Wild Winemaking: Easy and Adventurous Recipes Going Beyond Grapes

by Richard W Bender

Why drink Bordeaux when you can make your own Buddha’s Hand Cherry Bomb wine? Feeling spunky? Try some Ginger Squash Sake! Or maybe you’re in the mood for some Strawberry Lemon-Guava, Triple Basil, Pomegranate Citrus-Symphony, or Cherry Black Currant wine. These are just a taste of the 148 unique recipes in this creative guide to
small-batch winemaking that goes far beyond specialty grapes for an easier, more forgiving process. Readers learn how to make wines with fruits like lemons, blueberries, cherries, peaches, and pears, as well as flowers like dandelions and roses, and even herbs like rosemary, basil, and even cannabis. And these recipes are just the start; readers will gain the skills they need to branch out, incorporate their favourite ingredients, and create their own unique wine flavours.

• ISBN13: 9781612127897
• Publish Date: 20 February 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Storey Publishing LLC
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Wild Winemaking, due out 06 Mar, 2018 from author Richard W. Bender and Storey Publishing is an interesting addition to the recent surge of niche winecrafting books. Beautifully photographed, it shows the fruits, vegetables, herbs, vegetables (?!) and other ingredients used to make these very unusual wines as well as appealing pics of the finished products.

The book doesn't presuppose any knowledge on the part of the would-be winemaker and begins at the very beginning, with an introduction of supplies, equipment, sterilization and basic techniques.

Chapter two goes through the author's own techniques and tips for getting from ingredients to finished wines. The introductory chapters cover the basics and take up about 20% of the total content. The author has a chatty and informal writing style which lends a calm and friendly vibe.

By far the lion's share of the content is given over to the recipes, and boy, howdy, are they wild and interesting. The recipes start out with relatively tame and simple recipes, apple, apricot, banana, plum, and so forth. It's not long until the recipes start pulling in flowers (the staid elderberry cordial is joined by jasmine, jonquil, lavender, lilac and others) and herbs. There are nearly 150 recipes with scope for almost infinite blending and combinations. Additionally, and uniquely in my experience, the author also includes wines which include citrus in combination with hot peppers (pink grapefruit - kung pao and others) and cannabis wines (the legalities and information regarding cannabis are covered in the book, basically make sure that you can legally acquire the ingredients, and please don't travel with the resultant wine).

I've not yet tried any of the recipes, though I fully intend to, since I have dried and fresh pesticide free herbs and fruit. I'm looking forward to trying the chocolate mint wine and basil wine. After those, cherry, plum and apple wines seem quite tame.

Four stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.