Wine Industry Oral History Transcripts

One of the stated values of Covered Bridge Cellars is Knowledge, described as follows:

Knowledge—We are committed to learning all that we can about our craft and to sharing this knowledge for the benefit of our customers.

Keeping that in mind, we are always looking for new and interesting sources for wine information. Recently, while cleaning up the wine related bookmarks in my favorites directory I came across this site:

http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/food_wine/wine.html

If you click through this link it brings you to the California Wine History section of the Regional Oral History Office housed at the Bankcroft Library of UC Berkeley. The reason I bookmarked this website is because it contains an incredible collection of primary source material on the California wine industry in the form of oral history transcripts.

These documents are freely downloadable in PDF format and provide an amazing look at the industry from the perspective of the people who have helped shape the direction of wine here in the US. The transcripts represent a veritable "Wine Industry Hall of Fame" list. You can read the interviews with Mondavi, Phelps, Gallo, Duckhorn, and many, many others. These are not simply four or five page summaries, but in depth, one hundred plus page interviews. Some of the older documents appear to be part of what is called The Wine Spectator California Winemen Oral History Series. Although the more recent interviews, the one with Merry Edwards which was completed in 2008, for example, do not show this affiliation.

Anyways, I hope you find these little hidden gems interesting and useful!

Jeremy