There are many coffee table
books on the market, but a new one might better be called a wine table book.
Its author is Chaddsford Winery owner Eric Miller and the book is “The
Vintner’s Apprentice.”

As the subtitle says, it’s an
insider’s guide to the art and craft of making wine, taught by the masters.
Miller interviewed a dozen vintners from the U.S., Europe, South Africa,
Australia and Chile for the project.

The title is also apropos,
according to Miller, because the book can be useful for anyone from a serious
winemaker to the local hobbyist who makes a few gallons per year under the
sink.

“The concept for the book is
that if you were a fly on the wall, or the sidekick for 12 winemakers, what
would your experience be like. What would you gather about growing and making
wine,” he said.

Miller calls it a primer for
those with serious interests in wine and who want to decide how far to take it.

“This is an easy to consume guide on how to grow wine,” he
said.

It can be used as a coffee
table book because of the industry-supplied photos that depict what the book is
about, Miller said, but the reader can get ideas about making wine just reading
the boxes and bullet points, or get deeper insight by reading the interviews
“from the real masters of wine.”

“Because people can choose
their poison, it really covers a range for wine lovers…It gives [the amateur
winemaker] more depth because it does have some technical information in it,
but it doesn’t depend on technical information,” he said.

Miller said he had personal
revelations in dealing with each of the fellow vintners, yet one moment stands
out for him. He asked Pauline Vauthier, of Chateau Ausone, France about her
techniques for testing and what her laboratory was like. It was, what Miller
called, his “heartbreak moment.”

According to Miller, “She said,
‘We don’t have a laboratory and I taste the wines. What’s your next question?’”

Miller’s operation is
different.

“I’m a new world winemaker,” he said. “…I run analysis on my
fruit before I pick it…I run analysis on it minutes after it hits the
processing deck. I have data on every lot and every sub lot... and we spend a lot
of money on this information so that I know what I’m doing. But they’ve been
doing it for 3,000 years, and they do what they did before and it works.”

Miller’s winemaking background
goes back to his teens when he began making wine for his father.

“I was desperately trying to
avoid a job,” he said. “I was in college for a year and that was not my
interest. I had been on the road with my guitar and I had gotten a contract in
Manhattan for writing songs, but something about that was a bad fit and I just
escaped to my dad’s farm. He needed some help. He had no money and all I needed
was to be fed. I stayed there for a dozen years.”

In 1982, he and his wife Lee
began the Chaddsford Winery. They have a 30-acre estate vineyard in northern
Chester County that’s part of the 300-acre French Creek conservation district.

“The Vintner’s Apprentice” is
available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble and in person at the winery
on Route 1. Eric Miller said he would be available every Saturday in March,
from 1-4 p.m., to sign copies.