Académie du Vin Library is excited to announce the release of “The Wines of California,” by the renowned wine writer Elaine Chukan Brown. The much-anticipated addition to The Classic Wine Library series, publishing April 2025, provides a new, deep perspective on California’s wines, history, and culture.
California is the fourth largest producer of wine in the world, yet there are many misconceptions about the state and its wines which Elaine confronts, explores, and elucidates in their new book.
“The Wines of California” reignites California’s history through the stories of the people fundamental to its beginnings: of local Native Americans and their role in the development of the wine industry in its early days in the nineteenth century, of Chinese immigrants, as well as European, who continue to shape the industry today. The book documents the ups and downs that California producers have faced—phylloxera, Prohibition, the Gold Rush, the recovery after the Second World War, the 1960s farmworker movement, and the commercial advances since then—while detailing how the wines have been so successful in the last 50 years. Elaine offers broader historical context throughout, shedding light on how specific movements and milestones have impacted and shaped the fine wine industry we know today.
Additionally, the book’s 480 pages encompass a comprehensive list of the Golden State’s growing regions, with detailed descriptions, maps, and producers to look out for, alongside an extensive glossary of terms integral to understanding California wine.
This is not a simple recounting of California’s wine industry: it is an insight into the state’s history, culture, and mindset which will surprise, excite, and provoke. It is a story of how collaboration and determination can overcome even the most daunting of obstacles, and as California’s climate changes, this is an important study of where its wines—and its people—are headed next.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elaine Chukan Brown is an award-winning writer, speaker, and global wine educator, as well as a consultant on mentorship and diversity programs worldwide. Indigenous (Inupiaq and Unangan-Sugpiaq) from what is now Alaska, Brown specializes in American wine and reviews Napa Valley wine and wines of northeastern Spain for Wine Enthusiast. Previously, they served as the Executive Editor US for JancisRobinson.com and their work has appeared in Decanter and Wine & Spirits Magazine. They contributed to both the fourth and fifth editions of The Oxford Companion to Wine, the eighth and upcoming ninth edition of the World Atlas of Wine, and the compilations On Burgundy and On California from Académie du Vin Library.
ABOUT THE BOOK
ISBN: 9781913141875. £35/$44.95
Published 14th April 2025 by Académie du Vin Library
Format 480 pages, 234 x 156mm (9.2x6in) paperback
ABOUT ACADÉMIE DU VIN LIBRARY
Académie du Vin Library was founded by Steven Spurrier and friends, dedicated to publishing the finest wine writing, and it has grown into the world's leading wine book publisher in six short years. We choose our books with care – above all for their readability, but also because we genuinely believe they have something important to say about the world of fine wine that will enhance your drinking pleasure. Visit – academieduvinlibrary.com.
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Contacts
To request a review copy please contact:
Katie Canfield, O’Donnell Lane
katie@odonnell-lane.com
+1-530-720-1138
