When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America's Wine Country [Hardcover]

Vivienne Sosnowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2009

When Prohibition took effect in 1920, only a few months after one of the greatest California grape harvests of all time, violence and chaos descended on Northern California. Federal agents spilled thousands of gallons of wine in the rivers and creeks, gun battles erupted on dark country roads, and local law enforcement officers—sympathetic to their winemaking neighbors—found ways to stonewall the intruding authorities. For the state's winemaking families—many of them immigrants from Italy—surviving Prohibition meant facing a crucial decision—give up their idyllic way of life, or break the law to enable their livelihood to survive.

Sosnowski’s intimate history provides us with a new view into Prohibition America, away from the flappers and speakeasys of Chicago and New York, and into the lovely hills and valleys of wine country, where families hid vintages and prayed for the days when they could resume the craft that they loved. When the Rivers Ran Red tells of the extraordinary adventures of the stalwart efforts of immigrant families—the Seghesios, the Foppianos, the Nichelinis and the Cuneos—who saved one of America’s most beloved traditions.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When the U.S. Constitution was amended in 1919 to ban alcoholic beverages across the nation, few places were as devastated as the Northern California counties of Sonoma and Napa. Immigrant families, many of them Italian, had established productive vineyards. True, they did not yet claim their wines equal to Europe’s finest bottlings, but they were patiently waiting for American public taste to mature. Now they faced utter ruin, compelled to dump vats of valuable aging wines into streets, sewers, and rivers. As the 1920s rolled forward, these vineyards were in some cases pulled up and the land turned to other crops. Often bunches of ripe fruit were quietly shipped away, the growers able to sell grapes but deprived of the final vinification of the juice. Sosnowski records in heavily researched detail the real effects of Prohibition on people who wished only to produce sound wine. --Mark Knoblauch

Review

'Sosnowski offers a gripping account of Federal agents looking to seize wine and the winemakers who hid their vintages in ingenious ways. It's also a fascinating look at the birth of some of the California wine dynasties that exist to this day.' - Wine Enthusiast Magazine 'A cool history book for fans of wine and local lore.' - The San Francisco Examiner 'A rollicking story!It'll keep you awake on your towel.' - The Miami Herald 'Sosnowski is a compelling historian!this book will change the way you look at their wines, and you may find yourself tasting them differently knowing what that land and its people have been through.' - San Francisco Chronicle 'Sosnowski's fascinating account of how Napa and Sonoma winemakers struggled to survive during the national insanity known as Prohibition fills a giant hole in the history of American wine. Wine lovers everywhere should thank her for tracking down survivors, many now in their 90s, who provided rich accounts of what it was like to live through that terrible nightmare. A tale well told, Sosnowski has a fine touch.' - George M. Taber, bestselling author of Judgment of Paris 'Rich, moving and evocative, Sosnowski's exquisite writing brings to life a chapter of American history that has largely been forgotten. Anyone who enjoys California's legendary wines will absolutely adore When the Rivers Ran Red. A book to be savored, word by word. Were this a great bottle of wine, it would deserve 5 stars out of 4.' - Don and Petie Kladstrup, bestselling authors of Wine& War and Champagne 'Sosnowski's When the Rivers Ran Red will defeat the misconception that fine California wine represents a recent phenomenon. This fast paced, crisply written account of California winemakers' battle to survive Prohibition breathes new life into this precious American tradition and shows in gripping detail how deep these vines' roots run in the soils of lovely Napa and Sonoma Valleys.' - William Echikson, author of Noble Rot

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First edition (June 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230605745
• ISBN-13: 978-0230605749
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #712,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best history I've read in a long time of any era...., May 26, 2009

By 

D. P. Schroeder "Paukenwirbel" (Astride the Carolinas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America's Wine Country (Hardcover)

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This was the most enjoyable and informative book I've read in a while.

I grew up listening to my grandfather tell stories about how he and his siblings would sit outside on the front porch and watch the 'shiners race their souped-up hot-rods to outrun the Revenuers past his house on the main road from the mountains of NC into the central Piedmont (folks: those are the origins of NASCAR!).

However, I must say I never really considered how the 18th Amendment and the subsequent Volstead Act affected the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma, and that's a terrible shame. This book taught me another important aspect of the Prohibition story and nightmare.

The author strikes a perfect balance, alternating between a general history of the Temperance movement and Prohibition itself in Washington and nationwide (including some great political intrigue), while telling personal histories (some from interviews, some from memoirs and other books) about the wine families themselves, the criminal element, the oft-necessity of bootlegging just to stay financially solvent, etc. Her text is meticulously researched with copious documentation, which I value highly as a student of History.

Her obvious love of this land shines through in this accounting of its people (largely a first or second-generation immigrant population of patriotic Americans, whether they be workers, bootleggers, or wine-artisans/growers). We leave this reading the richer for having explored her work.

NOT to be missed. FIVE wholehearted stars!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dry like wine, but not as easy to drink, August 19, 2009

By 

S. Lawrenz "Lendorien" (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America's Wine Country (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

When the Rivers Ran Red is a exploration of the effects that Prohibition had on the wine makers of Napa Valley in California. Families who had been making wine for generations were suddenly forced out of business by a constitutional amendment that made their main product illegal. The book explores their plight and the efforts they made both domestically and politically to make ends meet during trying times.

From there, the book goes on to detail the efforts to put Prohibition into place, the passing of prohibition and Napa Valley's reaction to those events up until Prohibition's repeal. This includes focusing on some of the area's key players and how they worked through the issues of the day. The tone of the book puts the wine growers in a positive light despite the fact that many broke the law by making and selling their wine despite prohibition.

Unfortunately for me, I just was not able to get into this book. For some reason, I found it rambling and somewhat boring. Frankly, I simply was unable to finish it. Perhaps it was the style. The author has a dry tone and very "just the facts Ma'am" sort of approach laden with statistics and figures. While this works well for a scholarly work, it makes it less accessible to the casual reader.

This is a scholarly book with a bit of human interest gloss on it to try to appeal to a broader audience. The gloss in minimal and just not enough to get past the focus on statistical effects and politics. The opening segment I described really was most of what human interest there was.

To the author's credit, this book is well researched and detailed. I don't doubt that to the serious scholar, her work will be incredibly valuable. She's also covered a subject that I doubt that anyone else has looked into with much detail.

Bottom line is that the serious wine enthusiast or history student will find value in this book as it certainly covers its subject in detail, but for the casual reader it's a hard sell.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fighting for a way of life, March 6, 2009

By 

James W. Durney (Tampa Bay area) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America's Wine Country (Hardcover)

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Prohibition sounded good and the majority of America felt that they should support it. America's largest experiment in social engineering became an object lesson in the limits of government and the inadvisability of imposing moral codes on others. While the majority may have voted for the idea of prohibition, they had no intention of living with it. Americans wanted a drink and did not intend to alter their habits, social norms or ideas of fun due to a law. Those working in the production of beer, wine and liquors had no plans of giving up their livelihood either.

Between the producers and the consumers stand a small army of enforcement agents, many of whom are consumers too. How these agents are bypassed, hoodwinked and/or bribed so that supply can find demand was a deadly game played on a national stage. A small part of that story is how the California wine industry survived during prohibition. This book covers Northern California's wine industry, enforcement efforts and how the law is evaded. It is not an easy read; the author has a dry legalist style that keeps this from being really enjoyable. However, he tells a good story, draws very good portraits of the people and displays a real interest in the subject. The book can be fun, can be boring and sometimes seems mostly legal. The author, to his credit, keeps his feelings to himself and is fair to all sides. This is not "The Untouchables" with blazing guns, one-way rides and big city crimes. This is grape growers and wine makers struggling to get by.