Beverages Books

This is an excellent book for use in classroom for a senior level course in Food Process engineering. It is one of the few books that builds the foundation from basics to culminate in a fairly advanced treatise on several unit operations.

.....In summary, this is a welcome addition as a text book for food process engineering course for seniors and beginning graduate students. Several of the topics cover details and derivations that help the reader understand the basis of final equations commonly used in heat and mass transfer. The topic on solids processing is a great addition as most texts in food engineering do not offer any coverage in this area.
Mohan Rao

This is THE book you should buy if you want to learn or improve your Italian cooking. Every recipe works perfectly... pasta, pizza, risotto... my copy is dogeared and smeared with putanesca sauce... try the aubergine parmesan ... sublime!!!

This book is the best ever published showing extensive artifacts related to the Irish Brigade. In addition, the history is well written and accurate. I cannot recommend it any more highly.

I think that the art of making wine has not only a superficial touch but also has to have the touch that has existed for centuries.The wines that have been made this way have to sell as they have the fragrance and the bouquet of old wines that have been made and nurtured through centuries. The making of these wines have not only the touch of the country but also that of the winemaker that gives it that extra flavour.

Want a good, fast easy read to learn about the top wineries and wines from each region in Italy in 140 pages or so? This is the book for you.

Vincent Gasnier is a talented sommelier with a knack for writing about wines in a very interesting and compelling manner, making for great reading. He's written a series of 4 brief, but informative overview books, covering the top wines from France, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, and the United States. All are easy reading, ideal for reading in short bursts of time as well as informative and enjoyable.

This book on Italian wines offers a brief historical overview of wines from all of Italy's diverse regions. Then, it presents a brief section on each region, including a general description of the region, the winemakers, wineries and top wines.

The top 10 lists can take the form of multiple lists such as Top Brilliant Barolos and Barbarescos, Top 10 Fine Italian Reds, Top 10 Fabulous Italian Whites, Top 10 Great Italian Wine Houses, Top 10 Magnificent Italian Sparkling Wines, Italy's Greatest Celebration Wines, Top 10 Super Tuscans, Top 10 Best Kept Secrets in Italian Wines, and many others in addition to the Top 10 wines in each region.

It also features brief (2 to 4 page) sections on Wine and Food Matching, Buying and Storing Wine, Wine Tasting, and one on Wines Styles, a popular approach gaining in usage that breaks wines into category profiles. For example, white wines are classified into the following categories: 1). Crisp dry light bodied; aromatic to flowery, dry to medium-sweet; tangy or steely medium bodied; and full-bodied, rich flavored. Grapes typically make wines in one of these categories (although chardonnay grapes, for example, may overlap two categories depending on the winemaking style employed). Generally someone who likes a certain style of wine might appreciate the appeal of other grapes making wines in this same style or category. This section also lists the Italian wines that would apply to each of these categories.

I highly recommend this book for anyone seeking a basic overview of Italian wines. The author has a nice ability to explore a topic briefly, yet still provide valuable information. Gasnier is one of my favorite wine authors. If there were an award for adequately conveying a useful overview of Italian wines - along with wine information in general - in the least number of pages, Gasnier would surely win it. When one considers the breath of Italian wines and regions, that the author was able to effectively convey an overview in this size book amounts to an incredible feat, but he achieves it. I am pretty knowledgeable about wine and still found this book very well done and interesting. Highly recommended, as is the entire 4 book series.

Mark Vincent

760 pages - with all relevant details about Aussie wines.
A full explanation first, on how to use the book.
Lists of best varietals.
Tasting notes of 5836 wines..! (phew)
Many other informative articles : best of best, best of the regions, statistical info, etc etc...(seek and thou shall find)
Description of the best of the most recent vintages - and/or other recommendables from (the not necessarily most recent vintages) - a good idea.
Well organized..
Ths is NOT a book you carry in your pocket..
I really cannot find any negative thing to write about, BUT I would have loved some pictures of labels too - which would most likely have brought the bokk over the 1K page-size :-)

Oh..One sort of complaint, I don't understand his idea of not rating any wines higher than 97 (when you have a 100-point scale it makes no sense, not to use it up to, at least 99. You may argue against using the top 100, because can a wine be PERFECT ?)

So anyway, the verdict : highly recommended..

James Halliday is the undisputed leader in Australian wine authors. The release of his annual Companion is an eagerly awaited event among Australian wine afficionados auround the world. The 2006 edition continues the high standards we all expect.

No other wine guide aims to be as comprehensive as the Companion, but the limiting factor is the size limit of about 600 pages. Nevertheless this book contains tasting notes of nearly 4500 of the best wines produced in Australia in the past year. Of course winetasting relies on subjective judgement at some point. Halliday's palate and taste admits a much broader range of styles than many writers who may be better known outside Australia. He is definitely not fixated on the narrow range of big fruity shirazes that command so much attention, and unrealisticly high prices, in some areas of the world.

The Companion is organised by winery of which over 2000 are listed. This number includes 172 new entries. My interest is in new and emerging wine grape varieties so I did a quick scan of the new entries as a straw poll of which new varieties we will be seeing more of in the future.

Barbera (4 new wineries are using this variety), Carina (1), Chambourcin (5), Chenin blanc (4), Cinsaut (1), Colombard (1), Corvina (1), Dolcetto (1), Durif (2), Gamay (1), Gewurztraminer (7), Grenache (21), Lagrein (2), Malbec (7), Marsanne (3), Meunier (3), Mourvedre (9), Muller Thurgau (1), Muscadelle (1), Petit verdot (6), Pinot Grigio (16), Rondinella (1), Roussanne (1), Sangiovese (9), Taminga (2), Tarrango (1), Tempranillo (4), Verdelho (14), Vermentino (2), Viognier (16), Zinfandel (1). We live in diverse times.

If you own only one book about Australian wine this should be it. Apart from the comprehensive listings there are 50 pages reviewing the latest trends and statistics, wineries to watch, vintage guides and food recommendations.

Darby Higgs is the founder of vinodiversity.com and the author of "Emerging Varietal Wines of Australia"

Than the "Big Bruiser," coffee-table version....and much more functional wine education tool because, in my view, while slightly less info-packed, the smaller, more handy format makes it more likely that you'll pick it up more frequently to "graze" the treasure trove of facts contained therein.

Also: the CWC's alphabetical, encyclopedic layout makes it easy to cross-index & reference.

Truly a "must have" for any serious wine afficianado!

John Barleycorn Must Die: The War Against Drink In Arkansas by Ben Johnson III (Associate Professor of History, Southern Arkansas University) begins with the early attempts to keep alcohol from the Native Americans during Arkansas' colonial period. Then temperance groups focused on outlawing alcohol in the antebellum communities of Arkansas. After the Civil War new federal taxes on whiskey production in Arkansas led to violence between revenue agents and moonshiners. The state joined the growing national movement against saloons the culminated in 1915 when the legislature approved a measure to health the sale, manufacture, and distribution of alcohol (which prohibition included the then thriving wine industry in Arkansas). The state supported national prohibition, but the people became disillusioned with the widespread violations of the law. But the state waited to repeal its own prohibition law until compelled to do so by a fiscal crisis in 1935 that required it to raise revenue. Even then, the new law only authorized retail liquor stores, and not the return of taverns or bars. A final effort to restore prohibition in 1950 was rebuffed by voters, but there are still 43 counties in Arkansas remain dry, and only 32 are wet -- with disputes over the granting of private club licenses continuing to be a lively social and political concern throughout the state. Enhanced with 50 photographs and an index, John Barleycorn Must Die is a work of considerable scholarship and an impressive contribution to both American History and Arkansas State History library reference collections.

I don't have that many cookbooks, but this one is by far my favorite. Great selection of recipies, suggestions for putting together an entire meal.

Most things in the book are much easier to make than they appear served - meaning that it'll make you look good without too much effort.