(LATimes) - For anyone interested in wine, “American Wine: The Ultimate Companion to the Wines and Wineries of the United States,” by British wine writer Jancis Robinson and California-based writer Linda Murphy is a much-needed overview of what’s going on all over the country right now. Take this statistic: As recently as 1970, there were 440 wine producers in the U.S. Want to take a guess how many there are now? More than 7,000 when the book was written.

“Today there is not a state in the union, even in such unlikely outposts for the vine as Hawaii and Alaska, that is not home to a winery.” She goes on to say that “In the last two decades or so, wine has moved from the fringes of American culture — the drink of elites and immigrants — to the center of the table.”

In her introduction, Robinson notes re: wine in the U.S., “There’s an energetic enthusiasm for experiencing its pleasures and nuances, and a genuine curiosity about the complexities of how it is grown and made that I sense nowhere else in the world.”