Alcohol :a social and cultural history
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Why are we so ambivalent about alcohol? Are we torn between our love of a drink and the need to restrict, or even prohibit, alcohol? How did saloon culture arise in the United States? Why did wine become such a ubiquitous part of French culture?Alcohol: A Social and Cultural History examines these questions and many more as it considers how drink has evolved in its functions and uses from the late Middle Ages to the present day in the West. Alcohol has long played an important role in societies throughout history, and understanding its consumption can reveal a great deal about a culture. This book discusses a range of issues, including domestic versus recreational use, the history of alcoholism, and the relationship between alcohol and violence, religion, sexuality, and medicine. It looks at how certain forms of alcohol speak about class, gender and place.Drawing on examples from Europe, North America and Australia, this book provides an overview of the many roles alcohol has played over the past five centuries.
Sweet, Reinforced and Fortified Wines : Grape Biochemistry, Technology and Vinification
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Wines from Grape Dehydration is the first of its kind in the field of grape dehydration - the controlled drying process which produces a special group of wines. These types of wine are the most ancient, made in the Mediterranean basin, and are even described in Herodotus. Until few years ago, it was thought that these wines - such as Pedro Ximenez, Tokai, Passito, and Vin Santo - were the result of simple grape drying, because the grapes were left in the sun, or inside greenhouses that had no controls over temperature, relative humidity or ventilation. But Amarone wine, one of the most prized wines in the world, is the first wine in which the drying is a controlled process. This controlled process - grape dehydration - changes the grape at the biochemical level, and involves specialist vine management, postharvest technology and production processes, which are different from the typical wine-making procedure. After a history of grape dehydration, the book is then divided into two sections; scientific and technical. The scientific section approaches the subjects of vineyard management and dehydration technology and how they affect the biochemistry and the quality compounds of grape; as well as vinification practices to preserve primary volatiles compounds and colour of grape. The technical section is devoted to four main classes of wine: Amarone, Passito, Pedro Ximenez, and Tokai. The book then covers sweet wines not made by grape dehydration, and the analytical/sensorial characteristics of the wines. A concluding final chapter addresses the market for these special wines. This book is intended for wineries and wine makers, wine operators, postharvest specialists, vineyard managers/growers, enology/wine students, agriculture/viticulture faculties and course leaders and food processing scientists
Uncorked: The Science of Champagne
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Uncorked quenches our curiosity about the inner workings of one of the world's most prized beverages. Esteemed for its freshness, vitality, and sensuality, champagne is a wine of great complexity. Mysteries aplenty gush forth with the popping of that cork. Just what is that fizz? Can you judge champagne quality by how big the bubbles are, how long they last, or how they behave before they fade? And why does serving champagne in a long-stemmed flute prolong its chill and effervescence? Through lively prose and a wealth of state-of-the-art photos, this revised edition of Uncorked unlocks the door to what champagne is all about. Providing an unprecedented close-up view of the beauty in the bubbles, Gérard Liger-Belair presents images that look surprisingly like lovely flowers, geometric patterns, even galaxies as the bubbles rise through the glass and burst forth on the surface. He illustrates how bubbles form not on the glass itself but are "born" out of debris stuck on the glass wall, how they rise, and how they pop. Offering a colorful history of champagne, Liger-Belair tells us how it is made and he asks if global warming could spell champagne's demise. In a brand-new afterword, he updates the reader on new developments in the world of bubble science and delves even more deeply into the processes that give champagne its unique and beautiful character. Bubbly may tickle the nose, but Uncorked tackles what the nose and the naked eye cannot--the spectacular science that gives champagne its charm and champagne drinkers immeasurable pleasure.
The Winemaker's Hand : Conversations on Talent, Technique, and Terroir
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In these fascinating interviews, winemakers from the United States and abroad clarify the complex process of converting grapes into wine, with more than forty vintners candidly discussing how a combination of talent, passion, and experience shape the outcome of their individual wines. Each winemaker details their personal approach to the various steps required to convert grapes into wine. Natalie Berkowitz speaks to winemakers from different backgrounds who work in diverse wine-producing regions, including Chile, England, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and the United States. They talk about familiar and unfamiliar grape varietals, their struggles with local terroirs, and the vagaries of Mother Nature. Some represent small family wineries with limited production while others work for corporations producing hundreds of thousands of bottles. Each individual offers rare insight into how new technologies are revolutionizing historic winemaking practices. The interviews are supplemented with personal recipes and maps of winemaking regions. An aroma wheel captures the vast array of wine's complex flavors and aromas.
Whisky : Technology, Production and Marketing
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Whisky: Technology, Production and Marketing explains in technical terms the science and technology of producing whisky, combined with information from industry experts on successfully marketing the product. World experts in Scotch whisky provide detailed insight into whisky production, from the processing of raw materials to the fermentation, distillation, maturation, blending, production of co-products, and quality testing, as well as important information on the methodology used for packaging and marketing whisky in the twenty-first century. No other book covers the entire whisky process from raw material to delivery to market in such a comprehensive manner and with such a high level of technical detail. Only available work to cover the entire whisky process from raw material to delivery to the market in such a comprehensive manner Includes a chapter on marketing and selling whisky Foreword written by Alan Rutherford, former Chairman and Managing Director of United Malt and Grain Distillers Ltd.
Modern Moonshine : The Revival of White Whiskey in the Twenty-First Century
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The craft of making moonshine--an unaged white whiskey, often made and consumed outside legal parameters--nearly went extinct in the late twentieth century as law enforcement cracked down on illicit producers, and cheaper, lawful alcohol became readily available. Yet the twenty-first century has witnessed a resurgence of artisanal distilling, as both connoisseurs and those reconnecting with their heritage have created a vibrant new culture of moonshine. While not limited to Appalachia, moonshine is often entwined with the region in popular understandings. The first interdisciplinary examination of the legal moonshine industry, Modern Moonshine probes the causes and impact of the so-called moonshine revival. What does the moonshine revival tell us about our national culture? How does it shape the image of Appalachia and rural America? Focusing mostly on southern Appalachia, the book's eleven essays chronicle such popular figures as Popcorn Sutton and explore how and why distillers promote their product as "traditional" and "authentic." This edited collection draws from scholars across the disciplines of anthropology, history, geography, and sociology to make sense of the legal, social, and historical shifts behind contemporary production and consumption of moonshine, and offers a fresh perspective on an enduring topic of Appalachian myth and reality.
Tequila: a global history
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Wine : A Social and Cultural History of the Drink that CHanged Our Lives
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Wine looks at how wine has been used to demarcate social groups and genders, how wine has shaped facets of social life as diverse as medicine, religion, and military activity, how vineyards have transformed landscapes, and how successive innovations in wine packaging have affected and been affected by commerce and consumption.
Wine Science
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Wine Science, Fourth Edition, covers the three pillars of wine science: grape culture, wine production, and sensory evaluation. It discusses grape anatomy, physiology and evolution, wine geography, wine and health, and the scientific basis of food and wine combinations. It also covers topics not found in other enology or viticulture texts, including details on cork and oak, specialized wine making procedures, and historical origins of procedures. New to this edition are expanded coverage on micro-oxidation and the cool prefermentative maceration of red grapes; the nature of the weak fixation of aromatic compounds in wine - and the significance of their release upon bottle opening; new insights into flavor modification post bottle; the shelf-life of wine as part of wine aging; and winery wastewater management. Updated topics include precision viticulture, including GPS potentialities, organic matter in soil, grapevine pests and disease, and the history of wine production technology. This book is a valuable resource for grape growers, fermentation technologists; students of enology and viticulture, enologists, and viticulturalists. New to this edition: Expanded coverage of micro-oxidation and the cool prefermentative maceration of red grapes The nature of the weak fixation of aromatic compounds in wine - and the significance of their release upon bottle opening New insights into flavor modification post bottle Shelf-life of wine as part of wine aging Winery wastewater management Updated topics including: Precision viticulture, including GPS potentialities Organic matter in soil Grapevine pests and disease History of wine production technology
Moonshine : A Global History
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You might think moonshine only comes from ramshackle stills hidden away in the Appalachian Mountains, but the fact of the matter is we've been improvising spirits all around the world for centuries. No matter where you go, there is a local bootleg liquor, whether it's bathtub gin, peatreek, or hjemmebrent. In this book, Kevin R. Kosar tells the colorful and, at times, blinding history of moonshine, a history that's always been about the people: from crusading lawmen and clever tinkerers to sly smugglers and ruthless gangsters, from pontificating poets and mountain men to beleaguered day-laborers and foolhardy frat boys. Kosar first surveys all the things we've made moonshine from, including grapes, grains, sugar, tree bark, horse milk, and much more. But despite the diversity of its possible ingredients, all moonshine has two characteristics: it is extremely alcoholic, and it is, in most places, illegal. Indeed, the history of DIY distilling is a history of criminality and the human ingenuity that has prevailed out of officials' sights: from cleverly designed stills to the secret smuggling operations that got the goods to market. Kosar also highlights the dark side: completely unregulated, many moonshines are downright toxic and dangerous to drink. Spanning the centuries and the globe, this entertaining book will appeal to any food and drink lover who enjoys a little mischief.