Book review: Wine Production – Vine to Bottle

Wine Production – Vine to Bottle
By: Keith Grainger and Hazel Tattersall
Blackwell Publishing

The book is part of what is called “Food industry briefing series” and that is well reflected in its presentation. It is short, and not particularly “consumer” oriented. The book covers the topics, just like the title indicates, from the vine and what happens in the vineyard, to what is done in the winery and the wine in bottle. 17 chapters on 117 pages make for a lot of skimming. The text is generally correct but very condensed. It is partially a bit too categorical (“this is how things are”) when winemaking in reality is very much a question of nuances and opinions. It also has a very “new world” view on many things (e.g in describing high planting density as something mainly motivated by tradition, not necessarily motivated by quality, and growers’ laziness, and low planting densities as practised in the New World as beneficial to encourage growth and fighting diseases). Nevertheless, it is a book that can be useful to read for he who wants a short introduction to the various techniques and technologies used in the vineyard and the cellar. And it is one of the few books in print on this subject. (We must declare a certain bias here: We have recently written a book on the same subject that goes more into details, giving a more nuanced view on things, as well as illustrating most of the concepts with photography. Unfortunately, that book is not available in English.)

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