Customer Reviews

Napa

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Napa is a fine book for anyone interested in wines in general and in the ones produced in Napa Valley in particular. The beginning of the book is really the best part. With a great deal of interesting details, the author recalls the beginning of wine production in the area. Reading the story of the pionners who settled there in the beginning of the century is really fascinating. The description of the lives of great characters such as Gustave Niebaum, Georges de Latour or John Daniel are really well written. The second part of the book is less interesting. It focusses too much on political battles in the late 80's and the author has clearly chosen his camp and shows too much the people that he does not like. It would be great if the author would suppress the last chapters and write about what happened in the 90's. Napa Valley has changed, new producers have emerged and an up-dated version of Napa would be a great gift for all wine lovers.

Conaway's Napa is subtitled, "The Story of an American Eden." Conaway has done his research in uncovering the history of the valley and the origin of its now world-class wineries. However, readers who are looking for a romantic evocation of this "American Eden" may be disappointed. Conaway devotes more space to land use issues, corporate politics and social history than to the development of the vintner's art in the Napa. The story is told through a series of short chapters relating to many of the people who have had made an impact on the valley. This provides a detailed history, but the author does little to provide much synthesis for the many narratives. The book begins with the arrival of Jack and Jamie Davies and their renovation of the Shramsberg winery in the early 60's, but the last several chapters deal almost exlusively with the political battles between the big vintners, portrayed as greedy and selfish, and the slow-growth advocates, the story's idealistic heroes. The conflicts between growth versus conservation and art versus commerce do provide some interesting drama and are necessary elements of the story of Napa Valley. But the essence of Napa is wine and the good life, and this story gets lost in the politics of Conaway's version of Napa. Read the book for the interesting history of Napa's wine industry and the wealth of historical detail, but understand that the author is more conerned with how the beauty of Napa can be preserved than with the romance of the vine.

The author, a free-lance wine writer not widely regarded as a heavyweight, has done a National Enquirer treatment of Napa and its leading wine personalities, reprinting a lot of rumors, quoting a lot of unnamed sources. Never mind. It's a helluva read. Just don't take it too seriously.

It is interesting to read history, whether people or events, and feel as though you were/are there as it is playing out. Napa is a book that takes you on a fast moving trak from the early days of the wine business in California;the people, the companies,the personalities, mistakes and successes and the politics. These are the stories involving some of the worlds famous wines, winemakers and wineries. The personalities of the players are interesting because the book discusses the personalities of the people involved. The Mondavi's, Charles Krug, Davies, all of the people and companies that have contributed to the Napa mystique. Fun reading, quick, easy to keep track of people and events and educational. Napa is a special place because of this book-even for those of us that are not wine connoisseurs but love the history of the West and the people that got us here.

I worked in the Probation Department in Napa in the 80s and went all around the valley meeting those that got into a little trouble. From Gene Duffey to the Wineries folks I say this book is right on. Napa is now nothing like what it was then and I live just a little past Calistoga.

It was then less corporate and more fun for all. Less people during the week and before the I phone folks talked a lot more to one another and everyone had an opinion based on nothing like the facts.

This book brings it all into perspective and worth reading.

It's almost 20 years since I first devoured this stylish, tell all tale of the incredible struggles of the Napa Valley wine dwellers as they wrestle with changes overtaking their sweet homeland. The battle between development happy capitalist princes versus environmental preservationists is told with all the style of Tom Wolfe or Vanity Fair. I must have given away 20 copies over the years. Breathtakingly brilliant, seriously suspenseful, and it stands the test of time as today I am once more returning to reread it. An American story, a wine story, a green story - and a must read!

Especially if you're planning a visit to the California Wine Country, consider spending some time with this book. The story is fascinating and provides an almost personal connection that gives a wonderful context to one's own experience of the place. Footprints of many of the storied poineers can still be found in the Valley today, but one might miss them trusting only a tour book. Conaway is sometimes criticized for his politics shining through the latter part of the book, but (perhaps due to my on sympathies?) I would disagree. There have been dramatic changes in the American wine industry and especially in Napa Valley over the past twenty years, and hearing a well articulated commentary (at least through the first of those watershed years) detracts little from the picture Conaway evokes. Grab a glass of your favorite Napa Cabernet or Chardonnay and enjoy!

------- as a classmate of robin daniels and mickey mondavi, as a son of a winery-worker who worked with joe heitz and mike grgich, i delivered newspapers to them and all the rest.

napa managed to never mention me or my paper-route, but i'm behind every page, just around the corner.

cold and raw in the winter, hot and dry in the summer, sticky and heavy (picking grapes and prunes)in the fall, napa (st. helena in particular)seems like it "ought" to be an Eden. guess what? it's not. it's a business. want to make a small fortune in the wine biz? start with a LARGE fortune!

the people who grew up and worked there are just like the people who grew up in stockton.

you may never meet me, but you'll get the chance to meet the "players". you won't meet the gallos, however, yet they kept napa in the grape/wine business by guaranteeing a market (even if penny-ante)when wine wasn't "hip."

napa is spot-on all the way through, with that one exception . . .

Covers the history of the valley, mixing money, family fueds, and agriculture.

I read it in one flight, couldn't put it down