"Wine is made in the vineyard" is the mantra of many a winemaker. But what does it mean, really? Esteemed winemaker and biodynamic pioneer Nicholas Joly believes a wine that is well-made in the vineyard must express its unique terroir—the character imbued by a vine's particular plot of well-tended earth. In Biodynamic Wine, Demystified, Joly shares the core philosophy behind biodynamic viticulture and why such practices result in wines of regional distinction. This process treats the vineyard as a self-perpetuating ecological whole influenced not only by terrestrial forces but those of the sun, moon and cosmos. He explains why the use of foreign substances such as pesticides and fertilizers in the vineyard, and aromatic yeasts and enzymes in the cellar, as well as mechanisms such as electric motors and pumps, disrupt this synergy and are ultimately counterproductive to a wine's best, consistent expression.

Are biodynamic wines any better than other wines? Are biodynamic methods, much talked about but little understood, scientific or not? What's the difference between organic and biodynamic? The popularity and availability of biodynamic wine has grown signficantly in the last few years, with more and more vineyards investing in biodynamic production. If you've ever wondered whether biodynamic wine is really worth it, and what all the fuss is about, this book is for you. In 35 clear and pertinent questions, expert biodynamic wine producer Antoine Lepetit explains what's so special about biodynamic wine.

A detailed study of seventeenth century farming practices and their relevance for today We are today grappling with the consequences of disastrous changes in our farming and food systems. While the problems we face have reached a crisis point, their roots are deep. Even in the seventeenth century, Frances E. Dolan contends, some writers and thinkers voiced their reservations, both moral and environmental, about a philosophy of improvement that rationalized massive changes in land use, farming methods, and food production. Despite these reservations, the seventeenth century was a watershed in the formation of practices that would lead toward the industrialization of agriculture. But it was also a period of robust and inventive experimentation in what we now think of as alternative agriculture. This book approaches the seventeenth century, in its failed proposals and successful ventures, as a resource for imagining the future of agriculture in fruitful ways. It invites both specialists and non-specialists to see and appreciate the period from the ground up. Building on and connecting histories of food and work, literary criticism of the pastoral and georgic, histories of elite and vernacular science, and histories of reading and writing practices, among other areas of inquiry, Digging the Past offers fine-grained case studies of projects heralded as innovations both in the seventeenth century and in our own time: composting and soil amendment, local food, natural wine, and hedgerows. Dolan analyzes the stories seventeenth-century writers told one another in letters, diaries, and notebooks, in huge botanical catalogs and flimsy pamphlets, in plays, poems, and how-to guides, in adages and epics. She digs deeply to assess precisely how and with what effect key terms, figurations, and stories galvanized early modern imaginations and reappear, often unrecognized, on the websites and in the tour scripts of farms and vineyards today.

Attempting to export wine to the U.S. has long been fraught with difficulty, especially for the smaller producers. The U.S. wine industry, complicated by confusing regulations and intense internal brand competition, is also the land of opportunity and home to an adventurous and egalitarian wine consuming population. But without an understanding of how to effectively enter this complex market, the exporter often founders and retreats in frustration. This book provides a guide to approaching and attracting an importer, differentiating terms and regulations which must be understood to prosper, and avenues to achieving and sustaining attainable sales and distribution goals.

Following up on his bestselling Winery Technology and Operations, physical chemist and winemaker Yair Margalit comes out with the successive, Concepts in Wine Technology, fully updated and revised to meet the advances of modern winemaking. Among the extended topics are fermentation, skin contact, acid balance, phenolics, bottling, the use of oak and quality control. He begins in the vineyard discussing proper maturation, soil and climate, bunch health, vineyard disease states, and grape varieties. Next he tackles the preharvest with a careful look at vineyard management and preparing the winery for harvest. Dr. Margalit then outlines the entire process of harvesting, from destemming, crushing, and skin contact as it applies to both red and white grapes to pressing, must correction, and temperature control. Fermentation is examined fully and includes a lengthy look at the factors affecting malo-lactic fermentation and its pros and cons. There is a chapter on cellar operations that deals with racking, stabilization, fining, filtration, blending, and maintaining winery hardware, followed by sections on barreling and bottling. The final chapter pulls together the more general aspects of wine technology, covering sulphur-dioxides, different forms of wine spoilage and ways to ward them off, legal regulations and, one of the most important and enigmatic compounds in wine, phenolics.

Any student who has ever logged credits in a viticulture and enology class knows David Bird's book: it is the most widely assigned wine science primer in the English-speaking world. This completely revised and updated edition to Bird's classic textbook deciphers all the new scientific advances from the last several years, and conveys them in his typically clear and plainspoken style that renders even the densest subject matter freshman friendly. The new material includes an expanded section on the production of red, rose, white, sweet, sparkling, and fortified wines; information on histamine, flash detente, maceration, and whole bunch and whole berry fermentation; an expanded chapter on wine faults, including Brettanomyces; a new section on HACCP analysis as applied to a winery; and much more.

The Business of Winemaking places all facets of the wine business in perspective for investors, owners, and anyone else who is interested in how the wine business operates. Abundantly illustrated and written in a readily understandable style, the book addresses the technical rudiments of viticulture and enology and all of its related business actions: market analysis, vineyard and winery design, construction and equipment costs, regulatory and legislative issues, accounting and recordkeeping, financial analysis, tax considerations, typical salaries by geographical area, the minimum economic size of vineyards, the business plan, financing, product pricing, advertising, and sustainable farming and immigrant labor. This book features comprehensive case studies from 20 winery sites from coast to coast, making it an ideal resource for anyone wanting to better understand the inner workings of a successfully run winery.

Wine has been a beverage staple since ancient times, especially in Europe. Today's global wine business is thriving, and American consumption of wine has increased dramatically in recent years, with the health benefits touted in the media. More Americans are becoming interested in learning about wine, and they are taking winery tours and attending wine tastings. The Business of Wine: An Encyclopedia is a necessary part of wine education for everyone from the curious consumer to the oenophile or business student and industry professional. It appeals to even the casual browser who wants to be more informed about wine terminology such as terroir or varietal labeling or what constitutes a Pinot Grigio or a Cabernet Sauvignon. More than 140 entries illuminate the regions, grapes, history, wine styles, business elements, events, people, companies, issues, and more that are crucial to the wine industry. Today's wine industry is an unusually complex network of interrelated businesses that collectively serve to produce wine and get it into the hands of consumers all over the world. This A-Z encyclopedia shows how production, distribution, and sales segments work together to bring wine to the public and describes the trade in wine and its related subsidiary elements. Written by a host of wine professionals, this is the most up-to-date source to understand what goes into the enjoyment of a glass of wine. An appendix with industry data, sidebars, and a selected bibliography complement the A-Z entries.

Author and entomologist Clifford P. Ohmart brings reason and clarity to the politically loaded and amorphously defined popular world of sustainable viticulture with this unique and comprehensive examination of the subject. View from the Vineyard does much more than explain what "sustainable" means, its practical importance to the wine industry, and the costs of agribusiness as usual. It provides the farmer with a realistic and achievable path to a sustainable vineyard by describing the challenges of practicing sustainable winegrowing, where integrated pest management fits in, how organic and sustainable farming related, a holistic vision for the farm, how to identify and define your farm's resources, methods for developing sustainable goals, creating a plan to achieve your holistic vision, ecosystem management, and understanding the vineyard as habitat. The book concludes with a self-assessment guide in which growers can easily track their progress through these transitional periods.