I diagree with Ray on Berry's book. "First Steps in Wine Making" is, in my
opinion, is no longer well suited to beginning wine makers (particularly
beginning American winemakers). It is out of date, British-oriented, and
after banging in a few corks with a mallet, may turn you off to winemaking
before you learn there's a better way. Definitely buy this book and read it
for the historical interest and as a source of country wine ideas, but there
are much better starting-out guides.

For a first book on country wine making ("fruit wines"), I recommend "The
Joy of Home Winemaking" by Terry Garey. Her easy writing style and
contemporary persepctive make a nice combination for a new winemaker. She
starts out with a recipe from store-bought concentrate using minimal
equipment, and guides through easier to more advanced recipes. For country
wines, I also recommend "Step by Step Homemade Wine" by Judith Irwin -- it
is also British oriented, focuses more on recipe-oriented winemaking, and
tends towards outdated winemaking practices, but it is so well illustrated
that I still find it inspiring to leaf through it.

If you're looking for a book to gradually move you from recipe-oriented
winemaking to a more measurement-based approach, "Winemaking" by Stanley &
Dorothy Anderson is a good choice. It relies pretty heavily on canned grape
juice concentrates to ameliorate country wines and hybrid grape wines, but
it does a great job of presenting winemaking by measurement in a recipe
format.

For making wine from grapes, my favorite book is "Home Winemaking Step by
Step" by Jon Iverson. The advice is well organized, accurate, and well
suited to a "modern" home winemaker looking to make wine in a non-recipe
approache. If you're looking to find a more scientific/technical reference
from there that is still approachable by an amateur home winemaker, I
recommend "Modern Winemaking" by Philip Jackisch.

I agree with Jeff Cox's "From Vines to WInes" as a great source for growing
your own (especially on the east coast).

Other winemaking books in my library:

"The Art of Making Wine" by Stanley Anderson and Raymond Hull: Predates
"Winemaking", and more recipe-oriented. A bit dated.
"The Complete Handbook of Winemaking" by The American Wine Society : A
collection of articles, some better than others. Large section on wine
evaluation and tasting. A bit "stodgy."
"Winemaking Month by Month" by Brian Leverett: An interesting collecton of
country wine recipes, British oriented. Gives a chart that rates the
country wines by primary ingredient, although no description of how these
"ratings" were obtained.
"Wine from the Wilds" by Steven Krause : Dated and more botany-oriented
than wine-oriented, still a very interesting exploration of what might be
growing in your back yard that someone, sometime has tried to make wine
from. I would disregard the "recipes" for the winemaking, and instead read
this just for historical interest and ideas.

Jon

"Ray" > wrote in message
m...
> For country wines, I would recommend C.J.J. Berry's clasic books "First
> Steps in Wine Making". Very readable and practical. His other books are
> good as well. Then there is Duncan and Acton's book "Making Wines like
> those You Buy" and if you get into grape wines Cox's "From Vines to Wines"
>
> Ray
>
> "robert" > wrote in message
> .uk...
>> Hi.
>>
>> I am new to making wine ... Can anybody recomend books to read on
>> making
>> traditional wines and lequres .....
>>
>> I have been given about 4lbs of Mullberry's thta i would like to make
> into
>> a mullberry and peach lequre but cant see anything at the library that
> makes
>> sence
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>>
>
>