A Year In The Vineyard
$60.00 / £47 / €55
Hardcover with 160 pages
Purchase book
The book is the result of a long standing collaboration with Sophie Menin. It combines writing and visual elements. Each spread is a fusing of photographs, texts and background paintings.
A Year In The Vineyard is a tribute to the cycle of the vine. The book takes measure of the seasons neither by the calendar nor by the height of the sun, but by chronicling activity in the vineyard. With an emphasis on the connection between various people, places, vineyard sites and wines, it juxtaposes unique terroirs from around the world with the universality of the cycle of the vine.
The narrative is spun through vignettes about winemakers and wineries accompanied by photographs and background paintings. You see the difference between Cabernet Sauvignon vines growing on Napa’s valley floor and Riesling vines rooted into Mosel’s steep slopes. The book does not gloss over the potential for disaster, such as hail in Provence and early frosts in Chablis, thus becoming an essay on how the best wines are achieved in tandem with nature, not triumph over it.
A Year In The Vineyard is also a physical journey. The prologue and epilogue detail bleeding, first shoots, budburst, winter pruning and a host of other events that prepare the vine for fruit production. The core of the narrative captures the vineyard’s continual metamorphosis between flowering and harvest. The hope is that by the last page, you will have experienced the vine’s entire annual cycle and developed a new appreciation for why our most revered winemakers refer to themselves as farmers.
The book also reveals how wine growers are on the front line of the climate crisis, posing questions and potential remedies in response to the earth’s changing ecology.
Book Review - A Year in the Vineyard by Joan Baum, NPR
Shortlisted for WINE BOOK OF THE YEAR by Gourmand World Cookbook Awards!
