If you've never made wine before and would like to try it, this is the book for you. It is well written, rich in anecdotes, and easily understood. If you've made wine for years and think you know what you're doing, I'm willing to bet you that The Joy of Home Winemaking will teach you much more than a mere thing or two.

The Joy of Home Winemaking is much more than a primer for making wine at home. The beginner invariably expects an identifiable relationship between the color, flavor and bouquet of the raw ingredients and the finished wine. While such a relationship exists, it is not the one that beginning winemakers expect. Garey goes where few have attempted to go before. She wants you to know what you will get, and that requires more than simply adjusting your expectations.

To accomplish this, Garey explains the principles and, to some degree, the chemistry that underlies the processes at work when wine is being made. She explains flavor extraction better than most, which spices produce which qualities, which fruits and vegetables complement each other when combined in the crock, which herbs and flowers work and which don't, and so on. The result is not merely education, but firm understanding, and that is requisite to experimentation and invention. She does this better than most, and for that alone she should be read and reread. (Reviewed by Jack Keller)