Cabernet: A Photographic Journey from Vine to Wine (Hardcover)

by Charles O'Rear (Author), Michael Creedman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Many wine connoisseurs consider the complex flavors of a fine cabernet sauvignon to be unmatched by any other variety, giving it a widely held reputation as the supreme accomplishment in the art of winemaking. To create such a richly textured wine takes more than excellent grapes; it requires an incredible level of dedication and skill in every stage of the process. To produce this handsome book, photographer Charles O'Rear followed cabernet harvests across four continents, chronicling the elaborate journey from vine to bottle. O'Rear is a photojournalist who uses his camera much as a writer wields a pen--to tell a story. His choice of subjects, composition, and settings are clearly influenced by his many years contributing to National Geographic magazine. Here he presents an interesting series of subtle and imaginative full-color photos that capture the essence of the unique people and age-old methods they utilize to conceive this world-renowned wine. The accompanying text is sparse yet informative, and the famous winemaker Robert Mondavi provides a brief forward as well. O'Rear reveals an obvious affection for the title subject: "I have been fascinated with wine for most of my life..." he writes. "Yet, I still marvel at the mysterious process that somehow transforms a cluster of grapes into a divine nectar...." His book offers an appealing look behind the scenes of a complex procedure that few people fully appreciate when they pull a cork. --George Laney

Product Description
For over 30 years, photographer Charles O’Rear has been fascinated with wine and the process that transforms ordinary grapes into a world-class wine. To understand the making of two of the most renowned varietals, the bold red cabernet and the more delicate white chardonnay, O’Rear traveled 100,000 miles, visited four continents, talked with hundreds of winemakers, and captured thousands of unprecedented images. In many ways, these books are like the profiled wines themselves: full of character, lush beauty, subtlety, and surprise.

In CABERNET, O’Rear illuminates processes that the casual observer never has a chance to see. He and his camera are everywhere: looking down at vineyards from the window of a Cessna flying at 5,000 feet; tucked inside a stainless fermenting tank; or sprawled in the dirt of a September vineyard. Whether he’s with the pickers in the field, the vintners in their aging caves, or the revelers enjoying the festivities of a successful harvest, O’Rear truly captures the essence of cabernet’s mystique. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Smithmark Publishers (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765107910
• ISBN-13: 978-0765107916
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 10.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,591,989 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth a Look, March 6, 2002

By	Bill Marsano (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

The important point here is the subtitle, which specifies "a photographic journey." This is a picture book and no more, but the pictures are fine and they are welcome. Most wine books, after all, skimp on photos (which are expensive to produce), and those they use are often pedestrian. Thus we seldom get a chance to see how beautiful is the world of wine-making. Here the photographer Charles O'Rear has traveled to many of the regions where the Cabernet grape is grown--Bordeaux, California, Chile, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Spain--to record and glorify the making of Cabernet from vine to bottle. There are plenty of panoramas here; vast views over endless vineyards are the bedrock of wine photography. But there are also lots of rewarding detail shots of pickers and their tools, winery interiors, grafting, and even the tally tokens used to record how much each picker has harvested. At one vineyard they are colored baskets; at another, plastic discs; at still another, ordinary clothes pins. All different, but all with the same meaning: They determine how much each picker is paid. These homely details, when added to the faces of the workers, invite you into the world shown in the vineyard panoramas. They're far more appealing that the inevitable "art" shots of wine glasses and barrel halls and ranks of bottles in a cobwebbed cellar.

The photos are generally so expressive it's not necessary to read the captions, which is a good thing. It seems to be a rule in picture books that captions must be made confusing and inconvenient wherever possible for the reader. Also, anyone who wants to actually read about wine is advised to go elsewhere. In picture books, the text is usually scanty and used as mere filler, and that is the case here.

--Bill Marsano

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Book on Wine, March 16, 2006

By	Patrick Rice (North Olmsted, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cabernet (Paperback)

This is one of the most beautiful books on wine that I have ever seen. The photographs are simply outstanding. There is not a lot of text throughout the book, but the author correctly calls the text a photographic journey. This is a beautiful coffee table book that will be a hit with you and your guests.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderfully illuminating peace of the art work., April 2, 1999

By	Andre Suidan [[e-mail]] "suidan" (Haifa,Israel) - See all my reviews

A great way to travel from vine to wine for all wine lovers