The making of a wine is much about chemistry. Without knowledge of chemistry it becomes difficult to really understand what is going on inside the winery. It is hard to find good literature about wine chemistry written by people who really know their subject.
If you have poor knowledge of chemistry yourself, the books or the articles written are often too complicated with formulas that scare you away pretty quickly.
But a chemist who is able to describe everything in a way that also non-chemists and non-scientists understand is David Bird.
His book “Understanding Wine Technology” has been available for some years in its third edition. The subtitle is The Science of Wine Explained and it says exactly what it is.
The book is a must for anyone who wants to understand what is happening and why wines taste like they do. For even though wine growers like to stress the importance of the work in the vineyard, how they work during the vinification actually has quite an impact on how the wine will taste.
(David Bird is a chemist who consults in the area of wine production and quality control and is also a Master of Wine.)
- Title: Understanding Wine Technology
- Author: David Bird
- Paperback: 307 pages
- Publisher: DBQA Publishing, Great Britain, in association with the American Wine Appreciation Guild, USA (third edition 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN (UK edition): 978-0-9535802-2-4
We have to add that another book on a similar subject is our own book “The Creation of a Wine” (only available in Swedish unfortunately). This book is less technical than Understanding Wine Technology.
David Bird’s book is for he who want’s a chemist’s precise view of what goes on in the wine cellar.
Our own book is more for the wine lover who wants to understand the choices and reasoning of winemakers, and it also covers viticulture, the work in the vineyard.
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