Reviews for A History of Wine in America, Volume 1: From the Beginnings to Prohibition

The average rating for A History of Wine in America, Volume 1: From the Beginnings to Prohibition based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-06-14 00:00:00 Deborah Monk Whew...this is a history book. I haven't taken this long to get through a book in a long time. That doesn't mean it's horrible, just very dense as one would expect from a historical text. There are fascinating tidbits to glean from the book such as how Welch's grape juice came to be and why the intra-state shipping laws for wine are so inane (yeah Prohibition!), but this book is better as a reference than a casual read. The author's task of documenting American's experiments with wine from the early settlements in Virginia through the beginning of the 20th century were admirable (and very successful), but I can summarize the first 150 pages in one sentence: "Early settlers attempted to plant and grow vinifera vines based off their observation of the prolific growth of native vines, all of which resulted in failure; only native varieties appeared hardy enough to resist the natural pests and climate of the New World." With that said, I found the chapter on early wine making in Southern CA fascinating because I didn't realize that the Los Angeles area was the true commercial start of the CA wine industry. Again, a great reference book, but a tedious page-by-page read.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-08-18 00:00:00 Michael Williams There are pitifully few books about drink that are both scholarly and lively. This is one of them.