Book : The Wild Vine, Todd Kliman

This tells the story of the Norton grape and a look at the current status in the USA regarding Norton. The modern day story centres around Jenni McCloud of Chrysalis Vineyards who is portrayed as a Norton fanatic and champion. The book tells the story of how a bottle of Norton won a gold medal at a wine competition in Vienna in 1873 and then has almost vanished off the radar only to be promoted by Jenni and few other ecentric vintners.



I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the history of Norton but was disappointed to hear that the grape is still in obscurity in the USA and simply a curiosity. It is a niche grape variety and will always remain so.

I would recommend this book to anybody interested in the history of viticulture and enology in the USA.




Website : Chrysalis Vineyards