A New York Times BestsellerOn October 12; 2005; a massive fire broke out in the Wines Central wine warehouse in Vallejo; California. Within hours; the flames had destroyed 4.5 million bottles of California's finest wine worth more than $250 million; making it the largest destruction of wine in history. The fire had been deliberately set by a passionate oenophile named Mark Anderson; a skilled con man and thief with storage space at the warehouse who needed to cover his tracks. With a propane torch and a bucket of gasoline-soaked rags; Anderson annihilated entire California vineyard libraries as well as bottles of some of the most sought-after wines in the world. Among the priceless bottles destroyed were 175 bottles of Port and Angelica from one of the oldest vineyards in California made by Frances Dinkelspiel's great-great grandfather; Isaias Hellman; in 1875. Sadly; Mark Anderson was not the first to harm the industry. The history of the California wine trade; dating back to the 19th Century; is a story of vineyards with dark and bloody pasts; tales of rich men; strangling monopolies; the brutal enslavement of vineyard workers and murder. Five of the wine trade murders were associated with Isaias Hellman's vineyard in Rancho Cucamonga beginning with the killing of John Rains who owned the land at the time. He was shot several times; dragged from a wagon and left off the main road for the coyotes to feed on. In her new book; Frances Dinkelspiel looks beneath the casually elegant veneer of California's wine regions to find the obsession; greed and violence lying in wait. Few people sipping a fine California Cabernet can even guess at the Tangled Vines where its life began.
#233393 in Books Dunnavant Keith 2015-10-27 2015-10-27Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.48 x 1.26 x 6.34l; 1.00 #File Name: 125001784X336 pagesMontana The Biography of Football s Joe Cool
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Very good but left me wanting moreBy John S.I am and always will be a huge Joe Montana fan. From the first time I ever saw him play as a Niner it was obvious he was a once in a lifetime quarterback! I was really looking forward to this book and while I enjoyed it very much I was hoping for more insight from Montana himself. This is a good place to start learning about the man I think is the greatest quarterback ever. Some could argue for Unitas; Favre; Brady; etc. But in the clutch I would always argue for the magic of Joe Cool; especially after how close he brought the Chiefs to the Super Bowl at the end of his career.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Solid offeringBy PeterJoe Montana is one of the greatest QB's the sport has ever known; his work with the 49'ers was legendary and he appears to be one of those players that left the sport with a clean reputation and has maintained that ever since.This book was my first in-depth look at Montana and I found that it is quite a lot like the man himself; there is very little dirt in it; no dark side to his character; a very clean book which necessarily means that it isn't as exciting of a read as some of the more "adventurous" players like Terrill Owens etc.That being said; I enjoyed the writing style of Keith Dunnavant and found he has written an understated biography of a true legend of the NFL. It would appear that the author did not have a big interaction with Montana at all in the writing but he has done well with what he did have.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. There is No There ThereBy CustomerThis reads like a term paper with a lot of filler. Granted JM has never been a guy who lit up the media but he comes across so superficially it's hard to think of this as a true biography. Not even sure I'd tell the die-hard Montana fan to buy this.
