Customer Reviews

From Vines to Wines: The Complete Guide to Growing Grapes and Making Your Own Wine

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cox's "From Vines to Wines" is probably one of the best introductions to backyard grape growing and basement winemaking available today. From selecting vine stock to harvesting the crop, the first half of the book covers all the bases for grape growing. The second half is dedicated to winemaking, from first establishing what type of wine you want to create to labeling the bottles. This book is definitely oriented towards the hobbyist - readers with designs for a large vineyard (1+ acres) will want to start with this book but move on to more detailed texts. Personally, I found the section on site selection and soil analysis a little thin - fine if you're limited to the space on hand (your backyard), but lacking if you want to buy acreage dedicated to a vineyard. No data was provided on small scale commercial operations or basic vineyard economics. Cox's winemaking chapters are probably the best I've seen. He goes through the whole process and highlights potential trouble areas. Overall, a very good book for the hobbyist.

After years of making our own wine and finally living in a world class grape growing region we wanted to try out hand at growing grapes. This book provided excellent information for the entire process. We've followed the advice in this book and have had good result with our grapes for two years.

Expertly written by Jeff Cox (an accomplished gardener and senior editor of "Global Vintage Quarterly"), and now in an updated and expanded fourth edition, From Vines To Wines: The Complete Guide To Growing Grapes And Making Your Own Wine is a complete, cover-to-cover, "user friendly" resource for home winemakers. Featuring everything from selecting ideal vines, to growing and harvesting grapes, the wine-making process from fermentation to labeling and cellaring, From Vines To Wines is a solid, practical, wonderfully accessible resource with diagrams, down-to-earth language, offering everything the reader needs to know to grow and make their own vintages.

Complete, easy to read. We refer back to this book often and it's helped take us from home grapegrower to commercial winery.

This is a well compiled, easy to read treatise on the subjects of viticulture and eneology. Focused on the layperson, it is very easy reading whilst glossing over none of the facts.

The book covers growing grapes suitable for wine, focused specifically on the North American region. It doesn't labor over the different types of grapes and their most suitable areas but it does give some information. It covers the history on wine making grapes and some of their historical regions. Moreover, it gives details on trellising and pruning techniques.

Further, the book describes the process of winemaking. The authors easy going an informative style provides for a pleasant read.

The author provides the reader with incite into his own experiences and even suggests alternatives to the common approach.

I could recommend this book, not only to a perspective grape grower or wine maker, but to those that would like to learn more about wine, its history and how to taste it (all of which are between these covers).

Very good book and well written..Has an answer to all questions i was wanting to ask. Bought several books and this was only one that gave me straightforward advice that i could really use.

This book is the one I keep coming back to for answeres to the questions I have about vinyard care and wine making. It covers both the east as well as the western U.S. I only wish it went deeper into hybrid grapes than it does. (although it does cover them).

When I bought this book, I have to say that I never really had any intention of making wine. While I truly enjoy visiting regional wineries and have quite a full wine rack, I would have thought that it would be just too hard to do. I got this book just to have a better appreciation of the process, but now I think I might try this...some day.

You can't beat the price, very reasonable for what you get. It is very detailed and thorough, but not so techincial that it is confusing or overwhelming. Also, I was pleased to see that the author took into account that there are other places to grow wine other than California. I live in Virginia and there are some great local wineries, and the same can be said of New York's Finger Lakes where I went to college.

The book covers location, varieties, what varieties grow where, process, and problems. Very comprehensive overall.

This is an excellent introduction to the topics of growing grapes or winemaker hobbyist. Cox does an admirable job of providing enough information and tips for the backyard grapegrower or basement/garage winemaker. Other books may go into more detail but this is a comprehensive overview that encompasses each aspect of growing and winemaking.

As a wine enthusiast, I have given thought (more than once) to learning more about the complete wine-making process. Reading this book has given me just enough confidence to try this as a backyard/basement hobbyist. It's not that I believe I can grow and make world-class wine -- rather, I expect to be able to appreciate the effort that goes into making a world-class wine. And, with any luck, I'll be able to make something worth drinking. The sections of the book on choosing grapes appropriate to your region, growing and training tips, fermentation, aging, bottling are all clearly written. The supply sources listed in the back are comprehensive enough to be able to find the basics. All in all, a very solid effort.

Considering I live in Las Vegas, growing grapes is out of the question or is it? He does not mention any grape varietals that I could plant in my region. Other than growing the vines I loved all the info on fermenting and making the wine. I have already ordered equipment from places that he recommended in his book. Making wine is not going to be as exspensive as I thaught. After writing a few letters to retailers, you will be ready to roll with all your equipment. You must have an understanding of wine to understand all the terminalegy. Great book, lots of info, and a little humor about how he gets off watching his wife stomp the grapes. I wont be stomping grapes but i will be fermenting grape juice, thank you.