Port and sharries, whites, reds, roses and melomels -- make your own wine without owning a vineyard!

If you can follow a simple recipe, you can create delectabletable wines in your own home. It's fun, it's easy-and the resultswill delightfully complement your favorite meals and provide unparalleledpleasure by the glass when friends come calling. You don't have tore-create Bordeaux in your basement to be a successful home vintner-you can make raisin wine and drink it like sherry, or use it to accent yourChinese cooking. Raspberry or apricot wine lend themselves to deliciousdesserts. And if you are interested in more exotic concoctions,rhubarb champagne is the ultimate treat.

The Joy of Home Winemaking is your comprehensive guide to:

• the most up-to-date techniques and equipment
• readily available and affordable ingredients and materials
• aging, bottling, racking, blending, and experimenting
• dozens of original recipes for great-tasting fruit wines,
• spice wines, herb wines, sparkling wines, sherries, liqueurs
• even homemade soda pop!
• a sparkling brief history of winemaking
• helpful illustrations and glossary
• an extensive mail-order resource section

Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book is the essential reference book for everyone who buys wine - in shops, restaurants, or on the internet. Now in its 42nd year of publication, it has no rival as the comprehensive, up-to-the-minute annual guide. Hugh Johnson provides clear succinct facts and commentary on the wines, growers and wine regions of the whole world. He reveals which vintages to buy, which to drink and which to cellar, which growers to look for and why. Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book gives clear information on grape varieties, local specialities and how to match food with wines that will bring out the best in both. This new edition also contains a special supplement on Organic, Natural and Biodynamic wines.

With over 200 recipes, Home Cocktail Bible tells you everything you need to know - from the essential spirits, mixers, syrups and kit that will open up the world of cocktails, to every recipe you could possibly ever want. Great cocktails should be simple to make, look fabulous and taste extraordinary. Award-winning drinks writer Olly Smith offers up all the classics (Martinis, Collins, Manhattans, Margaritas, Cosmopolitans and beyond), plus some delectable new concoctions and variations to make you feel truly special. Illustrated with colour photography and handy flavour wheels throughout, and with clear instructions for the flawless cocktail, Home Cocktail Bible is an indispensable addition to your home bar. Time to take your taste buds into orbit!

Translated into English for the first time, the 1927 Cuban classic El Arte de Hacer un Cocktail y Algo Mas: The Art of Mixing a Cocktail & More documents the creative genius of the legendary Cuban cantineros. Within these pages you'll find 788 recipes that were shaken, stirred, thrown, and frappeed during the 1920s in the hotels, restaurants, casinos, bodegas, and bars of "the Little Paris of the Caribbean"-Havana, Cuba. A very rare book that has achieved legendary status amongst cocktail book collectors, the recipes found in El Arte have never been available in English, making this book an essential resource and a collectible on its own. Complete with its original illustrations and a foreword by Cuban rum and drinks historian Anistatia Miller, El Arte de Hacer un Cocktail y Algo Mas: The Art of Mixing a Cocktail & More is not merely a peek into Cuban cocktail history. El Arte demonstrates the Cuban passion for complex yet subtle flavours accentuated a hint of sweetness as well as the cantineros' awareness of their audience (both local and international) and of prevailing trends. That is a lesson that none of us should ever forget. Drinks and food must appeal to the people who consume them. It's a skill that Havana 's cantineros from those legendary days continue to teach us very well.

Randy Herrod accomplished what some say is the greatest deed one can perform - risking his life to save another. The life he saved was Oliver North's, dragging his wounded leader out of the line of fire to safety. Later, when Herrod was on trial for the accidental deaths of Vietnamese civilians, North assisted with his own investigation and helped prove his innocence.

The world's best-selling annual wine guide.

Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book is the essential reference book for everyone who buys wine - in shops, restaurants, or on the internet. Now in its 47th year of publication, it has no rival as the comprehensive, up-to-the-minute annual guide.

Providing clear succinct facts and commentary on the wines, growers and wine regions of the whole world, the book also reveals which vintages to buy, which to drink and which to cellar, which growers to look for and why. Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine 2024 gives clear information on grape varieties, local specialities and how to match food with wines that will bring out the best in both.

This latest edition of Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine includes a colour supplement on Chardonnay, the world's most obliging grape, discussing everything from history and taste to texture, fashion and the role oak plays - and of course who makes the best Chardonnays around the world.

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.

With this easy-to-use, indispensable guide, readers will learn how to mix classic as well as exotic drinks like the pros. Here are all the tricks of the trade-including how to taste, flavor, and garnish as well as when and how to shake, stir, and whirl a drink. The New American Bartender's Guide features:

..".a very valuable book...Lie any good book, this one raises as many questions as it answers. It is a solidly anthropological volume, combining biological and cultural dimension of the discipline. I recommend the book highly." . American Anthropologist

Over the last decades quite a few studies have been devoted to drinking. Most of these were concerned with alcohol and written by social anthropologists. This book presents multidisciplinary aspects of the ingestion of liquids at large, addressing many of the overt and covert meanings of drinking: from satisfying biological needs to communicating with humans and the hereafter, attempting to reach a differential emotional state or seeking good health and longevity through the ingestion of appropriate beverages. It includes papers from both biological and social scientists and covers a fair range of societies from rural and urban environments, and in continents and countries ranging from Europe, Africa, and Latin America to Malaysia and the Pacific.

Igor de Garine, Emeritus Director of Research, CNRS, Paris, and President of the International Commission for the Anthropology of Food

Over the last decades quite a few studies have been devoted to drinking. Most of these were concerned with alcohol and written by social anthropologists. This book presents multidisciplinary aspects of the ingestion of liquids at large, addressing many of the overt and covert meanings of drinking: from satisfying biological needs to communicating with humans and the hereafter, attempting to reach a differential emotional state or seeking good health and longevity through the ingestion of appropriate beverages. It includes papers from both biological and social scientists and covers a fair range of societies from rural and urban environments, and in continents and countries ranging from Europe, Africa, and Latin America to Malaysia and the Pacific.

Until the eighteenth century or even later, beer was the staple drink of most men and women at all levels of society. Tea and coffee were expensive luxuries while water might well carry disease. To supply the needs of both owners and servants, every country house with an accessible source of water had a brewhouse, usually close at hand. Although many of the brewhouses still stand, in some cases with the original brewing vessels (as at Lacock and Charlecote), their habitual conversion to other uses has allowed them to be ignored. Yet they are distinctive buildings - as much part of a country house as an ice-house or stables - which need both to be recognised and preserved.
The scale of brewing in country houses, which went on to a surprisingly late date in the nineteenth century (with odd survivals, such as Hickleton in Yorkshire, into the twentieth), was often considerable, if small besides that of commercial brewing. Copious records for both brewing and consumption exist. Pamela Sambrook describes the brewing equipment, such as coppers, mash tuns underbacks and coolers; the types of beers brewed, from strong ale to small beer and how they were kept; and the brewers themselves, their skills and attitudes.
"English Country House Brewing, 1500-1900" shows the role beer played in the life of the country house, with beer allowances and beer money an integral part of servants' rewards. Generous allowances were made for arduous tasks, such as harvesting. For celebrations, such as the heir's coming of age, extra-strong ale was provided. This book, which is heavily illustrated, is an important and original contribution to architectural, brewing and social history.

Easy Cocktails features over 100 cocktails all made with four ingredients or less! Forget the syrups and foams and make quick cocktails at home. With Easy Cocktails on hand you'll be able to mix an amazing variety of cocktails, all of which are made with four ingredients or less, at a moment's notice. Just because a drink only has a few ingredients doesn't mean it can't be great, and this book features over 100 delicious drinks, from classics to newfangled mixes. Innovation is spurred by tradition and being able to make the most of what you've got on hand is an essential lesson, which Easy Cocktails is all about. This is the home bartender's go-to guide.

'James Crowden is Britain's best cider writer ... Cider Country is the book we've all been waiting for.' Oz Clarke Join James Crowden as he embarks on a journey to distil the ancient origins of cider, uncovering a rich culture and philosophy that has united farmer, maker and drinker for millennia. LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 ANDRE SIMON FOOD AND DRINK AWARD Cidermaking has been at the heart of country life for hundreds of years. But the fascinating story of how this drink came into existence and why it became so deeply rooted in the nation's psyche has never been told. In order to answer these questions, James Crowden traces an elusive history stretching back to the ancient, myth-infused civilisations of the Mediterranean and the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan. Meeting cider experts, farmers and historians, he unearths the surprising story of an apple that travelled from east to west and proved irresistible to everyone who tasted it. Upon its arrival in Britain, monks, pirates and politicians formed a pioneering and evangelical fan base, all seeking the company of a drink that might guide them through uncertain times. But the nation's love-affair with cider didn't fully blossom until after the reformation, when the thirst for knowledge about the drink was at its peak. This infatuation with experimentation would lead to remarkable innovations and the creation of a 'sparkling cider', a technique that pre-dated Dom Perignon's champagne by forty years. Turning to the present day, Crowden meets the next generation of cider makers and unearths a unique philosophy that has been shared through the ages. In the face of real challenges, these enterprising cider makers are still finding new ways to produce this golden drink that is enjoyed by so many. Spanning centuries and continents, Cider Country tells the story of our country through the culture, craft and consumption of our most iconic rural drink.