The Backyard Vintner: An Enthusiast's Guide to Growing Grapes and Making Wine at Home

Welcome to your own personal wine country, where you will discover recipes and techniques for making and evaluating fine red, white, and rose wines from one of America's finest winemakers. This accessible guide teaches new and advanced enthusiasts how to select, grow, and harvest grapes that are suited to the different regions around the country, and then, how to make authentic artisan wine from them.

If you've ever wanted to make homemade wine but never thought you had the space or ability to make it, you will love this book. The Backyard Vintner is a handy guide to at-home winemaking that teaches the readers the tips and tricks of the trade. With inspiring full-color photographs and step-by-step illustrations, this hardcover reference guide also provides recipes and techniques for making and evaluating fine red, white, and rose wines. The Backyard Vintner teaches you how to start and maintain a vineyard, and provides vital information on topics like planting, trellising, and pruning grapes.

With chapters on planting and caring for your grapes, picking, fermenting, fine-tuning the elevage, and bottling your wine, this is a comprehensive guide for do-it-yourself enthusiasts.

Jim Lay is the award-winning, small-batch vintner and owner of Linden Vineyards in Linden, Virginia. He also writes, lectures, and teaches classes on wine making.