Soft Soil, Black Grapes : The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California / Simone Cinotto.
2012
TP557 .C515513 2012
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Details
Title
Soft Soil, Black Grapes : The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California / Simone Cinotto.
Author
Cinotto, Simone, author.
ISBN
9780814717394
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2012]
Copyright
©2012
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Item Number
10.18574/nyu/9780814717387.001.0001 doi
Call Number
TP557 .C515513 2012
Dewey Decimal Classification
641.22
Summary
Winner of the 2013 New York Book Show Award in Scholarly/Professional Book DesignFrom Ernest and Julio Gallo to Francis Ford Coppola, Italians have shaped the history of California wine. More than any other group, Italian immigrants and their families have made California viticulture one of America's most distinctive and vibrant achievements, from boutique vineyards in the Sonoma hills to the massive industrial wineries of the Central Valley. But how did a small group of nineteenth-century immigrants plant the roots that flourished into a world-class industry? Was there something particularly "Italian" in their success?In this fresh, fascinating account of the ethnic origins of California wine, Simone Cinotto rewrites a century-old triumphalist story. He demonstrates that these Italian visionaries were not skilled winemakers transplanting an immemorial agricultural tradition, even if California did resemble the rolling Italian countryside of their native Piedmont. Instead, Cinotto argues that it was the wine-makers' access to "social capital," or the ethnic and familial ties that bound them to their rich wine-growing heritage, and not financial leverage or direct enological experience, that enabled them to develop such a successful and influential wine business. Focusing on some of the most important names in wine history-particularly Pietro Carlo Rossi, Secondo Guasti, and the Gallos-he chronicles a story driven by ambition and creativity but realized in a complicated tangle of immigrant entrepreneurship, class struggle, racial inequality, and a new world of consumer culture.Skillfully blending regional, social, and immigration history, Soft Soil, Black Grapes takes us on an original journey into the cultural construction of ethnic economies and markets, the social dynamics of American race, and the fully transnational history of American wine.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Series
Nation of Nations ; ; 21
Available in Other Form
print 9780814717387
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter One. The Success of Italian Winemakers in California and the "Pavesian Myth"
Chapter Two Producing Winescapes
Chapter Three. The Culture and Economy of Wine in Italy and California
Chapter Four. One Nation
Chapter Five. The Spirit and Social Ethics of Ethnic Entrepreneurship
Chapter Six. The Ethnic Edge
Chapter Seven. White Labor and Happy Families
Chapter 8. Italian Winemakers and the American System
Chapter 9. Wine and the Alchemy of Race I
Chapter 10. Wine and the Alchemy of Race II
Conclusion
Notes
Index
About the Author
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter One. The Success of Italian Winemakers in California and the "Pavesian Myth"
Chapter Two Producing Winescapes
Chapter Three. The Culture and Economy of Wine in Italy and California
Chapter Four. One Nation
Chapter Five. The Spirit and Social Ethics of Ethnic Entrepreneurship
Chapter Six. The Ethnic Edge
Chapter Seven. White Labor and Happy Families
Chapter 8. Italian Winemakers and the American System
Chapter 9. Wine and the Alchemy of Race I
Chapter 10. Wine and the Alchemy of Race II
Conclusion
Notes
Index
About the Author