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Tangled Vines
Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California | Frances Dinkelspiel
7 posts | 4 read | 4 to read
On October 12, 2005, a fire broke out in a massive old Navy bunker in Vallejo, California that had been converted into a wine warehouse known as Wines Central. Within hours, flames and heat had ravaged the concrete building, destroying more than four and a half million bottles of wine worth $250 million dollars. It was the costliest destruction of wine in history. That fire was deliberately set by a man named Mark Anderson who was at the end of his economic rope and, after being convicted of arson, is now doing prison time. The history of the wine trade in California is rife with stories of violence, greed, obsession, murder and destruction. Frances Dinkelspiel's Tangled Vines rips the sunny label off the laid-back California wine trade to show the violence present in every glass of Cabernet. Set against the backdrop of the bucolic Napa Valley and points south, Tangled Vines explores the history of California world of wine and how passion for the liquid some have called "the elixir of the gods" has driven people to extremes throughout its history. From the nineteenth century murder of Rancho Cucomonga's John Rains to the California Wine Association monopoly of Percy Morgan that drove down prices in a nationwide "wine war" to the fire in the Wines Central warehouse, Dinkelspiel tells a story of greed and obsession that few people travelling up and down Napa's Route 29 or the Silverado Trail can even guess at.
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Blueberry
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OriginalCyn620 👍🏻📚🍷 4y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I just bought some blueberries and thought of you 💙 4y
Blueberry LOL. 😆 4y
Eggs 🔥 arson !!! 🔥 4y
42 likes4 comments
review
WhatWouldJaneDo
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Bailedbailed

This isn't a bad book, but at halfway I just couldn't get into it. It may be a mood thing, I picked it up because I was desperate for something to fill #goodreadssummerreading cat "a genre you've never read before," which was nearly impossible for me but I don't think I've read a "wine" book. But this is also very much a book about rich people problems in an industry built on racism/slavery (which the author recognizes) so I don't really care...

WhatWouldJaneDo @Leftcoastzen I'm still considering gifting it to the wine people in my life, but I just didn't get into the topic! Some bits interested me more than others but at 50% I just didn't want to pick it up anymore and I'm trying to be better about DNFing stuff if it's not for me. Too many other books to read! 5y
Leftcoastzen Yep! Life is too short to read books you‘re not getting into, a better book awaits! 5y
25 likes3 comments
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WhatWouldJaneDo
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Updates to my #nonfiction2019 #BINGO finished "Becoming" for something with politics, currently listening to "The River of Doubt" about Theodore Roosevelt's expedition to map an unknown river in the Amazon for something with history, and the tagged book for something with law or medicine - it involves an arson case and the following investigation.
Any recs I can use for the "something you saw on Litsy" category, Littens?

Megabooks And this is my fav memoir 5y
WhatWouldJaneDo @Megabooks thanks! I'll check both of them out! 5y
29 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Blueberry
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I read this because it is close to wear I live. I liked the crime story part but I remember a lot of the rest being boring.

#readingresolutions #WineWednesday
@Jess7

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inmegslibrary
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It‘s the pursuit of the experience, the belief that wine opens up worlds and forged friendships that drives people to be obsessed.

68 likes2 stack adds
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snacksinthestacks
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@Vbrrgirl you must be psychic! How did you know I was considering taking somm ? I will take this book as a sign I should jump right in!! Wonderful wonderful package 😍😀😊 Thank you so much! And thank you to @BookishMarginalia for organizing! #summersantagoespostal

Vbrrgirl @snacksinthestacks So glad you enjoyed your package. I'm not psychic so it must be a sign! Good luck and let us know how you progress! 🍷🍷 7y
38 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Erynecki
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"I found myself on a quest of sorts, one to comprehend why someone would knowingly ruin that much wine, and to better understand the drive it took to make a good bottle of wine."

AmyStewart Or it was a good excuse to drink a lot of wine and take a tax deduction for it! 8y
5 likes1 comment