American Vintage, by Paul Lukacs

This is a book about the rise of American wine to world class status. Sort of a boring read, honestly. But learned a few tidbits. Like this: in the 19th century, (bad) American wine was marketed as a temperance solution — less alcoholic & insidious than the hard stuff. And I never really thought about it, but the 18th Amendment, establishing Prohibition, meant that America’s alcohol-related industries didn’t really start until the 1930s, and didn’t gain a ton of momentum until the 50s. Fortified wine was a big deal; Thunderbird was a huge seller, and the world didn’t really think much of American wine until the 70s, at the earliest. I guess  the other thing that it made me think about is that the global wine industry is a living, changing thing — looks different now than it did even 5 years ago, prior to 9/11.

Not a fantastic book, but not bad if you’re interested in this type of thing.

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