Making wine for dummies

Alex - If you've looked at this newsgroup for any length of time, you should have seen plenty of references to these sites:

Lum Eisenman's online book / website on winemaking:

Jack Keller's winemaking site:

I won't recommend specific books - there are enough recent ones to fill several bookshelves. If winemaking is a secret, it's probably the most poorly-kept secret in human history.

I find it hard to believe that any family in Greece doesn't have at least a couple of people in it who are convinced they already KNOW how to make wine (although whether they would agree with each other about anything, that's another question).

But if you're really looking for information, spend some time on those sites. Searching Amazon.com for the keyword "winemaking" turned up a list of several dozen books, including most of the ones most often mentioned in posts on this newsgroup.

Doug

HOW MANY COOK CAN YOU MAKE?

HOW MANY PASTA CON YOU MAKE IN THE GLASGOW RESTORANT?

HOW MANY PASTA CON YOU MAKE IN THE GLASGOW RESTORANT?

HOW MANY PASTA CON YOU MAKE IN THE GLASGOW RESTORANT?

I have two suggestions. One is a pretty good on-line manual at

The other suugestion is hanging out on the rec.crafts.winemaking group. There is a wide range of wine makers there, from professionals to newbies and it's a very friendly group.

Andy

Pick up a copy of Cox "From Vines to Wine" Take all that he says with a grain of salt but it is a good overview and starts you thinking. Good reading. You will find it at Amazon.

Ray

Thanks for all of your suggestions! I'll begin read. Didn't find them with Google, my fault.

At least in my family not, and also our neighbours quit that, since their village turned into a city. We sit anyway in Germany and have not such a close contact to them all. It's easier for me to read everything in books.

I looked at Amazon.de and I found only those about consuming wine (like lexika etc.). My fault was to search in german and then ask in an english group for help without searching in english. oki oki, mea culpa. :-)

cu & thanks also to JEP64 and Ray Alex

I see good recommendations already. I'll add two that I've found helpful and practical. Home Winemaking Step-by-Step -- by Jon Iverson Techniques In Home Winemaking -- by Daniel Pambianchi

RD

Ray - Why do you say "take all that Cox says with a grain of salt"? I planned an entire vineyard based on his book about 10 years ago and found his information about planting the vineyard and making wine excellent. You can find far more technical books on winemaking but you certainly make good wine from instruction in his book.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

Don't mean to step on anyone's toes, Cox's book is a very good book but it has some weaknesses. Just as a for instance, I followed his advice to drop corks in boiling water before using them. A bad idea. I lost a lot of wine with that one. Just an example. I do not have my own vineyard and will not comment on that part of his book but I have had others say that they started with his methods and moved away from them. Maybe you should take what everyone says with a grain of salt.

Ray

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Cox's book is one of the best I have seen on pruning. I think it is an excellent book for anyone starting a vineyard. If I would have had his book when I put in my vineyard, I could have saved myself a lot of grief.

Are you sure you looked on amazon? A simple "winemaking" search yields

141 books. Of course, if you seriously want to consider using your family's hills to grow grapes for wine, you should start with some books on viticulture as that is going to be the most important and time consuming part of your process.

Making wine is certainly no secret as there are a couple of stores in my small town alone dedicated to supplies for making beer and wine.