Book excerpt: A Beginner’s Guide to Home Wine-making Tips and Techniques for Growing and Using Fruit Vines and Herbs for Home Consumption Table of Contents Introduction Growing Grape Vines Preparation of the soil Planting your vine Maintenance Pruning your vines Protecting Your Vines. Harvesting your grapes Making homemade Wines What is wine How to Make Wine Equipment Needed For Winemaking Don’ts When You Are Making Wine Steps in Home Winemaking Preparation of the Fruits and Vegetables Extraction of Juice Making the Fermentation Mixture Fermentation Racking into Jars Artificial Clearing Fining Racking off into bottles and storing Maturing Serving wine Choosing the Best Wines Varieties and Recipes Winemaking recipes Apple Wine Beetroot Wine Blackberry Wine Blackcurrant Wine Elderberry Elderflower Wine Grapes Orange Wine Raisin Wine Dandelion Wine Conclusion Author Bio Introduction According to the ancient Greeks, it was a Demi-God, Dionysius, who taught them the pleasures of making wine and drinking it. No wonder he was always shown with grapevine leaves around his head. The Romans called him Bacchus and also Eleutherios, which meant the Liberator. The idea was those taking part in celebrating his existence were free from care and worry. That was because they drank freely of the fruit of the grape during their Bacchanals. A Greek friend told me that according to Greek legend, Dionysius was supposed to have come to India, and Alexander the great during his conquest entered an Eastern city called Nysa , of which the inhabitants told him of its raising by this demi-God. He taught them practices which were incorporated in their own social rituals and festivals. Ah, well, that is a good myth, but then wine was definitely not unknown in the East. It was one of the first gourmet pleasures discovered and appreciated for millenniums. So if this demigod came to the Indian subcontinent he would have been fed Madira or Soma Rasa -the ancient and traditional drink of the gods! The names Dennis, Denise and Dion are derivatives from this original Greek name. So for all of us who would like to raise a toast to the gods in a glass of homemade wine, this book is going to teach you how you can grow vines very successfully in sunny atmospheres. After that, it is going to teach you how to make wines for home consumption. If you look at wine making practices, which are being practiced today, it is a very scary and complicated process. This is because of our usage of complex and complicated tools. The practices I am going to teach you have been in use for centuries. You are not going to be buying expensive tools. You are going to be making wine, the traditional way.