Woman With Books
Blue Book

WINE & GASTRONOMY, 1990. A Bibliography with over 12,000 entries, 3000 authors and 4000 titles from 1414–1919. With a Checklist of the works of André L. Simon.

Wayward Tendrils Quarterly
History of the Sonoma Book
Photo Postcard

A treasured 1907 photo postcard of one of the first winegrowing properties in Napa’s Carneros district. Vineyards are visible in the center flowing to the right while hidden behind the trees to the rear left is Talcoa Winery, a small stone wine cellar built in the 1850s by Wm Winter. During the 1880s one of my wine pioneer heroes, Geo Husmann (1827–1902), was in charge of this property and experimented on resistant rootstocks, planted extensive vineyards and made wine. One day in the early 1990s Mr Peninou plodded ahead of me through the overgrown brush and trees to show me the long “lost” ruins of this truly amazing historical site

Roy Brady

Roy Brady

The Brady Book
Prof. Thomas Pinney

Prof. Thomas Pinney, acknowledged one of America’s premier wine historians, has been a gracious mentor, steady Wayward Tendrils Quarterly contributor, and a dear friend. Pre-Covid, he was an excited visitor to my “old” library at its “new” Napa Valley winery home. Kiddingly, he said he was quite pleased to see that his line-up of wine titles had a prominent position in such a fine wine library. (That is The Brady Book at his elbow.)

Historian in a car

“A momentous day in January 2020.” The Gail Unzelman California Wine History Archives are on their way to the U.C. Davis Shields Library Special Collections Wine Writing Archive. With excitement, the group is anticipating a regal spot near Hugh Johnson, Roy Brady, and Maynard Amerine.

Gail Unzelman is a vivid example of what one person can do to preserve centuries of wine scholarship and history during her lifetime through her own research, writing, publishing and by establishing the Wayward Tendrils Quarterly website (www.waywardrendrils.com) The online copies are available by searching the website and remain invaluable early California wine reference works. Gail has donated her written works and research to the Archives at the University of California at Davis.

In Her Own Words – Gail Unzelman

Hello, readers and champions of this phenomenal SLO Wine History Project. My name is Gail Unzelman, a California wine historian of many decades, now pretty much retired. (Which we all know is impossible.) SLO Director Libbie has asked me to contribute a little something about my California wine history writings and experiences — which I am honored to do.

When my husband and I first discovered wine in the 1960s during the years he was a medical student at U.C. San Francisco, a lifelong quest for the history of wine and its literature was born. The mysterious pleasures of wine came to life with a growing library of books on every aspect of wine — worldwide, from earliest times, in all languages. But this fine reference library would soon find a special love for American wine imprints, especially the books and pamphlets and printed ephemera about California wines. Almost sixty years later, when this grand library found a new home at Harlan Estate Winery in Napa Valley, the collection had grown to almost 4,000 beautiful, historically important wine books.

While collecting a wine library has been my primary endeavor, it also sprouted my wine book writing and publishing career, beginning in 1990. At the time the most important bibliographic references for books on wine and related subjects were three titles compiled some fifty years before by André L. Simon (1877–1970) using his own incredible library. My growing library demanded referencing these invaluable bibliographies almost daily. (I have always insisted that if you gather a wine library, you must give it a catalogue — an annotated, digitized card catalogue.) Simon was a passionate collector and an esteemed writer on wine & gastronomy who founded the Wine & Food Society in 1933, but his bibliographic listings were truly frustrating to use. This is what led to my first wine book, published by my newly formed Nomis Press: Wine & Gastronomy. A New Short-Title Bibliography Guide Based on the André L. Simon Bibliothecas Vinaria, Gastronomica, & Bacchica, a 345-page Author, Title, & Chronological Index. Many years later, after thoroughly enjoying the adventurous exercise to find a copy of all 160 titles written by Simon (preferably signed or inscribed), Nomis Press (get it!?) published in 2011 my thankful tribute to this iconic lover of wine: Printer’s Ink. A Bibliographic Remembrance of André L. Simon and His Written Works. It is a lovely book, with colored illustrations of every title to enhance the bibliographic descriptions.

Roy Brady (1918–1998) had already formed his first significantly valuable wine library, and was working on his second, when he became one of the first Tendril members in 1990. We had not met, but had talked on the phone a few times, I think shortly after my Simon bibliography was published when he called to find out who I was. I knew who he was: the present guru of the wine collecting world — wine books, wine labels, wine menus. &c. In his spare time he wrote and published a wine magazine, founded either one or two Wine & Food Society chapters, established several very serious, astute wine tasting groups, and organized and annotated his growing wine label collection of 50,000 labels. Epic. Following Roy’s death in 1998 his family asked me to come down to L.A. for a few days to sort out his office and catalogue the materials to be sent to U.C. Davis, as per his wishes. Here I rejoiced to explore his shelves of wine cellar records and tasting notes kept since 1948, and three congested four-drawer file cabinets in the hallway. Bonanza. As a lasting tribute to Roy Brady, our good friend,

Professor Emeritus of English, esteemed wine historian Tom Pinney volunteered to bring together a proposed manuscript for a George Saintsbury-like book and contribute an Introduction. Under my guiding hand, The Brady Book. Selections from Roy Brady’s Unpublished Writings on Wine, was produced in 2003. It is one of the best books on wine ever written.

The year 1990 can also be celebrated for my 50th birthday and the birth of the Wayward Tendrils. A Wine Book Collectors Society. A wonderful gift for many wine book enthusiasts around the world, it was the idea of wine lover/writer/book collector Bob Foster in San Diego. There were a zillion wine-based groups worldwide, but nary a club or society existed for wine book collectors. Bo Simons, Wine Librarian at the Sonoma County Wine Library, Jim Gabler, author of the first English-language wine book bibliography Wine Into Words in 1985, and myself were the others on Bob’s founding team. This is how I became the editor and publisher of the Wayward Tendrils Newsletter (later Quarterly) for the next 25 years. Our membership of between 150-160 wine book enthusiasts were the loyal contributors for each issue; I mastered the art of twisting arms. We wrote on anything concerning wine books, or collecting wine books, or wine book libraries, reviews of new, old, or rare wine books, wine literature checklists, by country, author, or subject; historical articles about wine, wineries, authors, wine men. Over the years, thousands of book reviews and invaluable in- depth historical essays never before published filled the pages — a magnanimous endeavor that retired in 2015. It brings me greatest pleasure to know that this bounteous harvest of wine literature is now online, and searchable. http://waywardtendrils.com/

A very exciting, and richly rewarding, chapter in my life opened in 1992, the year I met Ernest Peninou (1916–2002), an esteemed, old-school California wine historian. Bo Simons and I had gone to San Francisco to interview Mr Peninou on the release of his recent book, Leland Stanford’s Great Vina Ranch 1881–1919, hoping to gather some bio information on this elusive man and have him tell us about the new book for the W-T Newsletter. He remained silent to anything personal, basically said the book would speak for itself, opened a bottle of his own crafted red wine, spread out a deli- wrapped parcel of sliced salami, and deftly tore off pieces of baguette…and we had lunch on his S.F. rooftop. He liked to tell stories (just not about himself) and mentioned in passing that he had other books in the works, but was “stuck” because his typist was no longer available. “I would be happy to help you with that,” my mouth blurted. He had researched and written a series of manuscripts “that needed cleaning up” on the history of California wine, organized into the original seven geographical Viticultural Districts drawn-up in 1880 by the State Legislature. He had also compiled a companion volume, California Wine Grape Acreage 1856–1992. Amazing. On a return trip he showed me, in a spare room, lined neatly on the floor along each wall, at least a dozen “milk crates” filled with typed pages that awaited “cleaning up.” Which one first? I suggested the Sonoma Viticultural District since I was most familiar with its history and had available a fine supply of vintage images we could use for illustrations. It took us almost six years, but a super, award- winning 456-page history was added to California’s wine lore. While working on the book, Mr Peninou escorted me on historical wine adventures around Sonoma and Napa wine country. He had tramped these lands, and most of the State’s other wine-growing areas, including Gold Country, while compiling his Viticultural District histories in the 1950s and ‘60s. He showed me wine relics and winery ruins long ago forgotten. His old-school historical gathering methods were a delight. “Knock on the farmhouse door, and say ‘Hello, My name is Ernest Peninou’..” Others I could relate to, e.g. searching through, page by page, at S. F. City Library the actual issues of Pacific Wine & Spirit Review, the voice of the wine industry beginning in the late 1800s and through Prohibition. (Admittedly, today’s online searches are much more efficient…but not the same.) Peninou had a serious library of the classic early California grape-growing and wine-making books, California Viti- cultural Commission reports, county histories for all the State’s winegrowing areas, plus a good handful of those impressive four-inch thick “mug books” )a term he had to explain to me). Only two years after our first book. Peninou and I had readied our second, The California Wine Assn and Its Member Wineries 1894 -1920.

Earlier, in 1954, he had published a 36-page monograph with Sydney Greenleaf on the C.W.A. as a fine press, small limited edition. He had since compiled another milk-crate or two of information and wanted to tell the complete story of this mammoth Pre-Prohibition wine enterprise that came to control 84% of all California wine produced. After my seeing the Sonoma book through its publication, it became clear my merit badge had been awarded, and Mr Peninou was giving me free- rein to flesh out the manuscript and dig into new territory, including the luxurious leather-bound volumes of the C.W.A. Minutes housed at the S.F. California Historical Society. The original little book grew to over 400, newly researched, well-illustrated, foot-noted pages of never-before-told wine history. Following his death in 2002, the remainder of his Viticultural District History crates not yet cleaned-up were brought to my house, and I proceeded to do so. In Honor of Ernest Peninou, these six unpublished histories totaling almost 1500 pages, with added illustrations and index for each volume, plus the 200-page statistical companion, were made available through the Wayward Tendrils website.

Roy Brady (1918–1998) had already formed his first significantly valuable wine library, and was working on his second, when he became one of the first Tendril members in 1990. We had not met, but had talked on the phone a few times, I think shortly after my Simon bibliography was published when he called to find out who I was. I knew who he was: the present guru of the wine collecting world — wine books, wine labels, wine menus. &c. In his spare time he wrote and published a wine magazine, founded either one or two Wine & Food Society chapters, established several very serious, astute wine tasting groups, and organized and annotated his growing wine label collection of 50,000 labels. Epic. Following Roy’s death in 1998 his family asked me to come down to L.A. for a few days to sort out his office and catalogue the materials to be sent to U.C. Davis, as per his wishes. Here I rejoiced to explore his shelves of wine cellar records and tasting notes kept since 1948, and three congested four-drawer file cabinets in the hallway. Bonanza. As a lasting tribute to Roy Brady, our good friend, Professor Emeritus of English, esteemed wine historian Tom Pinney volunteered to bring together a proposed manuscript for a George Saintsbury-like book and contribute an Introduction. Under my guiding hand, The Brady Book. Selections from Roy Brady’s Unpublished Writings on Wine, was produced in 2003. It is one of the best books on wine ever written. 

In my collecting of California wine history for over half a century (somehow sounds less aged than fifty years or five decades), the gathering of wine postcards has been as meaningful as the more respected books. It is deeply satisfying to know these treasured resources have been called upon to illustrate the publications of fellow California wine historians, especially works by Charles Sullivan and Tom Pinney. It has happened, when no other image of a certain winery is available, the collection will have a long-ago-taken real- photo postcard we can use. Although I have probably written close to a hundred articles featuring California wine postcards, only one book has been published, in 2006. Sonoma County Wineries, one of the first of Arcadia Publishing’s “Postcard History Series” publications, was put together for the benefit of the Sonoma County Wine Library in Healdsburg. Two hundred postcards were selected from the collection to tell the 128-page story of wine in Sonoma County. Acadia did not fancy straying from that format, but I insisted on an Index page. “A history without an index is useless.” They finally allowed me “60 entries.” I might have pioneered a new format; I have heard that later authors have no problem getting a full index page. These Arcadia local histories are a good resource, and my reference shelf is happy to be full of them. I usually have to index them myself, but that is fine. I like to index.

While my library of books is no longer with me, my California wine postcards are right next to me, receiving daily attention. Almost 2200 vintage postcards are housed in individual archival sleeves in 3-ring binder-albums, organized for easy access: Sonoma; Napa; No. Calif; Central Valley, with a WordPerfect document database. Both in the database and in the albums, the postcards are annotated with a historical sketch, and cross-referenced when needed. All of the cards are not yet scanned, but that should be done soon. New additions to the collection are “few & far between” but surprise discoveries always excite. These little gems of California wine history have been promised to U.C. Davis Special Collections, where they will join the Gail Unzelman Wine Writing Archives awaiting their arrival.

Very lovely. Cheers.

Impact on Wine History Worldwide

Beginning in the 1960s, developing a unique collection of American wine imprints including books, pamphlets and ephemera on wine, vines, wine culture and history.

Preserving the early California Wine History written by historians and creating extensive bibliographies of these resources and research materials used by these historians. 

Establishing an annotated digitized card catalog of wine history written works and resources for everyone from historians to wine lovers.

Shaping the concept and standards of a “Wine Library” by establishing her collection of wine books on every aspect of wine. The collection includes books published worldwide and in all languages dating from the 15th century to the present day.

Co-founding the first group of those collectors who established their own wine libraries, the Wine Book Collectors Society, known as Wayward Tendrils in 1990. 

Editing the Wayward Tendrils Quarterly, a newsletter focused on wine books and highlighting little-known history and writings. Gail was the editor of articles submitted by members of the Wayward Tendrils for 25 years.

Founding of Nomis Press in 1990 and publishing her first wine book, Wine & Gastronomy. A Short-Title Bibliography Guide Based on the André L. Simon Bibliothecas Vinaria, Gastronomica, & Bacchica, the iconic lover of wine.

Receiving the Sonoma Historical Society Distinguished Award for producing and publishing A History of the Sonoma Viticultural District – The Grape Growers, The Winemakers and the Vineyards, written by Ernest Peninou, in 1998.

Publishing The California Wine Association and Its Member Wineries 1894-1920, co-authored by Ernest Peninou and Gail Unzelman in 2000.

Preserving the research and works of Ernest Peninou (1916-2002) which include personal interviews and extensive writings by editing eight manuscripts, two published during his lifetime and six after his death 

Honoring the memory of Roy Brady on behalf of the Wine Librarians Association, publishing a limited edition of The Brady Book; Selections from Roy Brady’s Unpublished Writings on Wine at Nomis Press in 2004.

Writing Sonoma County Wineries for Arcadia Publishing in 2006 as one of its “Postcard History Series”.

Collecting over 2,200 postcards illustrating wineries and wine history. Two of these postcards are included on our website in the article on the Pesenti family and winery.

Establishing the Gail Unzelman Wine Library at the Harlan Estate Promontory Winery in Napa Valley founded by H. William  Harlan. The  Wine Library, a collection of some 4,000 wine books, is open to serious researchers upon request.

Donating her writings and research to the Wine Writers Archives at University of California at Davis. 

The postcard collection has been promised to Special Collections Archives at the University of California at Davis.