Richard W. Bender

Being a winemaking hobbyist, I was looking forward to reading Wild Winemaking by Richard W. Bender. The book’s cover indicated that it contained fruit and herbal wine making recipes. I found those in the book as well as several unexpected recipes like the ones for cannabis wines. The author is brave as the latter will surely land him on some government list.

The book is logically laid out starting with the basics of winemaking. It then goes on to include a listing of the equipment and supplies needed. Although the author makes an initial point that you don’t need a lot of equipment to make local produce wines, his long listing of equipment, its use, and why it is useful seems to contradict this. Although I already have all of the equipment and supplies listed, I would have found this list a little frightening if I were new to the hobby.

One thing that I noted is that fruit winemaking is not as complicated as I thought. The recipes provided can be shortened to four ingredients, fruit, sugar, water, and yeast. Some of the recipes also call for a pectic enzyme to break down the fruit pulp. You start by mashing or squeezing the fruit, then you add the remaining ingredients, and let the yeast do its magic. Fruit pulp and dead yeast cells will settle after a few days, according to Bender, at which time you rack the wine, a winemaking term meaning that you transfer the wine off the sediment, into a clean container and continue to let it ferment. Bender doesn’t add sulfites to his wines but allows them to clarify slowly in a carboy with a fermentation lock attached to protect it against oxygenation. This allows the wine ingredients to further settle and naturally degas before bottling.

There is a chapter at the end of the book on pairing wines with food. While you can find pairing suggestions in many wine appreciation websites, Bender also provided wine party ideas in this chapter. I intend to use one of them for a new year’s party at the end of this year.

While the layout of the book looks like it may have been written for young adults, the subject matter is definitely at a majority drinking age level. I think that the format was probably chosen as a means to demystify winemaking.

The book was interesting to me since I never made fruit wines and have a growing interest in doing so. The recipes given can easily be adapted to any locally available produce. While not a defining book, Wild Winemaking is enjoyable and will give the reader who has an interest in winemaking from local produce the guidance he or she needs to get started in the hobby.… (more)