Book Review – Techniques in Home Winemaking by Daniel Pambianchi
Up until a few weeks ago, I thought I knew quite a bit about home winemaking. I’ve been making a variety of wines for years – both from kits and from “scratch.” I’ve discussed the subject of making wines at home with others who have plenty of experience, learned from them and learned quite a bit on my own.
What happened three weeks ago? Daniel Pambianchi’s book, Techniques in Home Winemaking: The Comprehensive Guide to Making Chateau-Style Wines published by Vehicule Press (Montreal) in 2008 arrived at my door. When I opened it up in the evening, I began reading and didn’t stop until about 2AM. I devoured the first 149 pages before fatigue set in and even though I wanted to keep reading, I needed to sleep.
Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I picked up Pambianchi’s book and read every day. And every day, I learned something new and useful. This book is complete with information about every aspect of the craft and is suitable for anyone who makes wine, whether they begin with grapes, juices, kits, or other fruit. Although it focuses primarily on grape wines, the knowledge inside can be applied to those made of other ingredients such as fruit. Of course, amateurs and professionals who primarily make chateau-style wines will especially benefit from this work.
The book opens with an Introduction that covers the basics and even includes information on grape identification. From there, it gets into much greater detail with chapters on equipment, sanitation methods, analysis and the many different techniques that can be used in making wine. Many of these techniques may not be suitable for all, but knowing about them can be very helpful in creating wines.
There is much detail about various equipment and testing tools that are available and how they should be used and interpreted. Pambianchi has provided easy to understand scientific equations where necessary so that the we can make better informed decisions about wines they are making. The book makes it quite clear that winemaking uses both science and art in producing good wine. While some of this equipment is not necessarily needed for the person that makes one or two batches of wine from kits per year, it can be helpful to better understand the process and what might improve their wines.
Many experience problems with the clarification process, and will benefit from Chapter 5 which has over 25 pages which discuss clarification and filtering methods and includes a very helpful description of the various additives that can be used, the pros and cons of each, and what they actually do.
Thinking about purchasing some oak barrels to age your wine? Turn to Chapter 8 where you will find a comprehensive guide on barrels, types of oak, storage and maintenance of barrels, and much more! Presently, I don’t have the space at home to consider using oak barrels, but someday when I do, I will be re-reading and studying this chapter in detail.
