Joy of Home Wine Making

My best wine-making book.
Let me use that old cliche, if you only buy one book on home wine-making then buy this one.

I have seven books on making wine. This is the one I always turn to first and the only one I have read cover to cover.

It is very readable, the only winemaking book I have with a sense of humour. It covers almost everything you could want. From the real basics, to really quite advanced stuff. It even has a potted history of winemaking.

But most of all the recipes never cease to turn out top notch wine, from bog-standard apple through unusual ones like kiwi to the use of herbs and spices.

Oh and don't be put off by the fact that it is of American origin. This usual puts me right off this kind of book. Not in this case though.

So what are you waiting for?

A solid guide to home winemaking.
It has taken over 40 years for someone to write a better winemaking primer that C.J.J. Berry's classic "First Steps in Winemaking," and this is it. If you've never made wine before and would like to try it, this is the book for you. It is well written, rich in anecdotes, and easily understood. If you've made wine for years and think you know what you're doing, I'm willing to bet you that "The Joy of Home Winemaking" will teach you much more than a mere thing or two.

Having been brought up through the ranks, as it were, on Berry's "First Steps..." and having never found it insufficient as an instructional and recipe reference, it is almost painful to admit that someone has bettered the master. But Terry Garey clearly has.

"The Joy..." is thoughtfully divided into three sections -- beginning, intermedient and advanced winemaking. Garey presents the basics, expands upon them, and then he expands some more. Not only is his presentation progressive, it is solidly educational. Best of all, the recipes are largely fresh, varied and inviting!

"The Joy..." is much more than a primer for making wine at home. The beginner invariably expects an identifiable relationship between the color, flavor and bouquet of the raw ingredients and the finished wine. While such a relationship exists, it is not the one that beginning winemakers expect. Garey goes where few have attempted to go before. He wants you to know what you will get, and that requires more than simply adjusting your expectations.

To accomplish this, Garey explains the principles and, to some degree, the chemistry that underlies the processes at work when wine is being made. He explains flavor extraction better than most, which spices produce which qualities, which fruits and vegetables complement each other when combined in the crock, which herbs and flowers work and which don't, and so on. The result is not merely education, but firm understanding, and that is requisite to ex! perimentation and invention. It is this that he does better than Berry, and for that alone he should be read and reread by every winemaking hobbiest.

I still highly recommend C.J.J. Berry's "First Steps in Winemaking" for the beginner, but I also highly recommend "The Joy of Home Winemaking" for the beginner and experienced alike. If you can only buy one, flip a coin. Better still, buy them both. The first is the classic. The second is destined to be.

Excellent book for beginners
This book is terrific for anyone thinking of trying winemaking. The author takes the beginner through the steps for a basic wine recipe, using few pieces of equipment. Then, for the brave who wish to continue, Garvey adds complexity to each successive recipe, leaving champagne-making for the end. Terrific book with great recipes and easy to follow tips. Just enough humor to encourage new winemaker, and plenty of recipes for the gardner with leftover produce -- from rasberries to potatoes.

A very good starter book
I started making wine with this book. It covers home winemaking very well and even walks you through making the first batch of wine. It has many recipes and covers ciders, champagnes. The tips and tricks that the author gives help the beginner winemaker new ideas and newer tricks to use. I've recommended this to a lot of people I know who want to get into it.