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Crush:The Triumph of California Wine William K. Crowley Crush: The Triumph of California Wine John Briscoe University of Nevada Press Wine attracts print like no other beverage. Wine atlases, histories, scientific publications, dedicated scholarly journals, blogs, and popular magazines abound. Among the many contributions centered on the California wine industry, historical efforts in book form have reached a sizable number. Such volumes began to appear in the second half of the nineteenth century as the state's wine industry reached viability. With the impact of the Wine Revolution from the 1960s forward, California's wine gained international recognition for its quality. Vineyards appeared on sites that had never seen a grape, as acreage expanded and the number of wineries grew at ever greater rates. Not surprisingly, wine literature followed suit. John Briscoe ("a poet, author, and lawyer" and vice president of the San Francisco Historical Society at the time of publication) felt something was missing in other works. In his view, previous studies did not "sufficiently reference or illuminate the larger history" in which wine events transpired. He also felt previous authors had treated Prohibition as the only major setback for California's wine industry, omitting additional calamities that also had dire consequences; other major negative forces merited attention as well. Additionally, he opined that among the earlier presentations, "none teases out the most important strands of California's wine history…." Too often, wine trends were described/analyzed without tying them to other contemporaneous developments that impacted the wine industry. He proclaimed that one of his major goals in Crush was to identify the highs and lows and to more closely examine how wine folks dealt with negative impacts. While extensively relying on a dozen or so previously published efforts, he also taps into a broader expanse of publications. In some instances he conducted personal interviews and he also consulted various oral histories [End Page 160] that grew from the 1970s onward. Throughout the volume, Briscoe provides abundant citations. The book is built around a three-part sequence based on the following basic ideas: the early history; the four great setbacks (phylloxera, 1906 earthquake, WWI, and Prohibition); and Recovery and Ascent following Repeal. Briscoe writes well, and this is a publication meant for the general public interested in California wine history, not for a select scholarly segment of society. He is not testing theories nor extensively criticizing earlier works. He means to demonstrate that wine industry episodes are related to other happenings in the greater society, while tracing the evolution of the California wine industry. Among the physical attractions of Crush are the numerous historic drawings, photos, and wine labels that decorate the pages of text. He also places extensive quotes from many sources in highlighted sidebars. These additions make for a visually appealing and informative presentation. In my view, what Briscoe does, he does very well. He provides great detail on many subjects that have been treated more briefly (or not at all) by others. The 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco (where most of California's wine was stored at the time!), the origins of the Gallo story, and the 1976 Paris tasting all receive extensive coverage. He manifests in these moments his considerable abilities as an exhaustive researcher. But Briscoe's approach is a selective one, a weakness he admits in the Acknowledgments. He notes that Thomas Pinney, author of a voluminous and excellent history of wine across the United States, suggested he pay more attention to some of the more important Southern California developments, and that also he should make the book "less Northern California-centric." Briscoe responds to this suggestion by saying, "I confess to a slashing selectivity, one that traces the historical trajectory of California wine as I happen to see it." From its origins through the early 1860s, California winemaking centered in what today would be called metropolitan Los Angeles, extending eastward (eventually) to San Bernardino. The author provides fine detail in searching out the earliest operators here, but he gives short shrift (or skips over) some of the main players as proceedings move through the 1850s. He mentions, but provides little elaboration on, the...
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