The California Wine Experience is a trademark of the Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation and so presumably not available to an author as a book title.
Rather a shame that, because the phrase would have made an excellent alternative title for David Darlington’s new effort just published as “An Ideal Wine: One Generation’s Pursuit of Perfection – and Profit – in California.”
Our review of the book appears in today’s Arts pages of the Globe, so no need for us to go into depth on what’s contained there, except to say that the overall picture is not pretty.
To judge from what Darlington has to say — and there’s a lot of solid reporting going on here — the actual California wine experience (as opposed to the event of the same name), turns out to be something of a rat race. Winemakers start out with an idealized vision of what should be possible in the state’s Edenic surrounds (We’ll make pinot noir that rivals Burgundy! Our Rhone-style blends will give Chateauneuf-du-Pape a run for its money!) only to realize that soil and conditions will not permit them to make the wine they dream of.
Solution: make the wine of someone else’s dreams even if it means massaging it into condition with additives, treatments, and technology that makes the head (to say nothing of the wine) spin.
This is all fine if your own ethical standards aren’t scandalized by the turnabout, but if they are: beware. This book is rife with the voices of individuals who don’t sound at all happy with the compromises forces outside themselves (critics, globalization, fickle consumers) impose on their craft.
Not a cheery read — but a damned fine book.
Originally posted on Boston.com