Poison Ivy Vineyards

Poison Ivy Vineyards is an experiment in growing wine-quality grapes in a backyard in a residential neighborhood in Richardson, Texas. This website serves as a running diary of the steps I took to create the vineyard and - eventually - to make wine.

My purpose is initially to document the process for myself, since you never seem to remember the things that were really important (what was the initial specific gravity of that perfect batch of ale?). Of course, I put this on the web so that you can also follow my progress. And if you happen to achieve your own successes in the world backyard viticulture, then so much the better.

What We Are Trying To Achieve

We have two goals here at Poison Ivy Vineyards:

Create a source of sugar

Ferment that sugar into a (hopefully drinkable) alcoholic drink

Simple, huh?

The First Year

Buying the Vines

Preparing the Vineyard

The 2001 Harvest

Text diary of 2001 harvest

Slide show of 2001 harvest - (not yet active)

Send comments to:
mccalpin@mccalpin.com