Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Wine & Beverages

An excellent bottle of wine can be the spark that inspires a brainstorming session. Such was the case for Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle, scientists who frequently collaborate on book and museum exhibition projects. When the conversation turned to wine one evening, it almost inevitably led the two - one a palaeoanthropologist, the other a molecular biologist - to begin exploring the many intersections between science and wine. This audiobook presents their fascinating, freewheeling answers to the question.

In this entertaining, informative, and thoroughly unconventional wine guide, award-winning sommelier, winemaker, and wine educator André Hueston Mack presents listeners with the 99 bottles that have most impacted his life. Instead of just pairing wines with foods, Mack pairs practical information with personal stories, offering up recommendations alongside reflections on being one of the only African Americans to ever work at the top level of the American wine industry.

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, award-winning travel writer Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and embarks on a journey to discover what we miss.

Cider is the quintessential American beverage. Drank by early settlers and founding fathers, it was ubiquitous and pervasive, but following Prohibition when orchards were destroyed and neglected, cider all but disappeared. In The Cider Revival, Jason Wilson chronicles what is happening now, an extraordinary rebirth that is less than a decade old. Following the seasons through the autumn harvest, winter fermentation, spring bottling, and summer festival and orchard work, Wilson travels around New York and New England, with forays to the Midwest, the West Coast, and Europe.

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. 

What makes a wine distinctive is the goût du terroir, or the taste of the land - plus the personality and passion of the wine maker who lovingly adds his own liqueur de dosage or secret ingredient to each bottle. Here is a vintner's month-by-month account of one vintage at the Iron Horse vineyard located in the hills of Sonoma County in California. Author and wife of Iron Horse's wine-maker, Joy Sterling, fascinates with her account of the commitment involved in producing a premium wine.