Vineyard: A Year in the Life of California's Wine Country

I admit at the outset that I am not a wine-lover. I drink a glass of wine every evening because it is said to be healthful, and I don't sip wine while chewing gum, but, okay, usually I cannot distinguish one wine from another without reading the label. So I could probably write a more informed review of a book about toilet tissue. Still, I don't believe this book is altogether wasted on ignorant readers like me. Ms. Sterling's prose opens an appealing and beautiful window into the California Wine Country, as seen by someone who lives and works on a vineyard there. The reader comes to appreciate, and sympathize with, the labor-intensive nature of wine-making, and the countless and challenging factors of climate, weather, soil, parasites, barrels, farming decisions, and nearly endless intangibles that determine the volume and the quality of the yearly vintage. Even more important and more visible in this book is the love that accompanies the labor: love of the land and its seasons, love of the process, and especially love of the final product, with all its subtleties and nuances.The text does provide information, but this is by no means a text in oenology. Instead it is a rhapsody on making of fine wines in the singular and fortunate environment of California. The accompanying photographs, which constitute more than half of the book, not only harmonize with the prose but also stand alone as superb examples of photographic art. The photographer (and co-author) is a master of light, skilled at achieving dramatic, evocative, and downright beautiful results even in conditions that are photographically marginal.Quibbles: there were a few terms that my dictionary did not define; perhaps a short glossary would have been useful. And I wish the figure captions had been placed adjacent to the individual photographs rather than on a list at the back of the book.In summary, this is essentially an art book, a coffee-table book, that can be enjoyed and savored like the wines it describes. It has certainly made me rethink, if not yet revise, my habit of wine-as-medicine.

I admit at the outset that I am not a wine-lover. I drink a glass of wine every evening because it is said to be healthful, and I don't sip wine while chewing gum, but, okay, usually I cannot distinguish one wine from another without reading the label. So I could probably write a more informed review of a book about toilet tissue. Still, I don't believe this book is altogether wasted on ignorant readers like me. Ms. Sterling's prose opens an appealing and beautiful window into the California Wine Country, as seen by someone who lives and works on a vineyard there. The reader comes to appreciate, and sympathize with, the labor-intensive nature of wine-making, and the countless and challenging factors of climate, weather, soil, parasites, barrels, farming decisions, and nearly endless intangibles that determine the volume and the quality of the yearly vintage. Even more important and more visible in this book is the love that accompanies the labor: love of the land and its seasons, love of the process, and especially love of the final product, with all its subtleties and nuances.The text does provide information, but this is by no means a text in oenology. Instead it is a rhapsody on making of fine wines in the singular and fortunate environment of California. The accompanying photographs, which constitute more than half of the book, not only harmonize with the prose but also stand alone as superb examples of photographic art. The photographer (and co-author) is a master of light, skilled at achieving dramatic, evocative, and downright beautiful results even in conditions that are photographically marginal.Quibbles: there were a few terms that my dictionary did not define; perhaps a short glossary would have been useful. And I wish the figure captions had been placed adjacent to the individual photographs rather than on a list at the back of the book.In summary, this is essentially an art book, a coffee-table book, that can be enjoyed and savored like the wines it describes. It has certainly made me rethink, if not yet revise, my habit of wine-as-medicine.