Tributaries of the Grape -- Propagating Empire -- Landscapes of Fruit and Profit -- Fear of Hybrid Grapes and Men -- California Wine Meets Its "Destiny" -- The Danger of a Vineyard Romance
Summary
The lush, sun-drenched vineyards of California evoke a romantic, agrarian image of winemaking, though in reality the industry reflects American agribusiness at its most successful. Nonetheless, as the author shows, this fantasy is deeply rooted in the history of grape cultivation in America. This book traces the development of wine culture as grape growing expanded from New York to the Midwest before gaining ascendancy in California--a progression that illustrates viticulture's centrality to the nineteenth-century American projects of national expansion and the formation of a national culture