Travel writer Freedman shares in his rich debut stories of growers and producers across the world to illustrate the impact climate change is having on the wine industry. The tour kicks off in Sonoma in 2017: Freedman speaks with a vineyard owner, one of many “wine pioneers... pushing to further and further climatic extremes” as smoke from nearby wildfires damages his crop. In France, meanwhile, growers are switching to grapes that develop later in the season and are “therefore more protected from early-spring frost and hail,” and while a “warming climate is challenging Champagne... it is, on the whole, benefiting southern England,” where rising temperatures make for a booming nascent bubbly business. In Argentina, a family is forced to make changes in their irrigation practices, switching from flood to drip, and in Israel, growers are up against “exhaust[ed] soil.” Freedman’s knowledge of the industry is encyclopedic, his predictions are fascinating (growers are hoping Scandinavia may be “the next big thing in the world of wine”), and his stories hit home as they reveal producers’ ingenuity and tenacity “to not just survive in this brave new world but to thrive.” For oenophiles and anyone interested in ways climate change is affecting what’s on the table, this is a must-read.
— Publishers Weekly
Think global, act local – that's how Brian Freedman frames the story of climate change and the wine industry in his fact-filled new book Crushed. Freedman follows the struggles of front-line winegrowers and spirits-makers as they battle the local impacts of the changing global environment. A timely examination of the diversity of climate change effects and the inspiring response from winemakers around the world.
— Mike Veseth, Editor of The Wine Economist newsletter and author of Wine Wars II
Brian Freedman’s Crushed takes the issue of climate change and breaks it down to the personal level, explaining how altered weather patterns affect wine regions, vineyards, and wineries. Told through personal experience and the eyes of the people who grow the grapes and make the wine, Freedman chillingly lays out climate change’s potential devastation on not just vineyards and wine regions but ultimately the entire planet and those of us who live here.
— Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen, The World Wine Guys, co-authors of Red Wine
As someone who’s also devoted a great deal of time and energy reporting on wine regions the world over, I humbly submit that Crushed proves Brian Freedman is much better at his job than most… including me.
— Dan Dunn, author, American Wino: A Tale of Reds, Whites and One Man’s Blues