Cabernet Sauvignon, The Love Affair That Built The Napa Valley

Author Richard Mendelson has brought us a jewel: the story of how one prized grapevariety, Cabernet Sauvignon, transformed a sleepy California farm community into aworld-renowned wine-growing region and a showcase for the very best in Americanwine, culture, cuisine and luxury travel. From the first plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon in the 19th Century to the surprisetriumph of Napa Valley wines at the fabled Judgment of Paris, Mendelson brings usintimate portraits of the pioneers, growers, artists, and craftsmen who turned the NapaValley into a shining symbol of American talent, ingenuity and business savvy. Thosefeatured include winemakers Robert Mondavi, Warren Winiarski, Bill Harlan, and manymore, plus their storied mentors, Charles Krug, André Tchelistcheff and Maynard Amerine. And Mendelson is no outsider looking in. For the past three decades, he has lived thisstory from a unique perspective: as a Napa Valley winemaker, award-winning author, and as a leading attorney and advocate who has helped shape and protect the valley'svineyards and its future. Richard's book is already being hailed as one of the finest booksever written about American wine and the pioneering role of the Napa Valley. To showcase the beauty and importance of the story, Cabernet Sauvignon featuresexquisite design and photography, plus a wealth of historical portraits, maps, andlithographs, making the book a treasured keepsake for wine lovers and for anyoneinterested in one of the most compelling chapters in modern American history.

Richard Mendelson is a Napa Valley wine lawyer, scholar, and vintner whose career has uniquely bridged the worlds of wine, land, and law.He is the author of Common Ground: Charting the Future of Napa Valley, Appellation Napa Valley: Building and Protecting an American Treasure, Wine in America: Law and Policy, and From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America. An expert on appellations of origin for wine and other products of place, he directs the Wine Law and Policy Program at UC Berkeley Law School and is of counsel at Dickenson Peatman & Fogarty.A longtime Napa resident, Mendelson brings together the insight of a historian and legal authority with the lived perspective of one who has been part of the Napa Valley story itself.