Just as vineyards have multiplied in the Santa Ynez Valley with scores of eager tourists flocking to tasting rooms, so have the numbers of aspiring home vintners who take up the challenge of the grape in all its varieties.

Home vintner Phil Vacca confesses to youthful dreams of one day owning a small winery. Growing up in Boston as the youngest of five sons in a large Italian family, Vacca says it is the influence of his heritage that led him to pursue wine-making at his farm on Alamo Pintado Road.

Undeniably there is a lure to this art, a satisfaction to crushing the grapes and guiding the fruit through the intricacies of processing and aging, in its transformation from juice to a distinctive vintage.

United in their relish for this convivial undertaking, Vacca is one of many Santa Ynez Valley amateur winemakers who have banded together in our prime growing region to make wine.

Most of the Valley's home winemakers have joined the Central Coast Home Vintner's Association so they can share equipment, advice and take their home wines to competitions, including the Santa Barbara County Fair.

Being a home vintner in the Valley means the opportunity to pick late fruit from the premier vineyards is right in their own back yard. Growers happily benefit from letting home winemakers in, after their own pickers have finished, since a final trim of grapes missed in the first picking wards off secondary pest infestations.

Vacca, however, has chosen to plant his own grapes on his Solvang property, on a two-acre plot. He grows a myriad variety of cabernet franc, merlot, syrah, cabernet and sauvignon blanc stock.

"I found out that farming is tough," he says. "Nature can throw you a real curve ball." But each autumn he tracks his precious crop intently, and its crucial response to the weather. Last year's very warm summer brought on an early harvest.

Originally settling in the Valley as a building contractor, Vacca and his wife, Lara, soon caught the grape-growing bug. Their dream grew, and it wasn't long before Vacca constructed a special facility, adjacent to the family home, with one-foot thick walls that maintain temperatures of 62-65 degrees, and a humidity of 70-80%&emdash;ideal for bottling and aging wine.

Vacca Vineyards, the name on their label, now shares its near-professional facilities with several home vintners in the Santa Ynez Valley.

It's a treasure chest, with a one-ton press and an Italian-made crusher and destemmer. "Just like the big boys," he says, pointing out the slooped floor that facilitates the cleanliness so vital to the end results.

His vineyard owns a picking bin that can go between the rows of vines and hold a half ton of grapes. After 10 to 25 days of fermenting, his young wine is ready for the French oak barrels and 18 to 24 months in the aging process. Once a week Vacca tops the barrels from 5-gallon jars of the deep-red young wines.

A nearby nitrogen tank helps lay on a blanket of protection against oxidation. As he performs his alchemy, there is much to consider: color retention, mouth softness, as well as acidity and flavor.

The shelves at his winery are stocked with an assortment of the 25 varietals he has produced over the years.

"I'm a die-hard," Vacca says. "I really believe in blends." His belief has paid off. The blends have won 10 medals at the Santa Barbara County Fair&emdash; two golds, three silvers, and five bronzes.

Recently, Vacca has taken the legal steps to register one of his prize-winning wines. "Before, I concluded that I would never make it commercially to the major leagues," he explains. Now determined to sell his label on the market, Vacca asked for help from a co-op in Santa Maria and worked hard to ensure his product met the stringent standards. "I jumped through all the hoops," says Vacca. "Federal, state, and local&emdash;to produce a premium wine to market."

His 2001 Opulence is a blend of cabernet, merlot and cabernet franc, with a handsome label designed by a family friend, Theo Wiilliams of Global Gardens in Los Alamos. Fifty cases are now aging in Vacca's wine house, to be sold under his own commercial label in the next year.