Progressive Winemaking – Book Review
Peter Duncan, Bryan Acton
ISBN:0-900841-23-0 (18th Impression, 1991)
Recently, Bob recommended this book to me, and I decided to go ahead and get it. I will be honest, I was a bit skeptical about buying yet another winemaking book, since I had the forum and the knowledge of more experienced winemakers. However, I can say that this book has pleasantly surprised me, and would recommend this book to both those new in the winemaking hobby and those who have been doing this for many years.
This book, originally written in 1967, has all the essentials an amateur winemaker needs to understand good winemaking techniques. Just some topics covered include TA, pH, general winemaking tips, oaking, and recipes.
I believe these authors wrote this book to appeal to both novice and advanced winemakers. The book gives you a “no-nonsense” approach to many aspects of winemaking that many other books have left out. The books tell you the reasoning behind all the actions you could do with your wine (pH, TA, racking, hydrometer, filtering, etc), what other books often lack.
Although readers might find the authors’ writing style a bit stuffy (when comparing to other books), it is written as text- and reference book. One quickly realises that the authors take winemaking and it’s science very seriously – just what a serious home winemaker needs. There is nothing cute, nothing superfluous, and nothing left to the “powers that be.”
Looking at the table of contents and thinking of a general wine recipe and the chronology of making wine, you can easily see that this book is written by carefully examining all parts of the winemaking process. The blend of chemistry, biology, and the art of winemaking is a perfect one. One does not feel that there is too much theory when reading this book. In fact, one may start remembering his/her own chemistry class, and thinking, “Oh yes, I remember that!” Starting with the equipment you need to maturing and blending your wines, this book has been organised chronologically to follow the actual steps you perform in winemaking.
This is helpful in more ways than one: Firstly, the reader can thumb through the book easily, not necessarily having to look up in the table of contents or extensive indices, as many other books that deal with home winemaking require. Secondly, the reader learns the proper steps in the methodology of making good wine.
There are, however, some things I would like to mention that I find could be improved upon: The tables. Although they are very helpful, I would wish of an appendix of tables at the end of the book for quick reference. Although the book is well-organised, finding the actual table within a section can be somewhat frustrating (“I know it’s in there somewhere!”). Although this book was last published in 1991 (16 years ago – imagine that!), newer editions should also have newer photographs, showing things that are available to the winemaker today. Although all this equipment can still be used today, I think that most amateur winemakers have a more efficient arsenal of tools available to them today.
Lastly, and probably only because I am really struggling with the TA/pH issue, I find the section on pH is a bit frustrating. They state, ”The winemaker will doubtless have rightly concluded by now that the concept of pH has only limited applications in amateur winemaking. Experienced winemakers may find it useful to record the pH values of their musts and wines for reference purposes, especially when preparing experimental wines, but on the whole no harm will be done if this subject is ignored altogether….” Eek!
All in all, I would highly recommend this book. I would wish for a newer version, with some changes, but the book should remain, on a whole, basically the same. It is well-written, concise, but explanatory, and a great addition to your winemaking arsenal. I do not know how I survived the first years of winemaking without it, because this is my go-to book if I have an issue I need to read up upon.
I welcome comments, critique, and challenges to what I have written. Have I missed something?
Peter Duncan, Bryan Acton
ISBN:0-900841-23-0 (18th Impression, 1991)
Recently, Bob recommended this book to me, and I decided to go ahead and get it. I will be honest, I was a bit skeptical about buying yet another winemaking book, since I had the forum and the knowledge of more experienced winemakers. However, I can say that this book has pleasantly surprised me, and would recommend this book to both those new in the winemaking hobby and those who have been doing this for many years.
This book, originally written in 1967, has all the essentials an amateur winemaker needs to understand good winemaking techniques. Just some topics covered include TA, pH, general winemaking tips, oaking, and recipes.
I believe these authors wrote this book to appeal to both novice and advanced winemakers. The book gives you a “no-nonsense” approach to many aspects of winemaking that many other books have left out. The books tell you the reasoning behind all the actions you could do with your wine (pH, TA, racking, hydrometer, filtering, etc), what other books often lack.
Although readers might find the authors’ writing style a bit stuffy (when comparing to other books), it is written as text- and reference book. One quickly realises that the authors take winemaking and it’s science very seriously – just what a serious home winemaker needs. There is nothing cute, nothing superfluous, and nothing left to the “powers that be.”
Looking at the table of contents and thinking of a general wine recipe and the chronology of making wine, you can easily see that this book is written by carefully examining all parts of the winemaking process. The blend of chemistry, biology, and the art of winemaking is a perfect one. One does not feel that there is too much theory when reading this book. In fact, one may start remembering his/her own chemistry class, and thinking, “Oh yes, I remember that!” Starting with the equipment you need to maturing and blending your wines, this book has been organised chronologically to follow the actual steps you perform in winemaking.
This is helpful in more ways than one: Firstly, the reader can thumb through the book easily, not necessarily having to look up in the table of contents or extensive indices, as many other books that deal with home winemaking require. Secondly, the reader learns the proper steps in the methodology of making good wine.
There are, however, some things I would like to mention that I find could be improved upon: The tables. Although they are very helpful, I would wish of an appendix of tables at the end of the book for quick reference. Although the book is well-organised, finding the actual table within a section can be somewhat frustrating (“I know it’s in there somewhere!”). Although this book was last published in 1991 (16 years ago – imagine that!), newer editions should also have newer photographs, showing things that are available to the winemaker today. Although all this equipment can still be used today, I think that most amateur winemakers have a more efficient arsenal of tools available to them today.
Lastly, and probably only because I am really struggling with the TA/pH issue, I find the section on pH is a bit frustrating. They state, ”The winemaker will doubtless have rightly concluded by now that the concept of pH has only limited applications in amateur winemaking. Experienced winemakers may find it useful to record the pH values of their musts and wines for reference purposes, especially when preparing experimental wines, but on the whole no harm will be done if this subject is ignored altogether….” Eek!
All in all, I would highly recommend this book. I would wish for a newer version, with some changes, but the book should remain, on a whole, basically the same. It is well-written, concise, but explanatory, and a great addition to your winemaking arsenal. I do not know how I survived the first years of winemaking without it, because this is my go-to book if I have an issue I need to read up upon.
I welcome comments, critique, and challenges to what I have written. Have I missed something?
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