A Cultivated Life: A Year in a California Vineyard

“A warm, wise story of one woman’s affair with wine and the vine.” —New York Times

“An absorbing, exciting, and revealing account of what lies behind the glossy façade of the wine world.” —Gourmet

“Sterling presents a seductive picture of the pleasures (and hardships) of making and marketing wine, and recalls her family’s years in Paris, where they lived before buying the California vineyard in 1976. While much attention is paid here to her family’s elegant hospitality, the book is also a layperson’s guide to the intricacies of wine-making from planting the rootstock through nurturing the vines, harvesting the grapes, and marketing the Fume Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet, and sparkling wines.” —Publishers Weekly

“[An] account of a year spent producing, promoting, and peddling the wines of the noted Iron Horse Vineyards in California's Sonoma Valley…[by] Sterling—daughter of the firm’s original owners and marketing and sales director of Iron Horse since 1985.” —Kirkus Reviews