Wine Across America: A Photographic Road Trip [Hardcover]

Daphne Larkin (Author), Charles O'Rear (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2007

It was while enjoying a friend's bottle of out-of-state wine that renowned Napa Valley wine photographer Charles O'Rear and his wife, Daphne, decided to embark on the ultimate wine road trip. Eighteen months and 50,000 miles later, WINE ACROSS AMERICA presents the fruits of their journey, documenting the passion and pride of winegrowers, winemakers, and wine drinkers from New England to Florida, Alaska to Hawaii, and everywhere in between. The first photography book to showcase American wine country, this lavishly illustrated tribute will inform, entertain, and inspire readers to see and taste the American wine revolution for themselves.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

* A spectacular tour through all 50 states, featuring the unique people, beautiful places, and passionate lifestyle behind America's growing love affair with wine.
* Contains 300 full-color photos of the wineries, their vineyards, harvests, celebrations, wine labels, winery doors, and grape leaves, as well as dramatic portraits of winery owners, winemakers, and workers.
* Includes special sections devoted to regional wine growing, distinctly American wine labels, a map showing the number of wineries in every state, and an index of wine facts.
* Chuck O'Rear's books have sold more than 250,000 copies.

About the Author

DAPHNE LARKIN is a writer specializing in the wine industry. She is a former United Nations journalist, reporter for Newsweek, television news writer, and senior vice president of corporate communications for a Fortune 500 corporation. She lives in Napa Valley, California.
CHARLES O’REAR photographed for National Geographic for 25 years and since 1990 has produced four books on wine. He began photographing winemaking when he moved to Napa Valley in 1978, and today owns the largest collection of wine photography in the United States. He resides in beautiful St. Helena, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wineviews Publishing (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962522767
• ISBN-13: 978-0962522765
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 1 x 11.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,049,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Book about Good Wine, September 23, 2007

By 

Michael C. Creedman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wine Across America: A Photographic Road Trip (Hardcover)

If you think that there's no more juice to squeeze from the vine that yields books about wine, you had better think again. And if you believe that good wines come only from the favored regions of California, you're in for a delightful surprise.
Because the luminous new volume from photographer Chuck O'Rear and his writer wife, Daphne Larkin, celebrates how the skills and values involved in making fine wine have spread very quietly until the art now stretches from sea to shining sea...and beyond. In fact, as this book makes graphically clear, wine is produced in all fifty states and much of it is quite good.
Spread over 224 thick, glossy pages,Wine Across America: A Photographic Road Trip, turns up some fascinating people, uncovers some unique locations, and delivers more happy surprises than a great bottle of Cabernet, like three pages of coast-to-coast labels and a four page fold-out photograph that seems to surround the reader.

Their evidence that wine-making has spread to every state is compelling, but what this talented team has produced goes a long way beyond just the facts. O'Rear's photographic eye is always on point and just about every photo in the book is gallery-worthy (which one might expect from someone who has been responsible for more than 25 National Geographic articles). Larkin's ear for the rhythms of the regions and her enthusiasm for her subjects make the spare text a joy. I wish there even more stories by the winemakers explaining why and how they became so totally involved with the vine and barrel. But that's a small quibble.

The bottom line is that for anyone who likes wine and enjoys people, Wine Across America is a great choice.

Michael Creedman

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Photographic Road Trip for Wine Lovers, September 14, 2007

By 

Bob Krist (New Hope, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wine Across America: A Photographic Road Trip (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful book for anyone who appreciates good wine and great photography. Mr. O'Rear, a long time National Geographic shooter, has made a specialty of photographing the wine industry the world over, and this book came about when he discovered that there were working wineries in every state in the country. Along with writer Daphne Larkin, He set out on a two-year, 80,000 mile odyssey to photograph them.
The result is a stunning collection of beautiful, and informative photographs, and insightful text. Mr. O'Rear gives it the full, National Geographic treatment, so we see great landscapes, graphic aerials, and insightful portraits. The layout, printing, and pacing of the book are first rate, and the thoroughness of the coverage even includes reproductions of bottles and labels from all 50 states. It's the perfect gift for the wine lover or photographer in the family.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Coffee-table picture book, not a travel guide to wineries!, May 2, 2008

By 

Michael E. McCarthy "Mac" (Castro Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wine Across America: A Photographic Road Trip (Hardcover)

Somehow I didn't fully grasp from the Web page that this is a coffee-table picture book of photos of wineries across America--it is NOT a guide or travelogue you could use to visit wineries as you drive across country, which is what I wanted. I allowed myself to be misled by the words "Road Trip" in the title. It's not even a narrative of the authors' driving around the country visiting wineries!

In fact, you can't *use* this book at all, you can only look at the pictures, because there is no map of where these wineries are, or addresses to find them. Not what I had in mind, and this mismatch is why I give it a low score. (As a picture book, though, it's pretty.)