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Making Wild Wines & Meads: 125 Unusual Recipes Using Herbs, Fruits, Flowers & More
Make extraordinary homemade wines from everything but grapes! In this refreshingly unique take on winemaking, Patti Vargas and Rich Gulling offer 125 recipes for unusual wines made from herbs, fruits, flowers, and honey. Learn to use ingredients from your farmers’ market, grocery store, or even your own backyard to make deliciously fermented drinks. Lemon-Thyme Metheglin, Rose Hip Melomel, and Pineapple-Orange Delight are just the beginning of an unexplored world of delightfully natural wild wines. Cheers!
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 8, 1999
24 people are currently reading
236 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 22, 2009
I'm going to break my review of this book into two components, the instructions and the recipes.
Instructions:
Simple and straightforward, this would be a great book for someone starting out in the hobby. The directions are of the "tried and true" variety with a few procedural options thrown in, but not enough to overwhelm (and believe me, brewing can get AWFULLY overwhelming). There's a fairly nice balance of explanation and brevity, and I appreciated that it took the time to break a few things down that are taken sort of for granted in higher level texts. That being said; if you're old hat at home brewing it is probably worth taking a read-through for a baseline understanding of the practices the recipes are based on, a quick refresher, and perhaps a different way of wording things you might like better... but don't expect any mystical revelations.
My main issue was that the section on sterilization was unexpectedly thin. Considering all the items they recommend you get from a brew supply already, household bleach should not be the focus of the sterilization section.
Recipes:
This is where for me this book shines. The recipes take up about 2/3 of the book and range everywhere from the tried and true classics (grape, strawberry, honey) to the really outré (beet wine anyone?). For an experienced brewer with a few books under their belt there might not be so many forays into the "wild" as the title might suggest, but the recipe list would look pretty out-there to someone used to grape table wines. Some brew science is still a bit deeper then I'm personally interested in going right now, and sometimes it's awfully nice to be able follow a pre-tested recipe to approximate the results I'm looking for rather then having to calculate every additive based on tables and graphs, and I think that alone will keep this book near the top of my reference pile for this hobby.
There are variations of most of the wines to account for different tastes: most include at least a sweet and dry variation, and many include variations to account for different varieties of the same fruit and levels of ripeness. Yield for each of these recipes is one gallon, which is a nice economical size for testing out something, as the costs can add up fast, and in the worst case scenario it can be no fun having to get rid of several gallons of failed brew after what could be several years of work.
In the end I still think the best judge of an instructional book is if reading it makes me start a mental wish-list of what to buy the next time I play with that specific hobby, and I've already started working out the contents of my next brew-store order.
Instructions:
Simple and straightforward, this would be a great book for someone starting out in the hobby. The directions are of the "tried and true" variety with a few procedural options thrown in, but not enough to overwhelm (and believe me, brewing can get AWFULLY overwhelming). There's a fairly nice balance of explanation and brevity, and I appreciated that it took the time to break a few things down that are taken sort of for granted in higher level texts. That being said; if you're old hat at home brewing it is probably worth taking a read-through for a baseline understanding of the practices the recipes are based on, a quick refresher, and perhaps a different way of wording things you might like better... but don't expect any mystical revelations.
My main issue was that the section on sterilization was unexpectedly thin. Considering all the items they recommend you get from a brew supply already, household bleach should not be the focus of the sterilization section.
Recipes:
This is where for me this book shines. The recipes take up about 2/3 of the book and range everywhere from the tried and true classics (grape, strawberry, honey) to the really outré (beet wine anyone?). For an experienced brewer with a few books under their belt there might not be so many forays into the "wild" as the title might suggest, but the recipe list would look pretty out-there to someone used to grape table wines. Some brew science is still a bit deeper then I'm personally interested in going right now, and sometimes it's awfully nice to be able follow a pre-tested recipe to approximate the results I'm looking for rather then having to calculate every additive based on tables and graphs, and I think that alone will keep this book near the top of my reference pile for this hobby.
There are variations of most of the wines to account for different tastes: most include at least a sweet and dry variation, and many include variations to account for different varieties of the same fruit and levels of ripeness. Yield for each of these recipes is one gallon, which is a nice economical size for testing out something, as the costs can add up fast, and in the worst case scenario it can be no fun having to get rid of several gallons of failed brew after what could be several years of work.
In the end I still think the best judge of an instructional book is if reading it makes me start a mental wish-list of what to buy the next time I play with that specific hobby, and I've already started working out the contents of my next brew-store order.
April 1, 2015
A great introduction to home wine- and mead-making, and lots of wonderful recipies I can't wait to try. Quantity vagueness was irritating - e.g., when they say to add additional sugar "a little at a time," does "a little" equal a teaspoon or a cup? There were others, as well, but with a few other reference books and assistance from experienced brewers, these things should sort themselves out. I know I have a lot more to learn than any one book can teach me, but this was a great one to start with.
January 20, 2010
If you want to get into magical homebrewing, these recipes will inspire you! This book was not written from a magical perspective, but some of the ingredients are so unusual and interesting (tomato wine? almond wine? beet wine? yes!) that you will be able to find lots of magical correspondences - and the result is very palatable. This is one of the most useful books in my entire collection. It discusses techniques for making meads, fruit wines, herbal wines and floral wines, as well as wine meant just for use in cooking. I hope to eventually try all 125 recipes!
April 28, 2011
I'm very inspired by this book. Haven't yet tried any recipes but they look great and I can't wait to get started.
June 8, 2023
I've worked in a liquor store in the suburbs of New York City way back in 2000. For more than 90% of the people who purchase wines throughout Europe, North America and South America, the word "wine" is synonymous with grapes.
For those who want to venture outside of the conventional box and explore some recipes for homemade wines which are made from fruits and flowers as well as meads, this is a good recipe book.
As with most things in life, there is going to be a learning curve. Don't expect to purchase this book plus some carboys, a thermometer, an ABV meter, a specific gravity meter, and then either pick or purchase fruits and edible flower petals and you'll suddenly create a perfect wine on your first attempt. If you're a beginner at homemade winemaking, it will take you a few tries before you create homemade wines that you'll thoroughly enjoy, and if you're interested in experimenting with unusual recipes, this is one of the best recipe books that I've found. If you're interested in recipes which involve numerous different kinds of fruits and edible flower petals, them I recommend that you add this book to your list of equipment that you intend to purchase for your homemade winemaking.
For those who want to venture outside of the conventional box and explore some recipes for homemade wines which are made from fruits and flowers as well as meads, this is a good recipe book.
As with most things in life, there is going to be a learning curve. Don't expect to purchase this book plus some carboys, a thermometer, an ABV meter, a specific gravity meter, and then either pick or purchase fruits and edible flower petals and you'll suddenly create a perfect wine on your first attempt. If you're a beginner at homemade winemaking, it will take you a few tries before you create homemade wines that you'll thoroughly enjoy, and if you're interested in experimenting with unusual recipes, this is one of the best recipe books that I've found. If you're interested in recipes which involve numerous different kinds of fruits and edible flower petals, them I recommend that you add this book to your list of equipment that you intend to purchase for your homemade winemaking.
March 22, 2018
Discusses wine making at home using various ingredients including honey [mead]. There are 125 easy to understand and follow recipes. This is an useful reference for the off-gridder, homesteader, or survivalist.
July 12, 2024
This book provides good basic information for home wine making. There are LOTS of recipes; but surprisingly, none for muscadine wine. I am currently making the strawberry wine recipe and fermentation looks great!
April 18, 2018
An excellent resource for my pantry. Borrowed from the library, so will find a copy to own.
December 12, 2018
Good recipes. Very unique.
Read
October 12, 2011Every "country wine" maker has their idiosyncrasy. Jagendorf's is the use of yeast on toast as a yeast nutrient, and the absence of modern tannin, acid blend, and yeast nutrients. Vargas& Gulling have a fondness for using orange juice as a yeast starter (they do this in nearly *every* recipe in the book), approximately 1.5 cup in a gallon (roughly 5% of the volume of their 1 gallon recipe). I suppose this serves as an acid source (they tend not to use acid blend in the recipes), but might add "extra" citrus flavors. Also, some recipes actually specify particular strains of winemaking yeast—a big improvement over Jagendorf's use of bread yeast throughout.
In summary, this book has more modern/reproducible recipes than Jagendorf's book, but lacks its charm.
In summary, this book has more modern/reproducible recipes than Jagendorf's book, but lacks its charm.
March 6, 2008
Interested in starting to make wine at home? this book is an excellent guide with tips, tools, and recipes for non-grape wines. It's easy to read and handle (even when you are up to your eyeballs in blackberries) and has great notes with many of the wines.
June 8, 2011
Mostly a recipe book, but with a decent beginners how-to section. Concentrates on 1 gallon batches, which surprises me, since you need to wait so much longer (than beer, which is usually a 5 gallon batch) before you can drink.
September 9, 2014
An excellent book for beginners or novices alike! Lots of recipes. I got this one on my kindle unlimited free trial and now that it is over I will have to buy it, there are many recipes I want to try.
July 11, 2016
Garlic wine? Sage wine? Why not? Apricots, blueberries, kiwi, too.
MWWM sparked my curiosity in delightful ways. MWWM definitely only offers a starting point, an entry into the world of winemaking. But it's a good start. Well worth a read.
MWWM sparked my curiosity in delightful ways. MWWM definitely only offers a starting point, an entry into the world of winemaking. But it's a good start. Well worth a read.
Want to read
December 22, 2008Interesting--should look into this if I get back into winemaking.
June 18, 2009
Well most of the book is just recipes-- so I didn't read every single one.
But I've tried out two recipes-
Strawberry wine and strawberry mead.
It'll be a while before we know how it turns out.
But I've tried out two recipes-
Strawberry wine and strawberry mead.
It'll be a while before we know how it turns out.
September 2, 2012
It is pretty much exactly what the title says it is. As something that leans more toward being a recipe book, it does assume that the reader has some basic understanding of the fermenting process.
July 13, 2017
Product Description
Make Extraordinary Homemade Wines from Everything but Grapes! Exotic wines, honey meads, spicy metheglins, and fruity melomels-there's no end to the great-tasting elixirs you can make using ingredients from your local market and even your own backyard! You'll find easy, step-by-step winemaking instructions plus memorable recipes, including: Apricot Wine, Dry Mead, Marigold Wine, Almond Wine, Cherry Melomel, Cranberry Claret, Pea Pod Wine, Lemon-Thyme Metleglin, Strawberry Wine, and Rose Hip Melomel
From the Back CoverGo Wild!
Make Extraordinary Homemade Wines from Everything but Grapes!
Elegant, exotic wines, honey meads, spicy metheglins, and fruity melomels -- there's no end to great-tasting elixirs you can make using ingredients from your local market and even your own backyard!
You'll find easy, step-by-step winemaking instructions plus memorable recipes, including:
-- Apricot Wine
-- Dry Mead
-- Marigold Wine
-- Almond Wine
-- Cherry Melomel
-- Cranberry Claret
-- Peapod Wine
-- Lemon-Thyme Metheglin
--Strawberry Wine
-- Rose Hip Melomel
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews