February 27th – San Luis Obispo, CA – Larry Brooks, who has made wine in California for over four decades, has published in serial form “Liquid Geography,” his comprehensive text on wine tasting, grape growing, and winemaking.
The book, published on the Substack platform one chapter at a time, describes in detail the major facets of wine tasting, grape growing, and winemaking in straightforward prose largely free of jargon and without presuming that the reader has scientific training. “This book is not intended to be a manual, but there is much practical advice and knowledge based on my more than four decades of hands-on wine growing,” says Brooks.
“Liquid Geography” is divided into three sections. The first section deals with tasting and flavor. The second section involves growing grapes for fine wine and its intersection with winemaking. The section on winegrowing contains specifics of the seasonal tasks and their linkage to winemaking. “One cannot discuss agriculture during this period of climate crises without taking the effects of a warming environment into account,” says Brooks. “A warming world is an existential risk for fine winemaking in its traditional locations.”
The final section of the book addresses winemaking itself. “Winemaking is in many ways like cooking. Though with wine the dish can be in the oven for a year or more. The same skills and desires that make for a good cook serve the winemaker equally well. Obsessive attention to detail and a passionate engagement with process and product are essential. One must have a zealot’s belief in the world of the senses,” he continues.
Brooks began his winemaking career in 1979, at Acacia Winery in the Carneros appellation of the Napa Valley. During his tenure at Acacia, he was responsible for all aspects of vineyard management, winemaking and sales for what would become one of the most successful wineries of the 1980-1990’s. From there, Brooks assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Winemaking for the Chalone Wine Group in the mid 1990’s. In addition to managing five wineries under the CWG umbrella, he was responsible for developing Echelon, a negociant model brand. During that time, he also led acquisition and development at Sagelands in Washington and Provenance in Napa. In 2000, Brooks began consulting, performing a full range of consultation work and strategic planning for a diverse group of wineries. In 2006, Brooks joined Tolosa Winery full time as their Winemaker and General Manager, a post he held until 2014. Today, Brooks has returned to consulting, working with wineries across California. He has also lectured in Sensory Evaluation at both California Polytechnic State University and California State University Fresno.
“If you are one of those wine lovers who pine for books that are intelligent, informed, accessible, and don’t talk down to you, Larry Brooks’ “Liquid Geography” is exactly what you’ve been waiting for,” says Tom Wark, author, Fermentation Wine Blog. “As is typical of the best winemakers, Brooks is thorough and very thoughtful and his work on winemaking and wine tasting reflects this disposition. “Liquid Geography” is turning out to be one of the most important works on the confluence of winemaking and tasting wine that we have seen in decades,” he says.
Joel Butler MW says “Mr. Brooks’ humanistic approach, grounded in solid science, to that most humanistic product, wine, reflects his thoughtful, considered wine-making experience of many decades. Moreover, his work makes an honest effort to explain clearly the more technical and complex aspects of making and appreciating wine. Liquid Geography is a must-read!”
“I’ve known Larry for 20+ years,” says winemaker and vineyard manager, Chad Melville of Melville in Santa Barbara County. “I can remember the day I met him as the moderator of a large group of winemakers, doing a technical blind tasting. I was immediately impressed by his knowledge, command, optimism, and his father-like support of everyone in the room. I have the utmost respect for Larry.”
“Larry Brooks has been a mentor and an inspiration to me, and there are many more like me. While he has made great wines for four decades, and has earned scads of praise for them, I daresay that it’s his teaching that has had the greater impact,” says Doug Frost, MW, MS. “The wine industry has been greatly enriched by his concepts and ideas, but even more so by his example. A tireless mind always in search of the myriad and sometimes confounding realities of wine, Brooks has driven forward our understanding of the intricacies of fermentation. He is just as fired by the maddening zigzags of the marketplace, and his long and varied experiences form the solid foundation for this marvelous book.”
Brook’s Substack is eponymously called “Liquid Geography”, and is reader supported. Free subscribers may read chapters in their entirety, while paid subscribers are able to exchange commentary with Brooks and other readers on the platform, as well as receive additional writings from Brooks. Chapters are published monthly with six chapters published to date in their entirety. The entire publication will appear on Substack in serial form, as will Brooks’ upcoming, as of yet untitled book on climate change and the wine industry.
To read “Liquid Geography” please visit https://larrybrooks.substack.com/p/welcome
