American Vintage: The Rise Of American Wine Voted Best Wine Book Of 2000
American Vintage: The Rise of American Wine by Paul Lukacs, is the winner of the Clicquot Wine Book of the Year competition. Runners-up are Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier by Andrea Immer and An Encyclopedia of the Wines and Domaines of France by Clive Coates, M.W.
American Vintage, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, was selected by an independent panel of magazine and newspaper wine writers across the U.S., from all the books on wines published in the U.S. in English in 2000. The competition is sponsored by Clicquot, Inc., the importer and marketing subsidiary of Champagne Veuve Clicquot (Reims, France).
In American Vintage, Lukacs traces the development of American wines, from early viticultural efforts and some short-lived successes, through obscurity during and after Prohibition, to a new era of worldwide recognition, even emulation, by the late 20th century. This concise work is, in essence, a social history in which winemaking is set in a political, economic and cultural context.
With this detailed account, Lukacs addresses complex issues and offers insights as to how the U.S., with no winemaking tradition of its own, came to experience a veritable wine "revolution" - all within little more than a generation.
Lukacs was praised by the judges for tackling a daunting task with American Vintage and engaging the reader with his lively narrative. For judge Russ Parsons, Lukacs not only "records the history of the American wine revolution," but "tries to untangle our complicated relationship" with wine. Gerald D. Boyd concurs and applauds this "thoroughly researched look at the American wine scene, warts and all," in which colorful personalities come alive in a compelling story.
As expected, Lukacs covers California wines and the leading producers extensively, but he also gives substantial coverage to lesser known wine regions, including Missouri, Virginia and Connecticut. He brings to light some surprising facts and obscure names, such as Nicholas Longworth, who developed the first commercial winery in the U.S. in the 1840s, not in California, but in Cincinnati, Ohio. In an interesting chapter devoted to the "Rise of American Cuisine," Lukacs draws parallels between the ascendancy of both fine wine and fine dining in the U.S., observing that the common denominator is a "shared emphasis on primary flavors, letting the wine and food taste of themselves."
The author admits that some of the more auspicious predictions of the early 1980s have yet to be realized and that in many parts of the country, wine has not been embraced by the average American. Ultimately, however, the strength of American Vintage is Lukacs' vivid depiction of the pioneers - the "visionaries" - and their personal triumphs (or failures), who will linger in the reader's mind.
Lukacs is the wine columnist for the Washington Times, as well as the chairman of the English department at Loyola College in Maryland. In addition, he teaches wine appreciation classes and consults for a number of restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area.
Lukacs will receive a $1,000 cash prize, as well as a case of La Grande Dame 1993, the prestige cuve of Champagne Veuve Clicquot, the Champagne House founded in 1772.
Judges on this year's panel were: John Anderson of New York, NY, Deputy Editor of The American Lawyer; Gerald D. Boyd of Santa Rosa, CA, wine writer of the San Francisco Chronicle; Lyn Farmer of Miami, FL, senior editor of The Wine News; Richard Kinssies of Seattle, WA, wine columnist of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Russ Parsons of Los Angeles, CA, wine editor of the Los Angeles Times; Neil Steinberg of Chicago, IL, reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times; and Sonia Turek of Cambridge, MA, wine columnist of the Boston Herald.
Recent winners of the Clicquot Wine Book competition,
