THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ANYONE WHO ENJOYS A TIPPLE . . . OR TWO . . . OR TEN! Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there's drink there's drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. Tracing humankind's love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to Prohibition, it answers every possible question: What did people drink? How much? Who did the drinking? Of the many possible reasons, why? On the way, learn about the Neolithic Shamans, who drank to communicate with the spirit world (no pun intended), marvel at how Greeks got giddy and Romans got rat-arsed, and find out how bars in the Wild West were never like the movies. This is a history of the world at its inebriated best. 'This book is a laugh riot. I mean the way the author has presented it is hilarious and to the point' Goodreads Reviewer 'Highly entertaining. Cheers! Bottoms up! Good health!' Goodreads Reviewer 'It can make a good gift for someone with a sense of humour and appreciation for the magical powers of alcohol' Goodreads Reviewer

Beginning in 17-century Holland, with the creation of medicinal 'genievre', this book follows the global adventures of gin over four dark, decadent centuries of consumption and excess."

This the memoir of Gerard Basset, OBE, the greatest wine professional of his generation. A school dropout, Gerard had to come to England to discover his passion. He threw himself into learning everything he could about wine, immersing himself in the world of Michelin star restaurants and beginning the steep climb to the top of the career ladder. Tasting Victory charts his business successes: co-founding and selling the innovative Hotel du Vin chain and founding, with his wife Nina, the much-loved Hotel TerraVina. It recounts in detail just how he managed to earn his unprecedented sequence of qualifications; Gerard is the first and only individual to hold the famously difficult Master of Wine qualification simultaneously with that of Master Sommelier and MBA in Wine Business. But it is his pursuit of the most important award of all that forms the core of this book - how, at his seventh attempt, and after a training regime that would shame most Olympic athletes, the fifty-three-year-old Gerard Basset was finally crowned the Best Sommelier of the World, and acknowledged as the greatest sommelier of his generation. Gerard's memoir is not only the story of how a champion is made, but also a record of how fine dining and hospitality changed in England, going from stale and unexciting to the world-leading sector it is today. Above all, it's a book about succeeding against great odds: in typical fashion it was when he was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus that Gerard responded by deciding to write Tasting Victory, which he completed shortly before his death in January 2019.

Healthy Soils for Healthy Vines provides a clear understanding of vineyard soils and how to manage and improve soil health for best vineyard performance. It covers the inherent and dynamic properties of soil health, how to choose which soil properties to monitor, how to monitor soil and vine performance, and how vineyard management practices affect soil health, fruit composition and wine sensory characters. It also covers the basic tenets of sustainable winegrowing and their significance for business resilience in the face of a changing climate. This book will be of practical value to anyone growing grapevines, managing a vineyard or making wine, from the small individual grower to the large wine company employee. It will be of special interest to winegrowers employing organic, natural, or biodynamic methods of production, where the primary focus is on the biological health of the soil.

As wine director for the Mina Group, Parr presides over the lists at some of the country's top restaurants. In "Secrets of the Sommeliers," Parr and journalist Mackay present a fascinating portrait of the world's top wine professionals and their trade.

This book is the ultimate guide for running a small brewery with an eye on improving and maintaining a high level of quality in day-to-day operations. It was written in cooperation with the European Trade Association of Brewers, representing 29 countries and more than 10,000 breweries. Detailed information is provided about raw materials, standard and alternative microorganisms encountered in the brewery, brewing processes, fermentation and maturation methods, packaging and dispensing, troubleshooting, analysis methods as well as barrel ageing and other processes common in and, in some cases, unique to smaller breweries. Though technical and in-depth, the information remains very accessible to readers of all levels of knowledge and experience. This book was written with professional brewers in mind who work in smaller facilities without access to extensive laboratory equipment or those who may be in the process of opening their own breweries. The text explores the techniques and background necessary for consistently brewing quality beer on a limited budget. All professional brewers, even advanced homebrewers, will find this book to be a helpful resource and an indispensable guide for expanding their knowledge base and improving their brewing skills.

Pairing 100 famous authors, poets, and playwrights from the Victorian age to today with recipes for their iconic drinks of choice, How to Drink Like a Writer is the perfect guide to getting lit(erary) for madcap mixologists, book club bartenders, and cocktail enthusiasts. Do you long to trade notes on postmodernism over whiskey and jazz with Haruki Murakami? Have you dreamed of sharing martinis with Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton after poetry class? Maybe a mojito-a real one, like they serve at La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana-is all you need to summon the mesmerizing power of Hemingway's prose. Writer's block? Summon the brilliant musings of Truman Capote with a screwdriver-or, "my orange drink," as he called it-or a magical world like J.K. Rowling's with a perfect gin and tonic. With 100 spirited drink recipes and special sections dedicated to writerly haunts like the Algonquin of the New Yorker set and Kerouac's Vesuvio Cafe, pointers for hosting your own literary salon, and author-approved hangover cures, all accompanied by original illustrations of ingredients, finished cocktails, classic drinks, and favorite food pairings, How to Drink Like a Writer is sure to inspire, invoke, and inebriate-whether you are courting the muse, or nursing a hangover. Sure, becoming a famous author takes dedication, innate talent, and sometimes nepotism. But it also takes vodka, gin, tequila, and whiskey.

Vodka: The Essential Guide for Vodka Purists describes the history of the spirit (its name comes from the Russian for water, voda), how it is distilled - with detailed explanations of how flavoured vodka is created, classic Vodka-based cocktails, where to buy the premier brands, even recipes, all in a handy pocket-sized book. Lavishly illustrated and written in an easy-to-read style, Vodka: The Essential Guide for Vodka Purists will go down as well as the most lovingly created Martini.

Italy has grappa, Russia has vodka, Jamaica has rum. Around the world, certain drinks--especially those of the intoxicating kind--are synonymous with their peoples and cultures. For Mexico, this drink is tequila. For many, tequila can conjure up scenes of body shots on Cancun bars and coolly garnished margaritas on sandy beaches. Its power is equally strong within Mexico, though there the drink is more often sipped rather than shot, enjoyed casually among friends, and used to commemorate occasions from the everyday to the sacred. Despite these competing images, tequila is universally regarded as an enduring symbol of "lo mexicano."
"Tequila Distilling the Spirit of Mexico" traces how and why tequila became and remains Mexico's national drink and symbol. Starting in Mexico's colonial era and tracing the drink's rise through the present day, Marie Sarita Gaytan reveals the formative roles played by some unlikely characters. Although the notorious Pancho Villa was a teetotaler, his image is now plastered across the labels of all manner of tequila producers--he's even the namesake of a popular brand. Mexican films from the 1940s and 50s, especially Western comedies, buoyed tequila's popularity at home while World War II caused a spike in sales within the whisky-starved United States. Today, cultural attractions such as Jose Cuervo's "Mundo Cuervo" and the Tequila Express let visitors insert themselves into the Jaliscan countryside--now a UNESCO-protected World Heritage Site--and relish in the nostalgia of pre-industrial Mexico.
Our understanding of tequila as Mexico's spirit is not the result of some natural affinity but rather the cumulative effect of U.S.-Mexican relations, technology, regulation, the heritage and tourism industries, shifting gender roles, film, music, and literature. Like all stories about national symbols, the rise of tequila forms a complicated, unexpected, and poignant tale. By unraveling its inner workings, Gaytan encourages us to think critically about national symbols more generally, and the ways in which they both reveal and conceal to tell a story about a place, a culture, and a people. In many ways, the story of tequila is the story of Mexico.

This book invites readers to discover an exceptional wine grown in the French region of Bordeaux. Chateau Cantemerle, which has been a vineyard since the Middle Ages, has a unique history full of mystery and intrigue. To tell its story, Valerie Labadie has created an original narrative, combining her own insights with the imagined memory of Baroness de Villeneuve, a 19th-century ancestor who signed the important Bordeaux Wine Official Classification documents in 1855. With 150 stunning, atmospheric photographs, Labadie takes readers on a journey around the vineyard, revealing a mansion that looks like Sleeping Beauty's castle, mysterious shadowy cellars, and a romantic 200-acre park in which wine-lovers can be lost for hours. Including a detailed history of Cantemerle's wines, this beautiful book will seduce wine lovers as they drift through its pages, ideally with a glass of Bordeaux in hand.

With at least 60 recipes, this wide-ranging drinks book is ideal for anyone building their bar library-tongue-in-cheek with humorous anecdotes and thoughtful illustrations, it will also appeal to those who appreciate light-hearted memoir and travel reading. Long before the term "social distancing" entered the lexicon, introverts were thriving. But let's clear one thing up right away: Being introverts doesn't mean we're all a bunch of hermits. Introverts like going out as much as the next person-as long as it's a manageable, crowd-less situation with comfortable places to sit! The emptier the bar, the better. The less likely to be bothered by-GASP-other people, even more ideal. As a professional drinks writer and editor who travels solo a great deal for a living, the author has learned a thing or two about drinking alone. For instance, seclusion is key. Look for a bar that offers numerous opportunities to sequester yourself. Avoid the communal tables, sit as close to the end of the bar as possible (a corner two-top in a darkened room is best-case-scenario), and don't skimp on the beverage: Order something with complexity that makes you quietly contemplate what's in your glass, how it got there, and how your surroundings are accentuating the drinking experience. Tiki bars are among the most conducive to that vibe, as everything from the ingredients, to the decor, to the music is designed for just soaking it all in without distraction, but never discount the daytime dive bar either. Imbibing for Introverts combines the social survival tactics taught in guides like The Introvert's Way with the appreciation for thoughtful drinking found in travelogues like Around the World in 80 Cocktails. From Frankie's Tiki Room in Las Vegas, to New York's Dead Rabbit cocktail bar, to San Francisco's Chinatown dive bar Li Po, Imbibing for Introverts helps solo drinkers confidently pull up a seat at every genre and subgenre of drinking establishment. The book begins in readers' most comfortable setting-their own homes-before taking them out on the town, to bars across the country and, finally, overseas. There are more than a dozen chapters divided by bar type, along with an introduction ("Introvert's Manifesto") and epilogue ("Quarantine Confessions"). Each chapter features drink recommendations and cocktail recipes that relate to the particular setting, so if desired, you could also partake without the annoyance and sometimes anxiety-ridden task of leaving the house.

When you think of Australian wine, you think of James Halliday. For almost 40 years, the legendary winemaker and critic has been the most trusted name in the industry, and his celebrated Halliday Wine Companion is the final word in what to drink now. This bestselling annual sets the benchmark for winemakers, collectors and wine lovers alike. The 2023 edition has been revised and updated with over 760 pages. Featuring all new scores, notes, wineries and the latest information on 'exceptional', 'outstanding' and 'highly recommended' wines. Inside, a team of Halliday expert share their extensive knowledge of wine with over 5000 tasting notes offering advice on great value wines, as well as key wine regions, wineries and winemakers, vineyard sizes, opening times and contact details. The Halliday Wine Companion 2023 is quite simply the essential guide for drinkers of Australian wine, or a perfect gift for the wine lover in your life.

First exhibited at the Exposition Universelle (Paris, 1900) Louis XIII has embodied sophistication for over a century. Each bottle is a unique work of art, from the decanter - each of which requires eleven craftsmen to blow the crystal, apply the ornamentation and wrap the 20-K gold collar around its slender neck - to the cognac itself. Composed of up to 1200 eaux-de-vie from the first cru of the Cognac region, Grande Champagne, Louis XIII balances notes of myrrh, honey, dried roses, plum, honeysuckle, cigar boxes, leather, figs and passion fruit in an unmatched, ambrosial blend. This book is an ode to the cognac, sung by some of its earliest and most vibrant devotees. We delve into the diaries and letters of two passionate travellers aboard the America-bound cruiser Normandie, 1935; the agenda of King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth on their visit to Versailles in 1938; and the first-hand account of a young millionaire who, while on a trip to Constantinople in 1928, requested that the Orient-Express stop so that the surface of his brandy might lie still. Tracing the history of the iconic decanter from the pewter flask found after the Battle of Jarnac to the inspired glass vessels that captivated the royal courts of Europe, Louis XIII Cognac - The Thesaurus promises an elegant and entertaining glimpse into this prestigious cognac and the characters who drank it.

The Real Jack Daniel, Straight Up

You know the brand, now meet the man. He was dapper and diminutive, with the soft, amiable drawl of the quintessential Southern gentleman. Upon first meeting the mature and successful Jack Daniel, few would have guessed that this elegant, mild-mannered aristocrat had clawed his way up from stark poverty, toiled for countless hours, risked his life many times, and overcome obstacles that crushed seemingly tougher men to achieve his success.

Blood &Whiskey tells the rousing and inspiring tale of this legendary distiller's rise to fame and fortune. Reaching deep into the rich history of Lynchburg, Tennessee, author Peter Krass paints a compelling portrait of the post--Civil War South and reveals how an impoverished orphan, taken in by neighbors, discovered his calling at an early age and went on to create one of the most powerful and recognized brands in the world.

Critical Praise for Peter Krass's Carnegie

"Seizing the mantle that J. F. Wall has held since 1970 as Andrew Carnegie's definitive biographer, Peter Krass has written a superb new account of the legendary industrialist and philanthropist's remarkable life . . . timely, balanced, revealing."
-Barron's

"An objective and readable portrait of a fascinating, conflicted man."
-Dallas Morning News

In this timely book, John Parkes demystifies the brewing process and explains in easy-to-follow terms how anyone can produce delicious beer with the help of just some basic equipment and a few key skills. Those new to home brewing will love the easy-to-follow instructions and the detailed explanations of the brewing process and anyone already adept at home brewing will be delighted by the original recipes. Made without unnecessary chemicals and additives, the beers featured here will appeal to anyone seeking a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

A richly illustrated account of the story of ancient viniculture The history of civilization is, in many ways, the history of wine. This book is the first comprehensive account of the earliest stages of the history and prehistory of viniculture, which extends back into the Neolithic period and beyond. Elegantly written and richly illustrated, Ancient Wine opens up whole new chapters in the fascinating story of wine by drawing on recent archaeological discoveries, molecular and DNA sleuthing, and the writings and art of ancient peoples. In a new afterword, the author discusses exciting recent developments in the understanding of ancient wine, including a new theory of how viniculture came to central and northern Europe.

Behind the Bar shines a light on 50 signature cocktails from the most iconic hotel bars across the world, appealing to tried-and-true cocktail lovers and design aficionados alike. Recipes from some of these storied properties will inspire enthusiasts to re-create timeless cocktails at home. Plus, anecdotes supplied by barkeeps and hotel and design personalities will enliven the recipes and reveal why so many hotel bars have endured through the years or have made an impact on the modern world. The clandestine speakeasy has been glorified countless times for its mix of sex appeal and transporting decor but the hotel bar should also be recognised for its sophistication, grandeur, or showmanship. Behind the Bar does exactly that but also transcends the cocktail crowd niche. It is just as much a book for the traveller with a strong appreciation for design as well as the fantasy-filled armchair traveller charmed by illustrations and nuggets of history.

What's the best companion to a round of drinks with friends? A round of bad-ass drinking game fun, of course. Kit includes an 8-page book, a shot glass, a set of standard dice, "dirty" dice, and a deck of 48 cards, each containing one drinking game from the most innocent to the rousing and risque, such as "Tip the Bartender," "Chug-A-Lug," and "Beer-amid." This is sure to add excitement to an otherwise run-of-the-mill bar night.

A beer-lovers' book which playfully examines a myriad of philosophical concerns related to beer consumption.
Effectively demonstrates how real philosophical issues exist just below the surface of our everyday activities
Divided into four sections: The Art of the Beer; The Ethics of Beer: Pleasures, Freedom, and Character; The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Beer; and Beer in the History of Philosophy
Uses the context of beer to expose George Berkeley's views on fermented beverages as a medical cure; to inspect Immanuel Kant's transcendental idealism through beer goggles, and to sort out Friedrich Nietzsche's simultaneous praise and condemnation of intoxication
Written for beer-lovers who want to think while they drink

Following the success of Wine Trails, we now bring you 40 perfect weekends in Australia and New Zealand wine country, introducing vineyards in regions including the Clare Valley, Margaret River, Hawkes Bay, Tamar Valley and Marlborough, as well as celebrating secret gems off the beaten path. Wine Trails - Australia & New Zealand is perfect for travel enthusiasts with a passion for wine. It includes detailed itineraries recommending the most interesting wineries and the best places to stay and where to eat in 40 wine regions near major cities. Winemakers offer personal insights into what wines to taste and why they're special, and help you understand a place, its people and their traditions through the wine that's made there. Entries are accompanied by gorgeous photos, maps and in-the-know authors. About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more.

This important book looks at the entire history of distilling in the Middle East and Europe from the earliest experiments by the Pythagorean alchemists of Ptolomaic Egypt in the fourth century BC to the commerical production of spirits to drink in the British Isles to the year 2000. It is important because Ms Wilson has explored byways of early history that have been little noticed by previous scholars. She links the art of distilling to alchemical practice; to the Dionysian cults of ancient Greece and Rome; to the development of the art by the Gnostic mystic Christian sects (who greatly influenced the Coptic church in lower Egypt and Ethiopia); to the researches of the Persians and Arabs; to the preservation of the art by various heretic cults in western Europe such as the Bogomils and Cathars and, of course, the Templars; then into more mainstream development by the medieval and Renaissance alchemists; before comparative relaxation into the domestic history of distilling in England for the manufacture of strong liquor and the making of medicinal and perfumed waters by members of the landed gentry. This is Dan Brown and the "Da Vinci Code" but written by a scholar and dealing with real-life matters not soft brain-candy. There are twelve chapters divided into three sections. The first is 'The Ancient and Early Medieval World'; 'The Eastern Mediterranean Region'; 'The Later Middle Ages'; 'Western Europe'; and 'From Early Modern Times to AD2000: The British Isles'. While treating extensively of the mystical, cultish and religious origins of distilling, as well as its links to early science, Ms Wilson looks closely at all forms of distilling in the British Isles. This work includes the manufacture of spiritous liquors such as whisky, gin, and others and the central part played in country house domestic life by cordial waters and other distillations manufactured with great skill by generations of housewives as home medicine and perfumery. The book does not treat, at any length, the history of spiritous liquors, including brandy, on mainland Europe.

Nicolas Joly is responsible for producing some of the finest and most highly esteemed wines of France at his Coulee de Serrant vineyard. Practising the biodynamic method of agriculture - sometimes referred to as 'premium organic' - he is at the forefront of a movement to return to the concept of terroir, as full expression and embodiment of a particular grape-growing locality, or appelation. Today even expensive wines, made under strictly regulated controls and standards, are tainted by the use of pesticides and fertilizers, and manipulated in the cellar through the use of osmosis and the additions of aromatic yeasts and enzymes. To counter such trends, a new 'Charter of Quality', run by organic and biodynamic viticulturists, guarantees that the appelation comes to full, authentic expression. To aid this process, biodynamic winegrowers like Joly use special planting methods and preparations that enhance and invigorate the soil, bringing it into harmony with the forces of sun, moon and cosmos to embed the vine in a rich, living context.