Grapes into Wine

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Summary: Truly elevates ones appreciation of grapes and winemaking!
Review: Mr. Wagner's love of grapes and winemaking enlightens the reader about man's long time fascination with grapes and wine. This book could have been called the grape lovers bible because of its complete coverage of grape growing and winemaking information and history. No serious grape grower or winemaker should be without it. If you love grapes now, you may become absorbed with them after reading this book!

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Summary: "Grapes Into Wine" set the standard all other similar books.
Review: Philip M. Wagner's earlier "American Wines and Wine-Making" became a bible for small producers and winemakers in America. First printed in 1933, it was revised several times and then completely rewritten over 40 years later under the current title. Although dated, it is still one of the more valuable resources for the small commercial or home winemaker intent on making excellent wine from grapes and grape concentrates.

Wagner discusses the grape and all its inherent qualities in clear, concise language. His treatment if both old French-American and new American hybrids is still a good historical and practical guide for grape selection. His appendix on wine grape varieties is a handy compendium for the single plant to small vineyard grower, while his appendix on "Wine Analysis Simplified" is invaluable to anyone wishing to make award winning vintages.

The "meat" of the book discusses the fundamentals of winemaking as an art. This is amply illustrated with chapters on making red, white, rosé, sparkling, and other fermentations. He discusses clarification, filtering, testing, blending, and bottling with the experience of someone who is at ease with their finer points. He devotes a chapter to the then growing interest in making wines from concentrates and another on what can go wrong. While not a tutorial or handbook, his treatment is more a dissertation that any but a master winemaker would find instructive and beneficial.

It is his chapter on wine tasting and drinking that sets his work apart, for these are the culminative activities for which all wine is ultimately made. His dissection of the anatomy and physiology of taste is a primer for any who aims to make really good wine. It won't make you a wine critic of Hugh Johnson's stature, but it will make you more conscious of what happens when wine is taken into your mouth. And that, after all, is what it is all about.

This is a solid addition to any home winemaker's library. For historical insight alone, it is worth the price.

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Summary: Nice exposition on the history and process of winemaking
Review: Philip Wagner's death in 1997 was a loss to the winemaking community. Wagner lived through a broad period of wine history. His significant life experience spans prohibition through an illustrious life as a successful commercial winemaker. Wagner practiced what he preached. His life honors a love for the grape and the art of turning grapes into wine.

His book, "Grapes into Wine," chronicles the history of winemaking told from the perspective of one who knows the subject. This book is not a step-by-step guide towards the process of making a fine wine; it's an exposition on the history and high-level science of grapes and grape growing (viticulture) and the cultivation of grapes, and the manufacture of wine (viniculture).

Wagner explains the origins of winemaking, from its earliest documented sources to the present. He describes the early French winemaking period, the effects of phylloxera and other diseases that practically wiped-out this industry, the emergence of east and west coast American wine making, prohibition, and winemaking in the modern world. He then delves into the process of winemaking, both commercially and in small lots. Sugar and bacterial (malolactic) fermentation are described historically and as a modern process. He discusses the entire process of winemaking, from pitching the yeast, to racking, cold stabilizing, fining, and finally bottling. Common pitfalls are cited with a description of how these problems are addressed on a small and large scale. Different wine types are discussed, including dry, sparkling, fortified, and sweet. The book ends with a brief discussion about wine tasting. A number of Appendices are also included as are numerous pictures that give a glimpse into historical periods, people, tools and machinery, and places.

While Wagner describes the winemaking process in some detail, it's not written as a guide towards making wine. For this, I'd suggest Jon Iverson's book, "Home Winemaking Step-by-Step." Iverson takes amateur winemakers by the hand and guides them through the necessary steps towards the creation of a finished table wine. Wagner's book describes this process topically, touching on the details but not describing them in a step-by-step fashion.

The cover of this book states, "A newly written, completely up-to-date version of his now-classic American Wines and Wine-making, with new maps, charts, and illustrations." I think this was true at one time, but from my perspective in 2003, this book more closely reflects the 1976 revision.

For example, p.64 shows a chart of California wine production from 1956 to 1973 in millions of gallons. Yet on the p.67 a 1982 note references how production has increased in 1980. It seems this note was inserted to make it more current while the preceding text was left untouched. I would rather have seen the chart updated to include wine production into the 1980s or 1990s rather than end in 1973. Eliminate the note and update the text and graphic. Much of the book is from the perspective of 1976.

This aside, Wagner's book is a superbly valuable text. I don't mean to give the impression it is sorely outdated; it's not outdated in a way that degrades the value of what he has written. Wagner has documented a snapshot of history and I have enjoyed the book immensely. Many chapters I've read numerous times. I especially enjoy the chapters on the history of viniculture and viticulture. Wagner is gifted in his historical knowledge and I think these beginning chapters are the book's crowning achievement.

Highly recommended, I only wish Wagner was alive to provide an update that includes a look into the 21st Century.

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Summary: A must for the small batch home wine enthusiest
Review: The book has a nice 60 page Part I with a historical overview of wines and their ancestory. Part II is a must for the home wine maker. To make good wine, one must follow a road map and this book spells it out in full detail, while being short and to the point. Long live the Vino!!

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Summary: Interesting, but limited usefulness.
Review: This book provides an interesting overview of the history of American winemaking. However, being written in the 1970's this text as a practical guide for winemaking is hopelessly dated. Much of the information is either contradictory to modern stylistic norms or simply innacurate. Better chioices for the home winemaker include Jon Iverson's "Home Winemaking, Step by Step" and Desmond Lundy's "Handmade Table Wine".
Cheers.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but limited usefulness.
Review: This book provides an interesting overview of the history of American winemaking. However, being written in the 1970's this text as a practical guide for winemaking is hopelessly dated. Much of the information is either contradictory to modern stylistic norms or simply innacurate. Better chioices for the home winemaker include Jon Iverson's "Home Winemaking, Step by Step" and Desmond Lundy's "Handmade Table Wine".
Cheers.

Rating:
Summary: guru with a mission
Review: wagner is the original guru on grape growing and wine making. how he found the time for all of his interests is a story we will never know. first, of course , he was the editor of the baltimore sun newspaper. he founded and operated boordy vineyard and winery,which became a grape vine nursury. he somehow found more time to write books on all of this, books that were clear, consise, that covered these fields with a fullnes of purpose that is amazing everytime i read and reread them. when i am planting grapes or making wine , his books are never far from my elbow. if you have limited funds and want to buy the best books for the most reasonable prices, buy wagner!