The Heartbreak Grape: A California Winemaker's Search for the Perfect Pinot Noir

by Marq de Villiers

Recounts how Josh Jensen founded the Calera Wine Company in a part of California not noted for its wines, and struggled to create a high quality, European-style pinot noir wine

Genres: Wine

197 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Born in South Africa, Marq de Villiers is a veteran Canadian journalist and the author of thirteen books on exploration, history, politics, and travel, including Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource (winner of the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction). He has worked as a foreign correspondent in Moscow and through Eastern Europe and spent many years as editor and then publisher of Toronto Life magazine. More recently he was editorial director of WHERE Magazines International. He lives in Port Medway, Nova Scotia. [Penguin Canada]

Reviews

[cynthia Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book because I'm obsessed with Pinot Noir (and was even before the movie Sideways came out), so I enjoyed getting the historical perspective on how people (i.e. UC Davis) thought quality Pinot couldn't be produced in the US. I know that Pinot is "difficult" to grow and make into wine, so it was good to learn a few more specifics about why and in what ways.

[Uncle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started it but not taken with it.

[Ramatre Matre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapter I - In which a bottle of wine is consumed, and some inquiries into the grand conceit of its origins are undertaken...