From Vines to Wines: The Complete, Step-by-Step Guide to Growing Grapes in Your Backyard and Making Your Own Wine

FROM VINES TO WINES is the ultimate book for serious wine lovers. It tells clearly and simply with text and drawings how you can create your own vineyard in your backyard; plant, grow, and harvest quality wine grapes of your choice; and convert them into enough first-class wine for year-round home consumption.

The author, for many years a monthly columnist on horticultural topics for ORGANIC GARDENING, has been making his own excellent wines at his home in Pennsylvania since 1971 and includes here information and advice for every major wine-producing area in the country, from New England to California. Highlighted with examples from the author's own experience and that of other small-plot wine grape growers, FROM VINES TO WINES is full of useful, easy-to-use lists, tables, and drawings, and is infused with enthusiasm for and love of good wines. This book covers every vital step of the process, including:

--How to choose which grapes to plant on the basis of your taste preferences and the climate and soil where you live.

--How to do a soil test, and where to get local agricultural information.

--How and where to order your grape plants, select the best site on your property and prepare the soil.

--Choosing what style of trellis to use, and how to build it.

--Training, pruning, and fertilizing your grape plants.

--How to control grape pests and diseases, including nontoxic and environmentally safe methods.

--Complete step-by-step through the process of fermentation, including advice and instruction on the use of all necessary materials and techniques, from yeasts to glass carboys or oak barrels, from racking to bottling, corking and storing.

There is no other book available that gives such integrated and comprehensive information for the home winemaker who is interested in quality wines.