Got this book in a recent order. It was one I'd not seen before, so ordered it sight-unseen.
Published in 2003 by Univ of Calif. Written by a committee of 10 authors, presumably all associated w/ UofC.
I think I (a wine geek) am not the target audience for this book. The introductory part on clones, vine selection, rootstocks, trellising & canopy management was rather interesting. The bulk of the book then goes on to describe the major varieties being used in Calif, with a few pages devoted to each variety. Lots of great photos of the grape bunch, the leaves, and shoot tips. Mostly more detail than interests me. But the paragraphs for each variety giving the synonyms, source of plant material, clones, and winery use (types of wine the variety iis useful for) were fairly interesting.
Still, this is mostly a book for people interesting in planting a vnyd (and probably of limited use to them for those choices) or someone going out into a vnyd and wanting to identify the variety. It took me all of about an hour to get out of it what I wanted.
So...this is not a book I'd recommend for wine geeks interested in grape varieties. JancisRobinson's book is far more useful to us wine geeks.
Tom