The Geography of Wine: How Landscapes, Cultures, Terroir, and the Weather Make a Good Drop

By Brian J. Sommers

Book Overview

Wine is more than taste, smell, and appearance--it is a reflection of a place and its people. Why is Bordeaux a great place for red wines? Why do some places produce Rieslings and others produce Chardonnay? A fun and fascinating examination of terroir (the French word for the geography of a vineyard) this book takes connoisseurs--and potential connoisseurs--on a tour of wine regions, and explains the principles geographers use to understand the critical factors that make up the "wine character" of a place. From the Loire Valley to Napa Valley, Madeira to South Africa, Australia to Chile, The Geography of Wine is an entertaining and informative introduction to viticulture for worldly wine lovers everywhere.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452288908
• ISBN13: 9780452288904
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A non-technical introduction to terroir

Terroir is the all-purpose French term for the land, the weather, the climate, the environment in which the wine grapes grow. It's what makes Bordeaux (the region) produce Bordeaux (the wine), Burgundy, Champagne, and Alsace likewise. American wines are labeled by the variety of grape in argument that that is the most important aspect, though Napa, Sonoma, and Russian River Valley also appear on the labels. But Pinot Noir does well in Oregon (as well as in Burgundy), as does Riesling (which does well in Germany too), but not so well other places. This book looks at how the land, the weather, and the choices of the people doing the wine making affect the wines. It's a decent book which covers a lot of territory (literal and figurative) in a readable, non-technical manner. I've deducted a star only because this book could have been better, many times I was left with questions leading directly from the text, and the author had moved on. The coverage is thin in spots, and seems to have variations in what level of wine knowledge the reader is expected to have (in most places there's little or no assumed knowledge, but then suddenly one is expected to know quite a bit more).