Until the early 20th century, most wine drinkers produced their own wines at home out of necessity, as the average bottle of commercial wine could cost up to a month's wages for a farmer or factory hand.

As can be imagined, the quality of these homemade wines was very uneven and the alcohol content sometimes greater than would be expected.

In the last thirty years, however, the task of home winemaking has become easier and results much more predictable. Nearly every good-sized city in North America and Western Europe has at least one shop catering to home brewers and winemakers. Kits make it possible to produce decent table wine at a fraction of the cost of even the cheapest wine in the liquor store.

Making wine at home isn't necessarily easy. There's a lot of work involved, especially in cleaning and sanitizing, but the sense of accomplishment the winemaker can get from producing 30 bottles of extremely drinkable white wine for less than $2.00 a bottle cannot be understated.