Book Review: A History of Wine in America - From Prohibition to Present

I have finally turned the last page of this great book full of great stories about our beloved American wine industry. The book did a great job to lay out the prohibition years and the long lasting impact of the consequences brought by the way the 21st amendment was repealed. The birth of the three tier system is very well explained and so is the rebirth and transformation of the California wine industry. The other regions in the US are also well covered, New York, the Pacific Northwest, Michigan, Ohio and more. It is very interesting to read about how the three tier system was set up and really how unimportant the alcohol business was at the time this was done. Think about it, California was barely the size of the current Washington wine industry and no alcohol had been sold in the country for more than 10 years. No one thought that alcohol sales would grow the way they have, so really it was not a front burner issue and the Federal government gave the right to regulate alcohol to each State as it desired. The results of the repeal are still with us today, 75 years later, a patchwork of different rules, taxes and systems that are a strong barrier to innovation in our industry. A great read.

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