Maynard A. Amerine, 86, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, and world renowned authority on wine, died of natural causes March 11 in his St. Helena home. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 18, in Grace Episcopal Church, 1314 Spring St., St. Helena. Professor Amerine's research on the technical aspects of grape growing and wine making invigorated the California wine industry as it recovered from Prohibition. His work is considered by many to be the cornerstone for the industry's success in the world wine community. Born in San Jose, Professor Amerine grew up on farms near the central California town of Modesto. He attended Modesto high school and junior college, then earned a bachelor's degree in plant science at UC Davis in 1932. He received a doctorate in plant physiology from UC Berkeley in 1936. In 1935, while working on his doctoral degree at UC Berkeley, he was hired to join the UC Davis faculty in the viticulture and enology department. His first assignment was to study the relationship of grape variety, climate and location to the quality of California wines. This research would eventually lead to the adoption of recommended grape varieties for specific regions, significantly boosting the quality of California wines. In collaboration with fellow researcher Albert J. Winkler, Amerine developed the system of classifying wine-growing regions by measuring heat summation. He worked closely with the California wine industry to restore and advance the technical knowledge that had been lost during Prohibition. In 1937, Amerine made his first research trip to Europe where he traveled through the winemaking districts of France and attended the International Congress of Viticulture in Paris. It was the beginning of an enduring relationship with the European wine community. He returned to Europe in 1947 to study dessert wine production in Portugal, the Madeira Islands, Spain, Italy, Greece and France. During World War II, Amerine served in the Army's chemical warfare service, with assignments in North Africa and India. He continued as an Army reservist, coordinating a research and development unit at UC Davis. During his academic career, Amerine published nearly 400 scientific papers written for a wide variety of readers including scientists, grape growers, winery owners, politicians, connoisseurs and the general public. In 1965 he published with co-author Vernon L. Singleton the book "Wine: An Introduction," which has become a classic in the field. His book "Wines: Their Sensory Evaluation," published in 1976 with mathematician Edward Roessler, helped establish an objective basis for wine tasting. He also contributed significantly to the scholarly literature in the areas of wine judging methods, wine and wine-must analysis, color, aging and fermentation control. Amerine served as chair of the viticulture and enology department from 1957-1962. He was honored by his peers for his research accomplishments in 1962 and 1964 as the All-University Lecturer and in 1964 as the UC Davis Faculty Research Lecturer. He also was the recipient of numerous literary awards, decorations and honors from virtually every wine-producing nation. Those honors included the Croix d'Officier of the Ordre National du Merite, the Chevalier de Merite Agricole, the Merit Award and presidency of the American Society of Enology. In addition to his research, Amerine was recognized as an outstanding teacher, training hundreds of students who went on to become wine makers and grape growers. As a connoisseur of books as well as wine, Amerine maintained an active interest in development of the viticulture and enology collection at UC Davis' Shields Library. In 1972 he donated to the library his personal collection of more than 3,000 books and pamphlets, including many rare and significant works on grape growing and wine making. Today the library's collection of literature on those subjects is thought to be the world's largest. Amerine retired from UC Davis in 1974, but remained active as a writer and recognized expert on wine. He served as a member of the board of directors of the Napa Valley Wine Library Association. He was preceded in death by his parents and by his sister, Velma Ethyl Winn, and is survived by many cousins and two nephews. The family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Maynard A. Amerine Fund, Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA, 95616. Checks may be made payable to the Regents of the University of California.