Art of the Vine has arrived ...mostly

Art of the Vine is a one-stop-online-shop for all your hard to find wine and vineyard themed decor needs. We highlight my fine original photography. I am Cam Ireland, photographer. Art of the Vine carries:

• Wine and vineyard decorative tile backsplashes and murals.
• Our featured guest watercolor artist is the talented Karen Honaker.
• We have chosen just a few hard to find, but absolute must have wine accessories.
• You can find wine news in our vineyard newsletter.
• If you visit our Appellations page you may even learn something about some new AVA's, or discover more about your favorites.

Please enjoy your visit and let us know if you have any questions or suggestions. We'd love to hear from you.

We live in Dublin California. Conveniently located between California's wine countries. Napa, 40 miles to the north, and Monterey, 100 miles to the south. Even Santa Barbara is just a weekend trip away.

Art of the Vine began out of necessity. My wife, Sassy, and I were remodeling our kitchen. As wine is one of our passions we decided to dedicate this space to the fruit of the vine. After all it is a very common ingredient used in many of our recipes and by the glass.

We discovered that there was no easy way to find everything we needed. It became obvious that there was a niche we should explore. From tile backsplashes to cellar signs and wine racks to art, no one location could meet our need...until now. Art of the Vine was born...well incubated anyway.

Passion for the art of fermentation

I began making wine in 2003. My first attempt was a Cabernet that I am hoping develops some structure. Time is my only hope to save this spineless attempt. A little more time on the skins, or longer barrel aging would have been better.

I am well on my way to mastering the art and science of brewing beer, or zymurgy. In 1994 Sassy gave me a beer brewing kit for Christmas. That started my whole obsession with fermentation. My friends told me my beer was good, but I was not so naive as to know that to them, it was free beer. Even with this awareness I entered my ales in the Santa Clara County Fair (back when they had a homebrew competition). I won three blue ribbons, "Hey, maybe my beer is good!"

Homebrew competitions became my focus. Driving all over California to deliver my entries. I began collecting first place ribbons and pewter mugs consistently. But, occasionally a judge would score my entry at about a 33 out of a possible 50 points, and give flavor comments like, "OK". "well, if it's OK why did you only give me 33 points!" Now I needed to become a judge so that I could give constructive criticism, and help homebrewers make better beer.

Endless hours of studying the history, ingredients, process and geography of ever one of the 28 categories and 98 styles (including Mead and Cider), I took the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) exam and passed. I scored at a Recognized level, but really wanted to be a Nationally ranked BJCP judge. Finally, on my third attempt, I succeeded! I am still retiring experience points because I love teaching and encouraging new homebrewers.