Reviews for A Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Grape Vine

The average rating for A Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Grape Vine based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-09-12 00:00:00 Roberto Gonzalez This is a very curious book. I've recently been dabbling in infusing spirits to make my own cordials and picked this up at the library to get a few pointers. Having studied history in college, I wasn't daunted by the original publication date of 1909, but I must admit that it felt much more like 1709, rather than a mere century and a bit. While I am a home hobbyist making concoctions a pint or a quart at a time, Ms. Wright seems to have been attempting to get an entire army drunk. Additionally, she had some rather eccentric views about what are reasonable tools and ingredients to have in a kitchen - she calls for glass mortars and pestles, marble mortars and pestles, an alembic, a runlet, assorted kegs, casks, jugs, barrels, and bottles, as well as a dizzying array of ingredients including ambergris, at least 10 different kinds of citrus, and 7 different kinds of sugar. Her recipes call for vast quantities of liquor. I did write down a few of her recipes for modification to a reasonable volume. What follows is not one of them. Ratafia, No. 3 Take four ounces of nutmegs, five pounds of bitter almonds, nine pounds of Lisbon sugar, five grains of ambergris. Infuse these ingredients three days in five gallons of proof spirit, and filter it through a flannel bag for use. The nutmegs and bitter almonds must be bruised, and the ambergris rubbed with the Lisbon sugar in a marble mortar, before they are infused in the spirit.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-08-25 00:00:00 Christy Raupp "Wine Making . . You're acting as a midwife at one of the true miracles of life." Chuck full of good information, organized in a way that makes the read easy and enjoyable. It's obvious that lots of thought was put into how to organize the book so that it would be fun to read and contain enough details to be useful. While reading, I used a highlighter to mark the bits I would use in the future. This is probably not necessary as the information is formatted in a way that is easy to find. Book includes an index and sub-chapter headings. Well done Warrick! Let's have a toast sometime.