If you are looking for a gift for the special wine drinker in your life, here’s a suggestion that is a sure bet to please, and it is NOT a wine.
The Mad Crush, a new edition written by Sean Weir is highly recommended for those who are into wine or remotely curious but also for anyone out there dreaming about starting a winery. Available on Amazon ($14.95) this new edition is beautifully written by someone who knows his wine but more importantly, knows how to engage and entertain the reader.
It is an easy read, but also hard to put down.
On one level, it is the story of Bill Greenough, who “left a successful business world in favor of moving to a remote canyon, digging out an abandoned old vineyard, and making wine off the grid.” The vineyard was established in 1880, abandoned after Prohibition, and Greenough began the process of restoring that vineyard in 1974. Today, the original 3-acre block of head pruned Zinfandel is still producing. Located in what’s known as the Edna Valley today, It is the oldest in San Luis Obispo County. Greenough added 6 acres of Zin in the 1970s and 80s.
The winery is now in the hands of the second generation and still focusing on Zinfandel.
On another level, the book is also the story of this old vineyard established about 150 years ago which was tended to by several generations who like Greenough become full time stewards of the vines and the land. Along the way the book gives life to many of the cliches tossed around in the wine world. Among them are winemakers being caretakers of the land or stewards as many now like to say, along with communicating with the vines. Stuff like this is made believable through Weir’s first hand experiences and poignant observations.
What held my attention from the first page is the feeling the book is also about the author as he comes to understand the commitment needed to succeed in tending vines and making wines. And as the process unfolds, it may all sound romantic but you sense he comes to realize that pursuing the dream of becoming a winemaker, a dream so many people have shared, is not for everybody.
Weir grew up in the wine country. He worked in the cellars of Kenwood Vineyard and saw first hand how the partners worked hard to make a go of it. In 1992 as a student at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, he worked one summer as a cellar rat with Greenough as he revived the old vineyard.
In 1995, out of the blue, Greenough contacts him to work the harvest. That included monitoring the vines as they matured, cleaning the winery, and preparing for the harvest, crush, and fermentations. That experience, he explains, “is what ultimately drove him to write the book.” As the story unfolds, readers learn a lot about vines, making wines, cleaning, and dealing with the weather, equipment, and the workers during the harvest and crush. It is an inside look at the nitty-gritty, the dusty, dirty boots side of winemaking, not to forget the long hours.
When you go to Amazon for the book, there’s a plot summary. This is a revised edition and includes an afterword and a section called “Prunings,” consisting of some tidbits and stories that didn’t fit the main story.
As for the author, when asked about his winemaking experience after 1995, Sean notes: “That was my third and final crush. That was enough for me. I caught the winemaking bug, but it wasn’t terminal.”
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