copyright 1999
PREFACE
Most home winemaking books are written like cookbooks. They contain winemaking recipes and step by step directions, but little technical information is included. The goal of these books is to provide enough information so the reader can make a successful batch of wine. Enology textbooks are the other extreme. They are very technical and can be difficult to comprehend without a background in chemistry and microbiology. These books are intended to give professional winemakers the specialized backgrounds needed to solve the wide variety of problems encountered in commercial wine production.
This book is an attempt to provide beginning winemakers with basic "how to" instructions and to also provide advanced home winemakers some of the technical aspects of winemaking. However, the technical material has been concentrated in a few chapters, so readers can easily ignore much of the technical content until an interest (or need) develops.
If you have a quantity of fresh grapes to convert into wine, read Chapter 1 and the first few pages of Appendix A. This material will give you enough information to start a successful grape wine fermentation. Appendix A is written in a quasi outline form, and it provides a brief description of the entire winemaking process.
If you have some fresh fruit and wish to make wine before the fruit spoils, read Chapter 21. This is a "stand alone" chapter, and successful fruit wines can be made from the information provided here. The first few pages provide enough information to prepare the fruit and start fermentation. The rest of the chapter can then be read at your leisure.
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 and 17 provide general information on home winemaking. These chapters discuss materials, facilities, equipment and basic processes. Much of this material is basic and should be of interest to most readers.
The material presented in Chapters 5, 6, 11, 13 and 16 is a bit more advanced. These five chapters focus mostly on "what" and "why" rather than on "how." Beginning winemakers may wish to skip these chapters until they become more experienced.
Chapters 18 and 19 are case studies of making a red and white wine. These two chapters provide a detailed chronology of the production of two typical wines.
Chapter 20 describes how to make small quantities of sparkling wine, and Chapter 22, contains practical "how to" information of general interest.
Chapter 23 describes six common laboratory wine tests. The significance of the tests, materials, apparatus and procedures are discussed.
Lum Eisenman, Del Mar, 1998
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people contributed to this book, and I greatly appreciate their help. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the following people who expended much time and effort on my behalf.
Thanks to Dr. Roger Seapy for critiquing the manuscript for technical content and for providing many corrections and beneficial suggestions.
Thanks to Lynn Alley and Terry Whyte for reading the original manuscript and suggesting many useful changes in content, style and organization.
Thank you Dr. James Jenkins for the many helpful technical discussions and suggestions for improving the manuscript.
Thanks to Jim Graver for reviewing the chapter on fruit winemaking and providing many helpful suggestions.
Thank you Duane DeBoer for reading the manuscript and making the many technical suggestions only a professional winemaker could provide.
Special thanks Barbara Scherman for spending many hours attempting to untangle my inept prose.
Click here to return to Contents