Stars, stripes and vines

The 63 wines described below are just some of those I encountered on my recent whirlwind tour of the United States to celebrate publication of American Wine, a new book that was my idea but is written mainly by Linda Murphy, our West Coast correspondent. It is a celebration of just how important wine has become to American life, and the fact that increasingly good wine is now produced in every single state in the union. See more in Fifty states of wine.

Linda was the ideal co-author because for so long she has been as fascinated as I...