Berkeley, Calif. -- It seems packaged as an offering for wine connoisseurs, but Steve Heimoff's new book, "New Classic Winemakers of California," may well find more avid readers within the wine industry. The hardcover, 285-page volume from the University of California Press is a collection of Q and A interviews with 30 winemakers that Heimoff judged to be making consistently excellent wine.
Heimoff is the West Coast editor of
Wine Enthusiast magazine and the author of one previous book,
Journey Along the Russian River, also from UC Press. He says in his introduction that the book is not composed of interviews, but of conversations. Whatever you call them, the encounters with winemakers make absorbing oral histories for anyone seriously interested in California wine.
It's pretty unusual for a wine book: no ratings, no tasting notes, no vintage charts. There is only one map--in black and white--and simple black and white portraits of the interviewees. Instead, the content ranges all over the intellectual wine map, from missed or seized career opportunities, to why a winemaker is more passionate about one varietal than another, to what part of Russian River has the best Pinot Noir vineyards.
Here's big-time grower Andy Beckstoffer of Napa Valley telling about his early days working for Heublein, when he was a young outsider trying to get accepted in Napa Valley. Here's Merry Edwards recounting that Jack Davies of Schramsberg refused to even consider her for a job in the 1970s when he found out that the Meredith Edwards who had applied was a woman. Here's Greg Brewer of Brewer Clifton in Santa Barbara County arguing that high alcohol in wine is not a problem, and that somebody should run a lab test on Montrachet to see how high its alcohol is.
Heimoff organized the book by the decade in which the winemakers started their careers. The early chapters have a lot of modern pioneers from the 1970s, including Dan Morgan Lee of Morgan in Monterey County, Margo Van Staaveren of Chateau St. Jean in Sonoma County, and Kent Rosenblum of Alameda County, plus several more.
Featured winemakers
The 1980s chapter features a few Cabernet superstars like Bob Levy of Harlan Estate and Heidi Peterson Barrett of La Sirena and other wineries in Napa County, and Kathy Joseph of Fiddlehead Cellars in Santa Barbara County, plus others. A few of the featured winemakers from the 1990s are Gary, Mark and Jeff Pisoni of Monterey County, Justin Smith of Saxum in San Luis Obispo County and Gina Gallo of Gallo Family vineyards in Sonoma County.
These are accomplished people, many of whom have reached the top of their profession. Heimoff is a well-informed interviewer who knew good questions to ask, and he seems to have put his subjects at ease enough that they opened up to him. So it's no surprise that these new classic winemakers had plenty to say.
William Harlan, the Napa Valley vintner and resort owner, has written the foreword. The book, in hardcover, is scheduled for release on November 5th, and retails for $27.50.
See this page at the UC Press.
