Posted on: Wednesday, June 17, 2009
TASTE
Summer reads for beverage lovers
By Fred Tasker
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
You're headed to the beach this summer, and as light reading, you're going to polish off "War and Peace."
Right.
Let me suggest something more realistic: summer reading about wine, beer and booze. Some new offerings:
"A Pint of Plain: Tradition, Change and the Fate of the Irish Pub" by Bill Barich (Walker & Co.). Barich, who wrote a "road blog" about the Obama-McCain race for The New York Times, sought a change of pace. He moved to Ireland and set out in search of a humble, friendly, Guinness-pumping Irish pub. It should have been easy, what with 12,000 pubs in Ireland, but, as he humorously recounts, he found flat-screen TVs, Texas tourists and karaoke. A fine poke into Irish culture.
"When the Rivers Ran Red" by Vivienne Sosnowski (Palgrave MacMillan). A bit of bait-and-switch here. She means the rivers ran red with wine, poured into them by the feds trying to enforce Prohibition. But she does tell a rollicking story of how California wineries survived by making sacramental wine, bootlegging and sending perfectly legal fresh grapes to Italian, Jewish and other urban populations in Eastern cities who knew full well how to turn them into wine. It'll keep you awake on your towel.
"From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America" by Richard Mendelson (California). In 1975 a young American named Richard Mendelson arrived at Oxford University; he left two years later with a deep respect for the law and a deeper appreciation of the fine burgundies in the university's ample cellars. Logically, he became an expert in wine law. His book is a neat narrative on the legalities of the religious Temperance movement that led to Prohibition, the intricacies of Prohibition itself, the strangling state laws that tried to control alcohol after repeal and the continuing legal battles both for and against alcohol today. Very informative.
"99 Drams of Whiskey: The Accidental Hedonist's Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink" by Kate Hopkins (St. Martin's). Do we need a history of whiskey? You'll think so after you read this one. Hopkins, a former stand-up comic who blogs as The Accidental Hedonist, traveled through Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the United States in search of whiskey's true story and that elusive perfect dram. She finds it. Many times.
"The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire" by Linda Himelstein, (HarperCollins). An astonishing tale of upward mobility in czarist Russia. Smirnov, born a serf in 1831, rises to become a canny modern businessman pushing his vodka through advertising, marketing and pricing low enough for the working class. It's part biography, part a history of revolutionary times in Russia.
"Wine on Tuesdays: Be a Serious Wine Drinker Without Taking Wine Seriously" by Dr. Keith and Debra Gordon (Thomas Nelson). I get a little impatient with writers who feel they have to start off with a defensive essay on how wine really isn't stuffy if only you look at it right. We knew that. Still, the authors pen a useful tome on wine basics, dining out and serving wine at home, including descriptions of the flavors and food matches of lots of wines, from pinot grigio to gewurztraminer. A good primer.
