Viticulture and Environment

This is a totally absorbing book; it explains the extremely complicated mechanisms and interactions which affect the growth of the vine in a fashion which magically bridges the gap between readers with highly scientific backgrounds and those with no technical knowledge at all. Precisely and elegantly, Dr Gladstones has thrown a stone into the centre of the pond of presumed knowledge, disturbing existing patterns of thought and creating wholly new ones. I cannot praise his work too highly. James Halliday For a true vigneron, the great mystery is the interaction between the vine and nature's instructions. At times the vine appears to be acting on its own to a set of coded information left in a sealed envelope deep within its genetic wall safe. At other times it responds in a seemingly illogical or belated fashion to what the anxious vigneron would interpret as a clear set of environmental signals. That is the mystery of the vine and its relationship to its total environment. John Gladstones has written at once a scientific and, for me, spiritual book. He interweaves scientifically proven fact, acute empirical observation and inspired speculation as to the physiological connection between the environment and the vine. This book has contributed more than any other to my intuition for the vine and its behaviour. Brian Croser No-one else could write such a volume ... [it reminded] me of the feelings I had, many decades ago, when I read The Origin of Species-- the similar attention to detail, the precise but mesmerizing prose, and the gradual building towards broad conclusions new to the world. It is a work of significant scholarship that presents a new set of methods for considering the effects of climate on plant performance, in this case winegrape ripening, wine style and wine quality. Bryan Coombe