America's 2012 vintage

To write a book on American wine, it helps to be a Weather Channel junkie.

Hurricanes in the South, tornadoes in the Midwest, deep freezes in the Great Lakes and drought in Texas have become occurrences of great interest to me since Jancis and I began collaborating on the book American Wine, to be published in February 2013 by the University of California Press in the US and Mitchell Beazley elsewhere.

The book celebrates winemaking past, present and future in all 50 of...