Leon David Adams (February 1, 1905 – September 14, 1995) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for a work such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists who ...

, historian and co-founder of the Wine Institute. In 1958, Adams book ''Commonsense Book of Wine'' was published, which sought to bring

table wine Table wine (rarely abbreviated TW) is a wine term with two different meanings: a style of wine and a quality level within wine classification. In the United States, the term primarily designates a wine style: an ordinary wine which is not fortif ...

into everyday life in the United States. His book ''Wines of America'', published in 1973, is considered the "most thorough work on the subject," specifically regarding the

California wine California wine production has a rich viticulture history since 1680 when Spanish Jesuit missionaries planted ''Vitis vinifera'' vines native to the Mediterranean region in their established missions to produce wine for religious services. I ...

industry.

Life and work

Leon Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1905. He studied at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and worked as a journalist for various publications, including

McClatchy News Service The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

and the ''

San Francisco Bulletin The ''San Francisco Evening Bulletin'' was a newspaper in San Francisco, founded as the ''Daily Evening Bulletin'' in 1855 by James King of William. King used the newspaper to crusade against political corruption, and built it into having the highe ...

''. Adams advocated for farm winery laws which were passed in many states during the 1970s and 1980s. These laws helped grape growers open wineries and sell their wines through wholesale and retail. He founded the Society of Medical Friends of Wine, which brings together doctors for frequent wine tastings. He worked in California and lived in

Sausalito Sausalito (Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito's p ...

. He died in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

on September 12, 1995. The ''New York Times'' called him "the seminal wine historian in the United States in the 20th century,".

References

American male journalists 1995 deaths 1905 births Wine writers California wine University of California, Berkeley alumni People from Sausalito, California Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area History of wine 20th-century American non-fiction writers Journalists from California 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American journalists {{Wine-bio-stub