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Postmodern Winemaking

Rethinking The Modern Science Of An Ancient Craft

by Clark Smith

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In Postmodern Winemaking, Clark Smith shares knowledge he has accumulated in engaging, humorous, and erudite essays that convey a new vision of the winemaker's craft--one that credits the crucial roles played by both science and art in the winemaking process. Smith, a leading innovator in red wine production techniques, explains how traditional enological education has led many winemakers astray--enabling them to create competent, consistent wines while putting exceptional wines of structure and mystery beyond their grasp. Great wines, he claims, demand a personal and creative engagement with many elements of the process. His lively exploration of the facets of postmodern winemaking, together with profiles of some of its practitioners, is both entertaining and enlightening.

"I love this book: it’s brave, provocative, and fun. Smith has a writing style that’s engaging and that enlivens what would otherwise risk being indigestible wine science. This is a significant contribution to the literature on winemaking." --Jamie Goode, author of The Science of Wine and Authentic Wine

"This book should be required reading for all winemakers, aspiring winemakers, and anyone who wishes to have a deeper understanding of wine."--Joel Peterson, founder, Ravenswood Winery

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Published by U.C.Press

List Price $34.95

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As an Amazon.com partner, we receive 10% for purchases you complete through this site, and it costs you nothing. My personal thanks for your support. - Clark Smith

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Recommended Books by Clark Smith

Knowing and Making Wine

by Emile Peynaud

It is ironic that the best philosophical work on modern winemaking in the English language comes to us as a translation from the French. Emile Peynaud, the innovative Director of the Faculty of Oenology at the University of Bordeaux from 1956 – 1969, was as instrumental as anyone in ushering in the era of scientific winemaking. Read from today’s perspective, his balanced and often poetic observations sometimes also presage the postmodern perspective, providing essential grounding for the transition to sophisticated consideration of wine structure, microbiology and oxygen chemistry. His other classic work, The Taste of Wine, is an equally incomparable treatment of the art and science of wine appreciation.

Micro Vinification

by Murli R. Dharmadhikari

As unlikely as it seems, Murli “D” is, in my opinion, the most important enologist in U.S. history. As creator of the fifteen-state Midwestern winery establishment hub at Southwest Missouri State University and subsequently Iowa State Enologist for the last decade, this diminutive and bashful Mumbai import has played a key role in the establishment of perhaps a thousand wineries and is the author of the clean, straightforward style which distinguishes Middle American wines from the overworked caricatures California churns out. This ridiculously affordable practical guide will get any micro winery started on the right foot.

Wine Science, Fourth Edition: Principles and Applications

by Ronald S. Jackson

If you own only one book on modern winemaking, this should be it. Ron Jackson’s explanations are thorough, concise, readable, practical, current and complete. I wish I’d written it, and am very glad to have it as a base on which to build postmodern winemaking. There are many inferior books which either get lost in dry theory or skim over essential basics. Jackson doesn’t dumb anything down, but also gets right to the practical point. Because of the low readership, winemaking books are always expensive, but this is a comparative bargain.

Chemistry Made Simple

by Fred C. Hess, Arthur L. Thomas

Fred Hess is a soils scientist, and this book reveals nothing specific to winemaking. I recommend it here as an affordable guide to basic chemistry for the beginner. Fred is the high school chemistry teacher you should have gotten. Now that you know WHY you need to know how chemistry works, his succinct and practical explanations provide the keys for any normal person to grasp the basic fundamentals.