Crafty Winemaking 1

You don't just "make" wine.  You craft wine from nature's ingredients.  Let award-winning wine-crafter Wally Root help you produce truly great homemade wine!

The highly anticipated "Crafty Winemaking 2,  How to Make Great Wines from Grapes", will be available by December, 2015.

Most amateur winemaking books tend toward one of two extremes.  Simplistic introductory books omit important information necessary for crafting truly excellent wines, while more advanced instruction books read like doctoral chemistry dissertations.

Crafty Winemaking 1 is the first book in a series designed for the beginner to intermediate amateur winemaker who wants to create great wine without enrolling in chemistry classes.

Award-winning winemaker Wally Root guides readers through the fundamentals of basic winemaking theory, explaining the uses of different grape varieties, necessary entry-level equipment, and simple operating procedures.  Each step is illustrated with informative photographs and easy-to-read tables covering everything from hydrometer use to bottle volumes.

Learn how to set up and maintain equipment, sweeten wines, and change BRIX.  Discover how to overcome problems as severe as a stuck fermentation, and try your hand at crafting Wally's award-winning Concord wine recipe.

Following Wally's friendly, thorough guide to winemaking is like apprenticing with an instructor at your side. If you're ready to increase your winemaking skills, Crafty Winemaking 1 is the book for you.

(For Winemaking class instructors: A special PDF file is available to instructors to use for their students. Get details at craftywinemaker@yahoo.com.

A Votre Sante!

Wally Root is an award-winning winemaker, writer and photographer. Graduating in 1971 from Allegheny Community College, Pittsburgh PA., with an A.A. Degree in English, he enlisted in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. He was a Public Information Specialist and became the Editor-in-Chief of such prestigious newspapers as the Air Force Academy's Falcon News, and the Peterson Air Force Base Observer Newspaper. He won numerous top Air Force-wide honors in both photo-journalism and editorial content, including the Air Force Commendation Medal.

Upon separation from the service, he owned and operated Wally Root Photo Studios, Inc., Wyoming, where he won a number of awards in the Commercial and Portrait Division of the Rocky Mountain Professional Photographers Association of America.

In 1983, he and his family returned to Pittsburgh, PA., where he was employed by the United States Postal Service until his retirement in 2013. It was during this time that he developed an intense interest in making wine and studied under Alexis Descaunets Hartung, a nationally respected winemaker, author, educator and officer of the American Wine Society.

In 2007, Wally was awarded a Gold Medal in the Country Wine Amateur Wine Competition, and a Silver Medal in the WineMaker Magazine International Amateur Wine Competition, in their Red Native Varietal Categories for his Sweet Concord Wine.

He continues to make excellent wines and plans to compete in future local, national and international wine competitions. He owns an amateur winery on 10 acres in Northern Pennsylvania where he methodically crafts wines, writes fiction and non-fiction, continues to study jazz guitar and enjoys life with his family and friends. Wally is a life member of the Disabled American Veterans with a service-connected disability.