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CENTURIES OF WRITERS have waxed eloquent over fermented grape juice; whole festivals are devoted to its manufacture and consumption. If it weren’t for wine, France would be just a space between England and Germany with nice bread.

But wine making is a challenge for the hobbyist; no claims will be made here for ease of preparation or inexpensive materials. In spite of these obstacles, the successful wine maker ( successful being an important word here) creates magic to nourish the soul, intrigue the tongue and turn mere food into ambrosia. Not a bad return on an investment.

Wine making is a lengthy process; patience is essential and good wine is not guaranteed. If that isn’t daunting enough, most wine-making books are remarkably difficult: either very technical or too cursory. Wine-making suppliers often recommend favorite books, and they might not be averse to interpreting on occasion.

The first step in wine making is crushing fruit in a large food-grade plastic bucket, with lid, for the first fermentation (although that step can be skipped if you buy concentrated grape juice), after which sugar is or is not added, depending on the sweetness of the fruit and the kind of wine desired. After wine yeast (usually accompanied by yeast nutrient) is added, the pulp is strained and the resulting juice, with perhaps more sugar and water added, goes into a large glass jug with a small neck, the better to hold the fermentation lock; and then the wine maker gets to watch violent fermentation take place for a period of weeks. The juice gurgles, foam boils, and the bubbles in the fermentation lock sometimes move so fast that you’re sure the thing will blow off. But when the bubbles die down and things look fairly calm, the liquid, called the must, is racked into bottles, using a siphon, and the bottles are then corked (a corking device is essential here). The bottles must be sterilized carefully, the balance of sugar should be just right, the alcohol content (measured with a hydrometer) appropriate and the fermentation process completed when the wine is racked into bottles (or a cork could blast off).

The above is certainly one of the most cursory descriptions of wine making; people study the subject for years, sometimes whole lifetimes. UC Davis turns out dozens of oenophiles every year, and even they make mistakes sometimes. So don’t expect anything approaching a Chateau Margaux; be prepared for Chateau Rotgut, and rejoice if you make plain, palatable wine.

Consider the economics: If you drink one bottle of wine a week, you won’t really save money making your own, but you will reap a lot of satisfaction when it all turns out fine. If you drink one or more bottles of wine a day, you’d better make your own--or aim for a six-figure income bracket. And do consider growing your own grapes. Southern California smog is not good for them, but everything else is--heat, sun and a long growing season.

Beer & Wine Crafts in San Diego offers free wine-making classes at 7 p.m. on the second Wednesday of every month; the store also stocks all wine-making supplies, including concentrated grape juice and, at the end of September, grapes. The Home Wine, Beer and Cheese Making Shop in Woodland Hills offers a series of four wine-making classes each year (no more in 1989), plus the Cellarmasters Club, which meets once a month for convivial assistance (membership $20 per year). Recommended book: “Making Table Wine,” by Cooke and Lapsley, a UC Davis textbook.

Offering all supplies but no classes are Marabella Vineyards in San Pedro (owner Tony Marabella recommends the book “Guidelines to Practical Wine Making,” by Julius H. Fessler); and Shadetree Shop in La Crescenta, whose owner Mona Nielson suggests “The Art of Making Wine,” by Stanley F. Anderson and Raymond Hull and “First Steps in Winemaking,” by C.J.J. Berry.