ABOUT THE BOOK

“A stunning monograph, depicting the real, unstaged, natural beauty of California’s wine industry by a photographer and wine industry insider.”

Behind the polish and the glamour of the tasting room is an industry notable for its complex labor challenges and its constant duel against unforgiving natural conditions. Longtime Napa-based photographer Jimmy Hayes, who has been documenting the California wine industry since 2014, offers an intimate look at the demanding reality and rugged beauty of winemaking as it exists everyday, not just on it’s best days.. Hayes’s structural, minimal, and poignant photographs present unromanticized, unscripted beauty and quietly magnificent details from an insider’s vantage point. To work with wine is to work hard, with one’s whole body, mind, and heart—and it’s in those messy moments where the real beauty lies.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jimmy Hayes has spent more than 20 years in the wine industry working as a commercial photographer, winery director, sommelier, and cellar worker. As an artist, Jimmy strives to take moody, minimal, structural, pictures showcasing forms and negative space as strong, non-traditional subjects. He has lived in the Napa Valley since 2008.

Winemaker and farmer Rajat Parr is a three-time James Beard Award winner and one of the world’s foremost wine experts. He owns and operates three vineyards and has authored two books - Secrets of the Sommelier, and the Sommelier’s Atlas of Taste. He lives in Cambria.

Photographer Fred Lyon, San Francisco’s “Brassaï,” has worked as a commercial photographer for more than 75 years; his iconic work has appeared in numerous museum and gallery exhibitions across the United States. He has published numerous books of his photography, and lives and works in San Francisco.

GIVING BACK

The farmworker community throughout California is the backbone of the wine industry. Without their commitment and diligent work, neither the wines we love to drink nor this book would not exist. As a recognition of their efforts, a minimum of 10% of author proceeds from the sale of this book will be directed to the two organizations that support the farmworker community in Napa and Sonoma counties:

Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation

Sonoma County Grape Growers Foundation