Product Description

This moving, evocative memoir, woven with lyrical descriptions of the sights and smells of vineyard life, tells the inspirational story of one woman's journey to success in an industry run mostly by men. At Home in the Vineyard, filled with colorful characters and unexpected experiences, brings a local rural community vividly alive as Oregon wine pioneer and industry icon Susan Sokol Blosser recounts how she fell in love with a vineyard, learned how to run it, and ultimately achieved her vision of producing Pinot Noirs to rival those of Burgundy. An intimate family story, At Home in the Vineyard also gives a candid insider's view of Oregon's flourishing wine industry.
Sokol Blosser begins her narrative in the 1970s, when, as a young, idealistic wife, she helped her husband make his wild idea of planting a vineyard in the Dundee Hills become a reality. By the book's final pages, she has become president of Sokol Blosser Winery, widely respected for gaining national visibility and for producing world-class wines, especially the elusive Pinot Noir. Along the way, Sokol Blosser tells how she learned to do everything from driving a tractor and managing a picking crew to selling Oregon wine in Manhattan. She also shares some special accomplishments: how she instituted values of environmental sustainability and social responsibility at the vineyard, integrated family and business life, and successfully brought the second generation on board.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #390834 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 259 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In 1970, the Blossers were in their mid-20s, having spent most of their four married years in graduate school or on memorable road trips in their Volkswagon camper. Then, as she puts it, "Bill and I each gave birth." She produced their first child, while he bought their first lot of vineyard land—in Oregon. As Blosser explains, in 1970 American wine was supposed to be made in California, if at all. But they were guessing that pinot noir, in particular, might work well in a colder, damper climate if the soil were right and the growing calendar adjusted to work with the weather. The Blossers, together with other Oregon pioneers, built up a well-regarded wine industry, which in recent years has become one of the state's more environmentally progressive industries as well. Blosser tells the story of how they learned both viniculture and small business management. True, their marriage ended after 33 years, but she's not one to dwell on the negative in this upbeat narrative. While Blosser's story might be interesting for a vintner hopeful, general readers may find it flat. Blosser might make great wines, but her writing could use a little more flavor. (Aug.)
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From the Inside Flap
"Just like the complex Pinot Noir crafted by Sokol Blosser, Susan's life story is layered and rich. Recounting her journey with passion and humor, we share in the professional challenges Susan faced as an Oregon wine industry pioneer, as well as the personal rewards of raising a family and finding self-fulfillment. Even if you're not a wine lover, you will love reading this touching memoir."--Leslie Sbrocco, author of Wine for Women: A Guide to Buying, Pairing, and Sharing Wine

"At last, an intelligent, literate, first-hand observation of the beginnings of the Oregon wine industry. Susan Sokol Blosser was there when we were no more than a handful of families with naïve dreams and very dirty boots. Not only does At Home in the Vineyard capture those early experiences with exuberant detail and humor, but it also provides insight into her family's private challenges of managing vineyards and a successful winery."--David Adelsheim, President, Adelsheim Vineyard

"This is a coming-of-age story of a wine region and of a woman. It is about finding and following your destiny, but also shaping it yourself. It is about using every success and setback to fuel your own energy, to do the right thing, and to feed your heart. How could this book be both deeply inspiring and funny? Well, that is Susan Sokol Blosser."--Andrea (Immer) Robinson, Master Sommelier and author, Andrea's Complete Wine Course for Everyone

About the Author
Susan Sokol Blosser is President of Sokol Blosser Winery. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Public Service from the University of Portland.

Customer Reviews

Sour grapes? No way!
Well, except when the weather deals them an unwelcome clout....

I live smack dab in the middle of wine country (California) myself, but am no vintner. And it happens I took a scouting trip to the McMinnville vicinity in Oregon last year, thinking it a prospective new home. So, when I spied the lush, green-vined cover of AT HOME IN THE VINEYARD, I was hooked and had to investigate one woman's (and her family's) experiences establishing and nurturing grapes from plant to bottle.

Susan Sokol Blosser writes a chatty, wide-ranging history beginning in late 1970, when she gave birth to her first son and her then-husband Bill "closed the deal on our first piece of vineyard land." She traces the stages of the vineyard and the winery that was built later with an easy, honest style that disarms and charms. It is soon apparent that this woman is an engine of energy. During the years her three children are small, she mainly toils in the vineyard, tilling, planting, picking, spraying, fertilizing, etc. But she also finds time to join the school board and various associations. She also teaches briefly at a McMinnville college. Later, she is twice a candidate for state public office, once losing by a questionable "whisker." As the family wine business expands, so does the wine industry in Oregon. Susan and Bill do their part to uphold and promote the burgeoning reputation Oregon wine slowly acquires -- particularly its Pinot Noir which grows full-bodied in the cooler Northwest climate. In 1990, Susan takes over from Bill as president of their winery and slowly refinances and then gains full ownership of the enterprise. She changes winemakers to improve quality. She travels widely and often to see distributors and explore new markets. She modernizes the labels on their bottles and gains national attention with a blended white wine. She deals with lawsuits and legislative hurdles. She also decides to shift to organic operations and embraces sustainable agriculture. Then, in the early years of the new millennium, she decides she will focus on gradually handing over the reins of power to the son and daughter who have decided to follow their parents into the family business.

While the author relates the chronology of the vineyard and winery she owns and manages, she doesn't ignore the personal side. AT HOME IN THE VINEYARD includes some cute anecdotes about farm pets, and it mentions family concerns such as her father's Alzheimer's without dwelling on them. At one point, I wondered how in the world anyone could juggle so many balls in the air -- family, business, many friendships, and political activism. Something seemed bound to tumble. Well, something did, and the author unflinchingly, and without wallowing, tackles the changes in her life after the children grew up and left the nest.

For anyone who has ever considered starting up a winery, AT HOME IN THE VINEYARD illustrates the kind of commitment and fortitude such an undertaking requires. But even if you aren't planning on being the entrepreneur that all the members of the Sokol Blosser family are; if you seek stories about rural life, want to know more about the Willamette Valley, or are interested in one outspoken and undaunted woman's adventures as a corporate executive, then snag a copy of AT HOME IN THE VINEYARD and -- maybe with a glass of wine in hand -- imbibe it cover to cover.

Cheers!
Pour a glass of Evolution Wine and kick back with this entertaining memoir. If the technical aspects of starting and maintaining a business is not a favorite reading topic there is still plenty of life drama going on that is highly readable and easy to relate to. Having lived in Oregon for 22 years and seen (and tasted) the state's wine industry mature I was fascinated with finding out the inside story. If you live in Oregon you might enjoy a few "I was there" moments when the author describes the wonderful concert series in her vineyard. Ah yes...Johnny Mathis under the full moon. Wonderful memory, wonderful book.

Speaks to the heart . . .
I found Hargrave's autobiography pompous and dull, but Susan Sokol Blosser's account of building a life in the Dundee Hills of Oregon speaks to me on many levels--as a woman working in the wine industry, a woman working with her husband, a woman running her own business, and a mother. Susan turns her trials into triumphs and exercises a sense of humor along the way. From the Great Goose Experiment to the day her tearful son rides his bike all the way to school by himself, this is a story that will transport you into "The Life" of owning a vineyard and winery, with a judicial salting of reality and romance.