An Ideal Wine: One Generation's Pursuit of Perfection%E2%80%94and Profit%E2%80%94in California

Journalist Darlington affectionately chronicles the largely untold story of the wine rush of the 1970s%E2%80%94a time when sales of wine eclipsed that of beer and when a number of vineyards and wineries began in California. Focusing his attention on two sides of the industry, Darlington traces the wildly different tales of two men, both committed to producing the perfect wine. Leo McCloskey founded Enologix to help wineries produce a successful commercial product; vineyards send grapes to Enologix and through chemical analysis, the company advises its customers on the quality of the grapes and on the quality of the wines that such grapes might produce. For winemaker Randall Grahm, the vineyard represents his spiritual path, perhaps the only way he has of bringing balance to his life and achieving something like contentment. Darlington's fast-paced story of the quest for the ideal wine charmingly explores the parallel paths of two men: one a modern Mephistopheles promising clients a deal by which they could acquire hidden knowledge and earthly success (McCloskey) and the other a modern-day Faust consumed by a sweeping and sometimes self-defeating desire for cosmic insight (Grahm). (July)