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Title: amusing look behind the scenes
Review: Janet Maslin's review in the New York Times called this book enjoyably wry and amusing and compared it to a young Tom Wolfe, and she's got a point. The book is light and entertaining, a compelling fast read filled with colorful characters. There's the man who spends $500,000 on a single bottle of wine, and the vintner with a barnful of vintage Porsches, Ferraris, and Bentleys on his Napa "farm," and the community activists who fight so that dozens of chickens can wander freely through the town square in Sonoma. The book gives an eye-opening insider's look at the wine country and shows what visitors rarely see when they come for a day of wine tasting or a weekend getaway at an inn or resort. The tone is humorous and bemused but the book also raises real issues about growth and development and direct democracy and how can we try to preserve the natural beauty and character of a place as more people flock to live there and threaten to ruin it.
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