Reviews of Wine Making Books

You are, no doubt, a person who really enjoys their wine. You’re an aficionado; you love drinking it and collecting it, you love it down to the process of making actually making wine itself. Maybe even down to actually getting out there and making it yourself, perhaps?

That suggestion probably made you react one of two ways; you’re making the assumption that wine making is a very easy and straightforward process that anyone could do while half blind and asleep. The other reaction is probably something along the lines of, “Make my own wine? Are you insane, that’s why there are people who specialize in this kind of thing!”

The actual answer to whether or not you can just jump in and make your own wine would be best said to be a combination of both of those answers. Sure, you can make your own wine, but it can turn out pretty terrible if you don’ t know what you’re doing. That’s why there are such things as wine making books.

So we ask again, you want to know how to make your own wine? Keep reading and we’ll introduce you to what wine making books really are and the best ones you could possibly buy to help you out!

What Are Wine making Books?

So, what exactly are wine making books? I could just be a smart Alek and say that it’s a book for making wine which, while true, is very much a dumbed down answer. A more satisfactory explanation would be that wine making books are a how-to-guide that shows you everything that you need to know for creating your own batch of wine to enjoy. You may think that our saying that these books show you everything that you need to know about wine making is an over exaggeration, but we assure you, it is not.

Wine making books are able to teach you everything you need to know, such as the basic chemistry of wine, aging, bottling, pH levels; they can even help you learn about viticulture – or the process of growing your own grapes! These books are lovingly crafted by people well versed and totally in love with the art of making wine. So if there’s a moment where you’re ever unsure during your wine making journey, you can always consult the word of professionals.

But What If I’m Not Sure I Want To Make My Own Wine?

Well, that’s just fine too, like we’ve been saying the whole time, there are already people who know how to do this and enjoy it too. If you’re still really on the fence about the whole matter, then consider these reasons for you should give it a go.

It’s actually pretty cheap – after covering the upfront cost of the equipment, any additional batches can be as low as $3.00 dollars per bottle.
It can be pretty soothing – the task needs you to stay on focus just enough so that all your other worries from a hard day can melt away.
You’ll always have plenty to go around – one batch equals approximately five bottles, so if you keep at it, you will always have some to share
You can experiment with new flavors – sometimes, “favorite” can become an unofficial code for “tired”. You can only drink the same thing but so many times till you’re sick of it. Making your own wine can help you branch out to other flavors

Probably the most important reason to try out wine making is that you’ll most assuredly have fun while doing it. If you have been convinced that it’s an activity worth doing, pick up a wine making book and go ahead and get started!

Wine making Book Reviews

No product is created equal, and no person is the exact same as any other. What this means here is that when you get down to it, these wine making books were still written by people so they aren’t going to be the exact same as the other. Below is what’s going to help you ultimately decide which of these books you’ll want to buy.

Wine Folly: Magnum Edition: The Master Guide

The first one of our wine making books that we’re going to discuss is the Wine Folly: Magnum Edition. This wine making book was made by the creators of WineFolly.com and comes filled to the brim with information that both neophytes and old hands at wine making will appreciate. The information is all helpful and easily digested.

The Wine Folly: Magnum Edition’s product information is as follows:

Its dimensions are 7.6”x 1”x 9.8”
The book weighs 2.45 lbs.
It’s 320 pages long
Comes in paperback or Kindle format

The original Wine Folly book was an incredible gem among wine making books and came up with all kinds of creative ways to come at the task of learning to make wine. It stands to reason, then, that this Magnum Edition would be able to top its predecessor and help any budding or experienced wine maker expand their knowledge even further.

A Multitude of Grapes and Wines To Choose From

This book contains over 100 distinct kinds of grapes and wines that are color-coded by style for you to look through, choose, and ultimately create at your own leisure.

Information About Various Wine Regions
Within the Magnum Edition is a series of highly detailed maps that provide information on top wine regions both well established and new.

Wine and Fine Dining 101
The Wine Folly wine making book also includes wine labeling and classification for countries like Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Austria along with tips on tannin & acidity to help your taste wine like you’ve been doing it for years.

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Pros:

Provides an explicit list of grapes and wines that you can check out for yourself if curious.
Gives you information on how you’d label and classify wines from around the world.
Really easy to understand instructions given in the book.

Cons:

The most expensive of all three wine making books, in both Kindle ($18.99) and Hardcover ($22.48).
Unlike the other two wine making books, this one doesn’t focus much on growing grapes for your wine.

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Wine Folly: Magnum Edition: The Master Guide

Hardcover Book
Puckette, Madeline (Author)
English (Publication Language)
320 Pages - 09/25/2018 (Publication Date) - Avery (Publisher)

From Grapes to Wines, 5th Edition

This is the second of our wine making books and it is an excellent one to consider buying. Just like with the first of the wine making books on our review list, From Grapes to Wines has been through previous editions and only gets better with each new version.

From Grapes to Wines’ product information reads as:

The book’s dimensions are 5”x 1”x 8” inches
The book weighs 15.2 ounces
It’s 264 pages long
You can get it in either paperback or Kindle format

A Whole World of Information At Your Fingertips
Written by Jeff Cox, this is truly a wine making book among wine making books. This book covers everything from growing flawless grapes to making great wine to instructions accompanied by illustrations that show you how to choose your vineyard site and how to begin growing it. You will also be given instructions on how to make trellising, plant, prune, and harvest the correct grapes for whatever kind of wine you would like to make.

From Grape to Wines’ 5th Edition wine making has plenty more information to provide you with, like how to press and ferment your grapes after you’ve picked them. From there you can learn how to bottle the wine as well as judge your own and other wines for color, clarity, aroma, and taste as well as a professional can.

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Pros:

Fully illustrated guide to growing and maintaining your own vineyard.
Gives additional information on other home wine makers who’ve become successful and ice wine selections.
Gives a detailed breakdown of pruning and explains what each technical term involved means.

Cons:

Shortest of the books and mostly geared toward beginner wine makers.
Has a tendency to discredit certain types of due to the author not really liking them.

From Vines to Wines, 5th Edition: The Complete Guide to Growing Grapes and Making Your Own Wine

Amazon Kindle Edition
Cox, Jeff (Author)
English (Publication Language)
523 Pages - 03/18/2015 (Publication Date) - Storey Publishing, LLC (Publisher)

The Wine Bible

The final one of our wine making books is called the Wine Bible and it honestly lives up to its name as it provides so much information to make your wine making quest just that much easier. The version that we are reviewing here is a totally updated and revamped edition of the Wine Bible; you pretty much get information piled on top of information that can help you make the best batch wine ever.

The Wine Bible’s product information is as follows:

The product dimensions of the Wine Bible are 5.9”x 1.7”x 9” inches
It weighs 2.85 lbs.
The book is 1008 pages long
It comes in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle format

Plenty Of Knowledge To Go Around
The Wine Bible, like other wine making books, was put together by a person who really knows their stuff. The author, Karen MacNeil really flexed her wine making chops to assemble this collection of information for her readers. Wine making books are admittedly a dime dozen, but the Wine Bible provides you with such an abundant amount of information, that it could quite possibly border on overloading you with its contents. This book has over 1000 pages of wine making information that help propel your skills to even higher levels.

Inside of the Wine Bible, there’s a heavy inference on the basics of making wine so that you build a strong set of fundamental skills while providing a bit of levity with hilarious anecdotes. There is a veritable treasure trove of tips, definitions, and photos (which are new for this edition), labels, maps, and recommendations for good bottles to use.

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Pros:

Has a lot of information which makes it really good for wine makers of various skill sets.
Written by an author with a huge amount of experience in wine making and it definitely shows. Everything, for the most part, is well put together.

Is the only one of the three wine making books to come in a paperback format.

Cons:

It serves as a really good guide but is pretty limited in its selection in wineries and wine makers.
Its hardcover version is more pricey than the other wine making books at $27.96 dollars.

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