So there's this New Yorker named Matt Baldassano who runs a winery out of his 550-square-foot East Village apartment.

How does he do it?

Well, the response to that question is fairly simple. He uses grapes. Seriously, he crushes grapes in his backyard. Then, once he and his cousins have crushed their grapes, they let the juice age in wooden barrels.

If you're wondering about the magnitude of this wine making practice-- it's fairly substantial.

Every year Baldassano gets 3,600 to 4,000 pounds of grapes delivered to his sidewalk. Literally, they're plopped on his sidewalk.

Making wine runs in Baladassano's family. When immigrants moved to New York City during the depression, there wasn't money for alcohol. The next best thing was buying fruit, waiting for it to ferment, then drinking that. Baladassano's Italian grandfather did that for over fifty years.

Baladassano is clearly a natural, considering the first batch of wine he and his cousins ever made won a bronze medal in an amateur wine-making contest.

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And yes, they do drink a glass of wine from every barrel. Baladassano said he has two categories for his wine: drinkable or not; he also stated that 9 out of every 10 barrels of wine he makes are drinkable.

Check out the video below to find out more about how he does it, and check out villagewinery.com for more info on becoming a member.

[via Vimeo]

[Feature Image Courtesy: Thrillist]