"Matthews brings a scientist's skepticism and scrutiny to widely held ideas and beliefs about viticulture--often promulgated by people who have not tried to grow grapes for a living--and subjects them to critical examination: Is terroir primarily a marketing ploy that obscures our understanding of which environments really produce the best wine? Can grapevines that yield a high berry crop generate wines of high quality? What does it mean to have vines that are balanced or grapes that are fully mature? Do biodynamic practices violate biological principles? These and other questions will be addressed in a book that could alternatively be titled (in homage to a PUP bestseller) On Wine Bullshit"--Provided by publisher.

Free thinking, unconstrained by facts The book is based on the thesis that we live in a world of abundance, full of natural riches, and cultural artifacts, full of human intellect and powerful technologies. Our thinking, however, is dominated by the opposite, the notion of scarcity. The limits of nature act as an inevitable necessity. In his book, David Schildberger adopts a novel approach to the subject of resources, with the help of intelligent instruments that introduce new foods, such as chocolate made from cocoa cell cultures, and even a fruit-bearing vine raised far from a vineyard. With his imagined scenarios, the author invites the reader to dare stretch their intellectual imaginations and ultimately presents nature as a contingent. Conceptual models on the subject of nature and alternative ways of producing food Recommended reading for architectural IT specialists New volume in the Applied Virtuality Book Series

The concept of terroir is one of the most celebrated and controversial subjects in wine today. Most will agree that well-made wine has the capacity to express “somewhereness,” a set of consistent aromatics, flavors, or textures that amount to a signature expression of place. But for every advocate there is a skeptic, and for every writer singing praises related to terroir there is a study or a detractor seeking to debunk terroir as a myth. Wine and Place examines terroir using a multitude of voices and multiple points of view—from science to literature, from winemakers to wine critics—seeking not to prove its veracity but to explore its pros, its cons, and its other aspects. This comprehensive anthology lets the reader come to one's own conclusion about terroir.

s wine an artisanal creation or industrial product? Wine Myths and Reality goes behind the scenes of winemaking to reveal the truth about what goes into a bottle of wine. Extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, and charts, its approachable and entertaining style immediately engages the reader in the wine universe.Panoramic in its scope, magisterial in its treatment, and meticulous in its research, Wine Myths and Reality explodes the world of wine. From monks treading grapes in the middle ages to the latest research into grapevine DNA, this compelling book presents the authoritative account of how wine is really made. Practices in viticulture and vinification come under the microscope, the tricks of the wine trade are revealed, the methods of the new and the old worlds are scrutinized, and their wines are discussed.An overview of all major wine-producing countries extends from the powerful wines of the new world to the classic wines of France or Italy. Does terroir really matter? Is the international style taking over? Will global warming destroy the existing wine-producing regions? And extrapolating from current trends, what will wine be like in the next decade?For this edition the book has been divided into two parts. Part 1 contains three sections dealing with Viticulture, Vinification, and the Wine Trade, with chapters on The Grapevine; Cultivating the Vineyard, The Mystique of Terroir, Global Warming, Turning Grape Juice into Wine, Cultivars, Global Wine Trends, The International Wine Trade, Fraud and Scandal.. Part 2 contains sections focusing on the wine regions of Europe and the New World, with chapters on North America, Australia & New Zealand, : Chile & Argentina, Bordeaux and Burgundy, The Rhône and Languedoc, Italy, Spain & Portugal, Sweet Wines, and Truth in Labeling. Each part contains a full index. Photographs in this reprint edition are in black and white.

Is wine an artisanal creation or industrial product? Wine Myths and Reality goes behind the scenes of winemaking to reveal the truth about what goes into a bottle of wine. Extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, and charts, its approachable and entertaining style immediately engages the reader in the wine universe. Panoramic in its scope, magisterial in its treatment, and meticulous in its research, Wine Myths and Reality explodes the world of wine. From monks treading grapes in the middle ages to the latest research into grapevine DNA, this compelling book presents the authoritative account of how wine is really made. Practices in viticulture and vinification come under the microscope, the tricks of the wine trade are revealed, the methods of the new and the old worlds are scrutinized, and their wines are discussed. An overview of all major wine-producing countries extends from the powerful wines of the new world to the classic wines of France or Italy. Does terroir really matter? Is the international style taking over? Will global warming destroy the existing wine-producing regions? And extrapolating from current trends, what will wine be like in the next decade?

Is wine an artisanal creation or industrial product? Wine Myths and Reality goes behind the scenes of winemaking to reveal the truth about what goes into a bottle of wine. Extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, and charts, its approachable and entertaining style immediately engages the reader in the wine universe.Panoramic in its scope, magisterial in its treatment, and meticulous in its research, Wine Myths and Reality explodes the world of wine. From monks treading grapes in the middle ages to the latest research into grapevine DNA, this compelling book presents the authoritative account of how wine is really made. Practices in viticulture and vinification come under the microscope, the tricks of the wine trade are revealed, the methods of the new and the old worlds are scrutinized, and their wines are discussed.An overview of all major wine-producing countries extends from the powerful wines of the new world to the classic wines of France or Italy. Does terroir really matter? Is the international style taking over? Will global warming destroy the existing wine-producing regions? And extrapolating from current trends, what will wine be like in the next decade?For this edition the book has been divided into two parts. Part 1 contains three sections dealing with Viticulture, Vinification, and the Wine Trade, with chapters on The Grapevine; Cultivating the Vineyard, The Mystique of Terroir, Global Warming, Turning Grape Juice into Wine, Cultivars, Global Wine Trends, The International Wine Trade, Fraud and Scandal.. Part 2 contains sections focusing on the wine regions of Europe and the New World, with chapters on North America, Australia & New Zealand, : Chile & Argentina, Bordeaux and Burgundy, The Rhône and Languedoc, Italy, Spain & Portugal, Sweet Wines, and Truth in Labeling. Each part contains a full index. Photographs in this reprint edition are in black and white.

Wine, Terroir and Utopia critically explores these three concepts from multi-disciplinary and intersecting perspectives, focusing on the ways in which they collide to make new worlds, new wines, new places and new peoples. Wine, terroir and utopia are all rooted in natural, spatial and temporal realities, yet all are unable to exist without purposeful human intervention. This edited volume highlights the theoretical and analytical lens of diverse scholars, who critically discuss a dazzling array of intersecting realities and imaginaries – economic, political, cultural, social and geological – and in doing this challenge many of our deeply-held responses to utopia. Drawing on an impressive range of international examples from South Africa to Bordeaux to New Zealand, the chapters adopt a range of theoretical and methodological approaches. This volume will be of great interest to upper level students, researchers and academics in the fields of Sociology, Geography, Tourism, Hospitality, Wine Studies and Cultural Studies. It will also greatly appeal to practitioners and enthusiasts in the worlds of wine production, consumption and marketing.