illustrates the kind of commitment and fortitude such an undertaking requires. But even if you aren't planning on being the entrepreneur that all the members of the Sokol Blosser family are; if you seek stories about rural life, want to know more about the Willamette Valley, or are interested in one outspoken and undaunted woman's adventures as a corporate executive, then snag a copy of AT HOME IN THE VINEYARD and -- maybe with a glass of wine in hand -- imbibe it cover to cover.

Customer Review: Cheers!

Pour a glass of Evolution Wine and kick back with this entertaining memoir. If the technical aspects of starting and maintaining a business is not a favorite reading topic there is still plenty of life drama going on that is highly readable and easy to relate to. Having lived in Oregon for 22 years and seen (and tasted) the state's wine industry mature I was fascinated with finding out the inside story. If you live in Oregon you might enjoy a few "I was there" moments when the author describes the wonderful concert series in her vineyard. Ah yes...Johnny Mathis under the full moon. Wonderful memory, wonderful book.

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Customer Review: Spectacular photos of spectacular wineries

Having visited many of these wineries I can say that this book truly captures the best of Napa Valley. The book is an excellent guide of the "must see" wineries of California. I sent a dozen copies to my friends.

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During the thirty-five years wine critic and writer Paul Gregutt has lived in the state of Washington, its wine industry has ballooned from a mere half dozen wineries to nearly five hundred. Washington Wines and Wineries offers a comprehensive, critical, and accessible account of the nation's second largest wine-producing region. Gregutt, who has covered Washington wine in books, newspapers, and magazines since the mid-1980s, enthusiastically dispenses information along with his editorial opinion, displaying the depth of his knowledge of the area, the players, the regions, and the wines. He points out the best vineyards, the most accomplished winemakers, the must-have wines, and the newcomers to watch. He rates wineries--not wines--with a unique and detailed 100-point scale, providing an insider's view of the best that Washington state has to offer. As the global wine industry reinvents itself for twenty-first-century palates, Washington is poised to become as important and influential as California on the world stage. Washington Wines and Wineries is the definitive reference book on the subject.

Customer Review: WASHINGTON WINES AND WINERIES

I WOULD SUGGEST THAT ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW MORE ABOUT WASHINGTON WINES, HAD BETTER GET A COPY OF THIS BOOK. IT IS OBVIOUS THAT MR. GREGUTT KNOWS THE WINEMAKERS AND THE WINERIES HE WRITES ABOUT. HE HAS BEEN DOING IT FOR YEARS, AND IS A RELIABLE RESOURCE FOR THIS INDUSTRY. KEN D.

Customer Review: Must have for a Washington Wine Enthusiast

Paul has a great deal of experience with the Washington Wine scene, and it shows. This should be called the Washington Wine Encyclopedia. The book is full of very current and relevant information about the blossoming (and Booming) Washington Wine industry, and the top 25% (His Opinion) of the wineries. I found the history portion of the book fascinating.

If you have any interest in the Washington wine industry, this is a must read!

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Customer Review: Excellent book for those entering the wine industry

This book won't replace going to UC Davis, but it is a good start if you are looking to break into professional winemaking. It concisely touches on all of the important aspects of making wine with commercial equipment. It is well written and straight forward in its style. Basically, it is everything you want in an intro book.

Customer Review: Good technical manual

Not your average beginner winemaking book, but good information for those who would like to take their winemaking to the next level. More rigorous material, but making the effort to sort through the science in this book will make your wine better. Great reference for small wineries, and valuable for serious hobbyists.

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Customer Review: Good Basic Understanding

Reading this book I acquired a basic understanding of how to order and buy wine. It's based on knowing the difference between the grapes and focuses on taste. The book also has a ton of great recipes that are paired with different wines. The author has an easy style that makes the book interesting to read. I keep it among my favorite cookbooks for quick reference.

Customer Review: wine and great recipes

though wine can be intimidating, this book reveals that a little knowledge can indeed go a long way. paired with judy's recipes, which are great on their own, of course, they also give you a sense of which foods go with which wines. and that knowledge alone is indispensible! i recommend this to anyone curious about the fruit of the vine or what to serve with their favorite bottle.

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By far France's largest fine-wine region, Bordeaux is also arguably its greatest, and perhaps the greatest in the world. Grands Vins is the most comprehensive survey of these wines ever published. Following an introduction detailing the history, the geography, the grape varieties, and other regional wine-making idiosyncrasies, Clive Coates--who is reputed to know more about the estates and their wines than the owners themselves--profiles the leading châteaux and assesses their top red and white wines. He discusses the respective qualities, taste characteristics and merits of just about every fine Bordeaux wine made in the last thirty years and more, listing its state of maturity and optimum drinking periods in succinct and accessible form.
Since the publication of Clive Coates's Claret in 1982, the Bordeaux region has seen many changes. There has been a run of bumper, successful red-wine harvests unparalleled in recent times. Perfectionist control of the viticultural process is now commonplace not just at the top of the hierarchy but right down to cru bourgeois level, and the vineyards planted following the great February 1956 frost have reached full maturity, producing a quality and consistency that Bordeaux has until now never enjoyed. Moreover, a revival in the fortunes of Sauternes and a revolution in the techniques of dry-white wine making means that the quality of these wines matches that of the reds. For the historian, too, there is far more documentation available about the illustrious pasts of many Bordeaux châteaux than a decade ago; many estates have initiated long-overdue research into their archives, and scarce nineteenth-century books have been reprinted in facsimile.
Essential reading for anyone who has cellared or intends to buy Bordeaux wines, Grands Vins is a lucid voyage through the histories of the leading estates, a convivial encounter with their personalities, a fascinating lesson in contemporary wine-making techniques, and above all a celebration of preeminent wines.

Customer Review: Top quality reference

This top quality reference, now getting a bit dated, provides one of the most thorough and detailed examinations of the Bordeaux region ever written. Though not as exciting to read as Markham's "1855" it is much more informative than Parker's "Bordeaux." Any serious collection of wine histories should include this book. I am hopeful that a newer edition will be arriving soon.

Customer Review: For SERIOUS collectors of Bordeaux

This thorough if narrowly focused study by a major British wine critic covers the ground with thoroughness and dedicated skill. Not for beginners, it's a requirement if you're getting seriously into collecting Bordeaux

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