Basic winemaking : A world view

Abstract

These notes are meant to give students of winemaking the basic principles and techniques necessary for the production of wine. We do not discuss in great detail either the science or art of winemaking since this is covered in several larger books on the subject. Nevertheless, we believe that the background given here will be sufficient to provide adequate understanding of the process and methods involved and allow a person to take the first steps in winemaking for pleasure or profit. We have also found that established winemakers sometimes make errors because of certain inadequacies in their knowledge and we hope that they might find this bulletin useful. There is one major omission that we must mention. This is in the area of equipment used for winemaking which, partly because of space and time, we have left out. This is a difficult area to cover since new equipment is continually being placed on the market and the requirement for winemakers vary due to size of operation and local availability of different brands.