Showing results for "Social Science" in Wine & Beverages

How can you cheat… at drinking wine? It turns out you can. And when you do, a whole world of power, ego and money will unravel. Corked is the scandalous saga in the glamorous, competitive and mysterious world of fine wines.

In this fascinating book, beer expert Mark Dredge dives into the history of lager, from how it was first brewed, to what role was played by German monks and kings in the creation of the drink we know so well today. From the importance of 500-year-old purity laws to a scrupulously researched exploration of modern beer gardens (it's a hard life), Mark has delved deep into the story of the world's favourite beer. From 16th-century Bavaria to the recent popularity of specialist craft lagers, A Brief History of Lager is an engaging and informative exploration of a classic drink.

Globalization has pushed back the borders of the wine world, creating a complex, interconnected market where Old World and New World wines and producers compete head to head. Writing with wit and verve, Mike Veseth (a.k.a. the Wine Economist) tells the compelling story of the war between the market forces that are redrawing the world wine map and the terroirists who resist them.

There are nearly 1,400 known varieties of wine grapes in the world - from altesse to zierfandler - but 80 percent of the wine we drink is made from only 20 grapes. In Godforsaken Grapes, Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and embarks on a journey to discover what we miss. While hunting down obscure and underappreciated wines, he looks at why these wines fell out of favor (or never gained it in the first place), what it means to be obscure, and how geopolitics, economics, and fashion have changed what we drink.

Ian Mount’s vivid journey through Argentina’s Wild West explores the alchemy of weather, soil, and viticulture techniques that, on rare occasions, produce a legendary bottle of wine. He also investigates the dynamics of taste, status, and money that turned Malbec into a worldwide phenomenon. Profiling the larger-than-life figures who fueled the Malbec revolution - including celebrity oenologist Michel Rolland, acclaimed American winemaker Paul Hobbs, and the Mondavi-esque Catena family - Mount describes in colorful detail the brilliant innovations and backroom politics that put Malbec on the map.

What can beer teach us about biology, history, and the natural world? From ancient Mesopotamian fermentation practices to the resurgent American craft brewery, authors Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall peruse the historical record and traverse the globe for engaging and often surprising stories about beer. They explain how we came to drink beer, what ingredients combine to give beers their distinctive flavors, how beer's chemistry works at the molecular level, and how various societies have regulated the production and consumption of beer.

This novel take on the history of wine reveals that, whether by adding toxic sweeteners or passing off counterfeit bottles, wine fraud is abundant—and as old as wine itself. Vintage Crime will intrigue even the most sated of wine drinkers with its juicy tales of deception, raising interesting questions along the way: what counts as wine, why do we drink it, and what makes a wine truly authentic?

The bastard step-child of Milton Friedman and Anthony Bourdain, Socialism Sucks is a bar crawl through former, current, and wannabe socialist countries around the world. Free-market economists Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell travel to countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, and Sweden to investigate the dangers and idiocies of socialism - while drinking a lot of beer.

Profiling owners, winemakers, and personalities from around the country and the world, Behind the Bottle is a fun and intriguing look at the people who have made Long Island into one of the hottest wine regions in the country.

Exploring the aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics of whiskey as well as everything from geographical origin to stylistic differences between whiskey and Scotch, Whiskey and Philosophy will teach you things that are both practical and thought provoking....

Fermenting Revolution delivers an empowering message about how individuals can change the world through the simple act of having a beer. It is also the first book to view all of the important trends in human history as fundamentally revolving around beer.

Over the past few years, there's been an explosion of interest in good beer. As hundreds of great new breweries have opened across the country and around the world, quality ales and lagers have been given an importance never before imagined. Despite beer's renaissance, however, no one seems to have focused on why beer suddenly matters, or what it is about beer that makes it the drink for our age.