By David Sawyer

The reader will see how spectacularly, and dauntingly difficult winemaking is during the nonstop day-and-night intensity of harvest, where sleep is in short supply and it’s a miracle anything makes it into the bottle.

As a professional photographer and sommelier whose journey began at Husk in Charleston, I worked through the entire grueling winemaking process, from the freshly picked grapes arriving at the winery door, to the corking of the bottled wine, in both Napa Valley and Portugal — photographing all of it with my iPhone. My upcoming book, "The Harvest: A Personal Journey into Making a Bottle of Wine," is the visually stunning, entertaining and informative story of my personal journey to discover exactly what it takes to make a bottle of wine. As a reader, you will leave the book not only armed with this knowledge, but also, and more importantly, a far greater appreciation and respect for the contents of even the humblest bottle on their table.

Interest in wine and winemaking continues to grow on an unprecedented scale, with the emergence of the SOMM films, SOMM TV, sommeliers as rock stars, the “natural” wine movement, wine magazines, wine blogs, and Instagram #wineporn — all reflecting the public’s growing thirst for knowledge of this ancient and noble beverage. This is the greatest time in history to be a lover of wine in all its forms, a unique moment within the wine world, where the range of wine available to the public is unparalleled. There is a new generation of highly curious wine drinkers, many of whom I have met firsthand through my extensive work in the wine industry, and they want more than the same old story of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon!

As a reader, you will leave the book not only armed with this knowledge, but also, and more importantly, a far greater appreciation and respect for the contents of even the humblest bottle on their table.

They demand to be educated about the multitude of styles of wine now being made all over the world — the how, what, and where of it all. There has never been a better moment to tell this story of the making of a bottle of wine, and no one has told the story from this verbal and visual perspective before. This is no cold textbook: the book imparts technical knowledge on the fly as it follows my coworkers and I as we sweat, lift and laugh our way through every step of the process.

The images I took are varied and engaging and the narrative is compelling featuring my personal stories of experiences over two harvests on two continents. Supporting all of these are the stories of my multinational fellow harvesters, and as each unfolds, the reader will witness every step (and misstep!) in the winemaking process, without being burdened by “wine geek” technicalities (a full Glossary will explain terminology). The reader will see how spectacularly, and dauntingly difficult winemaking is during the nonstop day-and-night intensity of harvest, where sleep is in short supply and it’s a miracle anything makes it into the bottle.

There has never been a better moment to tell this story of the making of a bottle of wine, and no one has told the story from this verbal and visual perspective before.

Most readers have little idea about the steps in this process. To the average wine drinker, and even many wine professionals, wine and winemaking have become romanticized beyond any reality. I know through experience to the point of physical exhaustion truly how hard it is to make a bottle of wine, and there’s definitely very little romance involved, although there is a lot of magic. 

Stay tuned to Charleston Grit for the release date and details on how to obtain a copy.