Harvesting the Dream : The Rags-to-Riches Tale of the Sutter Home Winery

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Summary: California's Wine History
Review: HARVESTING THE DREAM:
The Rags-To-Riches Tale Of The
Sutter Home Winery:
By Kate Heyhoe and Stanley Hock

Kate Heyhoe and Stanley Hock have cooperated on a timely rags-to-riches story, one which pays tribute to hardship, hard work and unqualified success. "Genuine, generous, and humble, the Trincheros stand out in glitzy Napa Valley for their philanthropy, world-class employee programs, and long-term community involvement," says publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Sutter Home Trinchero family migrated from Italy to New York city for the usual reasons not long after World War II. Little did they realize their reasons for success would take them to far-away California, a continent away. They arrived in the late 1940s and ploughed their fate into the long-dormant Sutter Home winery. They would restore it, and they had the grit and determination to bring it to fruition. At one period it meant living in an unheated motel cabin with outdoor facilities.

By the 1950s the family was producing 52 different wines. Their success was based on strong family discipline, a certain amount of risk-taking and the "fortuitous accident" leading to their creation of the first White Zinfandel, thus the Part II of the book entitled, "Eureka! Liquid Gold and the Blush Rush."

Historians and students will appreciate the seven-page index to this viticultural account of California's colorful past.

Kate Heyhoe is an important pioneer in the field of food. On line since 1994, her earliest Electronic Gourmet Guide gave way to her current Global Gourmet site, (www.GlobalGourmet.com). Her newest books, besides, Harvesting the Dream, are A Chicken in Every Pot, a study of international chicken dishes and Macho Nachos, a worldly look at chip adornment and entertainment fun. She is also author of Cooking with Kids For Dummies.

Stanley Hock is former communications director for the Trinchero Family in Napa Valley. In a 25-year career in California's wine industry, thirteen of these years were spent as director of communications for the Sutter Home Winery. Hock also collaborated with James McNair in the compilation of the Sutter Home Napa Valley Cookbook.