It is well known throughout the wine world the names of the Godfathers of American wine and those that helped establish, grow, and immortalize American wine throughout history. Well, what about now? To whom have our wine forefathers/mothers passed the proverbial torch to keep the American wine industry evolving and succeeding in the global wine world?
Rock and Vine: Next Generation Changemakers in America’s Wine Country by Chelsea Prince (and photography by Mary Steinbacher) set to release on February 12th, 2013, takes the reader on a written and visual journey through the lives and stories of several of the up and coming influencers in the American
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wine industry today. Arranged as a coffee table-style book, Rock and Vine beautifully illustrates how the new generation of wine “changemakers” came into their craft and how they are or plan to influence the American and global wine markets.
One certainly does not need to read this book from cover to cover. As any coffee table books are designed, one can just flip to any random page and learn about the particular wine personality one happens to land on. The individual stories are well written and flows smoothly from one paragraph to the next. Beautiful color photographs are on nearly every page and almost tell the story without the words themselves.
The one qualm I have with the book is minor and picky in nature. The title suggests that the individuals showcased in the book are those in the “American wine country”, however, in reality, those showcased are only in the Napa and Sonoma wine countries. I believe those showcased are, in fact, some of the best young wine influencers in the Napa and Sonoma regions, however, to consider the book about the future of American wine country, I think they should have included up and comers in other parts of the country (i.e. Oregon, Washington, New York, Virginia, etc). Perhaps the title should have read “Next Generation Changemakers in California’s Wine Country”. Note: I’m not really upset about it, just pointing out the incredibly minor issue.
Overall, this is a wonderful coffee table book highlighting some of the up and comers in the California and American wine industry. If you love wine and you love photography, this is certainly a book you’ll want to pick up!