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Title details for Soft Soil, Black Grapes by Simone Cinotto - Available

Soft Soil, Black Grapes

The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California

#21 in series

by Simone Cinotto
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Winner of the 2013 New York Book Show Award in Scholarly/Professional Book Design
From 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.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Nation of Nations

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 12, 2012

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780814717394
      • File size: 5872 KB

    • Open EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780814717394
      • File size: 5881 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      December 1, 2012

      Cinotto, (history, Univ. of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo, Italy; A Family That Eats Together) here studies the cultural history of the California wine industry through the lives of wine-making Italian immigrants beginning in the 1880s. Enduring companies like the Italian Swiss Colony, Italian Vineyard Company, and the Earnest and Julio Gallo Winery were all founded in the early days of the modern California wine industry. He explores the transformations of these immigrants' lives as they created this industry. Cinotto posits that having access to what he calls "social capital," a network of family members and people from similar cultural backgrounds, helped their businesses thrive despite the obstacles of Prohibition and discrimination. The writing style is engaging and the author uses a variety of sources to describe the cultural landscape of the California wine industry from its beginnings to modern times. VERDICT This work would fit best in larger public libraries and university library collections.--Ginny Wolter, West Toledo Branch Lib., OH

      Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      October 1, 2012
      History professor Cinotto traces a unique path in this study of the origins of California's wine industry. He focuses on the role of Italian immigrants in establishing those now-famous vineyards and wineries that came to dominate the business. Earlier historians have posited a translation of Italy's Piedmont vineyards into the valleys north of San Francisco, but Cinotto marshals evidence that the Gallos, Rossis, Guastis, and other North Italians founded and grew their businesses along family, ethnic, and racial lines and had possessed little winemaking experience in their native Piedmont. They held onto the strong bonds of extended family, encouraging whole clan lines to depart Italy for America's promise. In the process, they often exploited the labor of other immigrant groups, such as the Chinese, Japanese, and Mexicans. Remaining aloof and academically rigorous, Cinotto alludes only tangentially to the dysfunctional and frequently scandal-ridden generations that inherited these corporations whose worth grew exponentially after the repeal of Prohibition.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • Open EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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