Amerine, Maynard

Amerine, Maynard (1911–98), pre-eminent American oenologist, teacher, and writer, was trained as a plant physiologist at Berkeley in California before joining the revived Department of Viticulture and Enology at davis in 1935. There he participated in some of the most important branches of its work, including the assessment of vine varieties for the different regions of California and the re-education of the wine industry to restore and advance the technical knowledge lost during prohibition.

With A. J. winkler, Amerine developed the system of classifying wine regions by measuring heat summation. The list of his publications extends to nearly 400 items making substantial contributions to the literature of such subjects as wine judging methods, wine and must analysis, colour in wines, the ageing of wine, the control of fermentation, and the literature of wine.