In days of yore you crushed some grapes, left them out for a few days, and you had wine. It might not be very good wine, but it was wine.Then winemakers learned ways to better control the process, and that allowed them to make wines of more repeatable quality. When the international wine market reached the masses, local producers had to improve or perish, and winemaking moved more into the realm of science.I knew that many modern wineries have sophisticated laboratories. But I hadn't realized that home winemakers are now "expected" to perform such an array of tests and control so many factors. From adding sugar or water and acid to get the right conditions for fermentation, to choosing the right yeast, to forcing (or preventing) malolactic fermentation, it can become a complex process. But I guess if you are going to go to the trouble of making your own wine, you really want it to come out better than what you can buy in a jug at the grocery store. The bar is high nowadays.I first saw this book in the tasting room of my favorite winery, and figured they wouldn't sell a book that got it wrong. So I later ordered a copy, and it really is a good introduction to the subject. It covers all the steps--and options--clearly but succinctly. The author neither talks down to the reader nor assumes you have a degree in chemistry. (Wet chemistry was not my favorite subject in school.) And as complex as it all reads, I suspect that doing it over the course of a few weeks is actually easier than reading it through in a couple of days makes it sound.If you have an interest in making wine, by all means read this book. Even if it convinces you that it's more trouble than you want to go to, at least you'll better appreciated what went into the bottle from the market.