Special Feature: Products Sally Recommends

Beverage Book Reviews

Worship Wine? Bent-on Beer? Tantilized by Tea? Smitten by Spirits?

Sally's Place has it covered.


Wines of Italy: Il Gusto Italiano Del Vino
by Patricia Guy

Italy claims more grape varieties than any other country: 350 have been codified and more than 1,000 others are being catalogued and studied. This extraordinary range of grapes and wine styles means that Italy's potential as a source for diverse and distinguished wines has barely been tapped and is little understood. Now Patricia Guy brings together the most comprehensive collection of current information about Italian wine today. In addition, Ms Guy combines wine information with a host of complimentary food pairings and recipes for delicious meals with each wine. For those interested in touring Italian vineyards, Wines of Italy includes locations and maps that make planning a tour convenient. With more than 100 full-colour photographs, this indispensable guide is the first book designed to help everyone from consumers to sommeliers explore and understand the kaleidoscopic range of contemporary Italian grape varieties and the wines made from them. Salute!

 

 

 

 

 

The Winemaker's Dance: Exploring Terroir in the Napa Valley
by Jonathan Swinchatt & Howell G. David

There is a saying among winemakers that "great wine begins with dirt." Beginning from this intriguing premise, The Winemaker's Dance embarks on an eye-opening exploration of "terroir" in one of the greatest places on earth to grow wine-California's Napa Valley. Jonathan Swinchatt and David G. Howell weave a tale that begins millions of years ago with the clash of continental plates that created the Napa Valley and go on to show how this small region, with its myriad microclimates, complex geologic history, and dedicated winemakers, came to produce world-class wines. Illustrations: 62 color photographs, 17 diagrams, 22 maps, 3 tables.



 

 

 

 

North American Pinot Noir
by John Winthrop Haeger


Pinot noir is the moodiest of grapes: at its best, it can be velvety and complex, a good pairing for both seafood and red meat; but its temper can change quickly, as the wine is fragile and unstable. As Haeger explains in this comprehensive guide to the wine, "pinot can show beautifully from barrel and then suffer an acute case of bottle shock. It can taste ethereal one day, but then close down to a shadow of its former self."

 

 

 

 

Mr. Boston : Official Bartender's and Party Guide
by Renee Cooper & Chris Morris

For 65 years, MR. BOSTON has been mixing drinks for amateurs and professionals alike. The definitive drink directory, MR. BOSTON OFFICIAL BARTENDER'S & PARTY GUIDE is the bartender's bible and now contains more invaluable information than ever before. From new, trendy drink recipes such as the Cosmopolitan to useful facts about single malt scotches, along with a special liquor, wine, and beer directory, this new, updated version is still a classic...with a modern twist.


 

Atomic Cocktails: Mixed Drinks for Modern Times
by Karen Brooks, Gideon Bosker, & Reed Darmon

Atomic Cocktails reveals 90 pages of secrets that ardent swingers and your father have spent years discovering. Here you will find an inside guide to mixology and mastering the essential classics. Included is an indispensable shopping section which covers all the essential ingredients from flavored vodkas to fine rum, complete with recommendations for both high-end and budget options. So break out the swizzle sticks and get yourself ready, it's time for a little liquid libation, atomic style.


A Wine and Food Guide to the Loire
by Jaqueline Friedrich

Interested in visiting the Loire? You should not visit the beautiful French countryside without this book, "A Wine and Food Guide to the Loire." Jaqueline Friedrich, an American freelance writer has lived in Touraine, France since 1989 and it shows. Her familiarity with the people, the places, the food and the wines is demonstrated on every page. The Loire is France's longest river, starting in the remote Auvergne and rolling through such wine regions as Sancerre, Vouvray, Chinon, Anjou, and Muscadet, on its way to the Atlantic. The Loire wine regions enjoy a widespread reputation for stellar wine quality. For someone trying to get a grasp on the Loire, this is an invaluable book.


A Perfect Glass of Wine : Choosing, Serving and Enjoying
by Brian St. Pierre

Practical and elegant, A Perfect Glass of Wine is an unintimidating guide to wine that does away with much of the jargon and many of the technical terms that are for most wine-drinkers unnecessary and unwanted. With sixty full-color photographs and eight maps showing wine producing regions around the world, this book includes understandable information on how wine is made, how to taste, serve, and store wine, and most importantly, how to enjoy wine.


Beer for Dummies
by Marty Nachel with Steve Ettlinger

Life for beer-drinking dummies (and the rest of us) just got a whole lot easier. You'll now know the difference between ale and lager, how to pour and store your beer and where to find the best beer festivals. If you're brave enough, you can even try brewing your own at home. This book is packed with every imaginable beer factoid, so if you love your lager, you've gotta have it.


Best Wine Buys for $12 and Under
by Barbara Ensrud

A concise and handy compendium of quality wines from around the world, most for well under $10, "filled with on-target advice for wine consumers" including wine and food match-ups. "One trip to the wineshop and you'll make back your investment in Barbara Ensrud's neat little book." -- Frank Prial, The New York Times.


The Book of Green Tea
by Diana Rosen

Traditional and modern uses for green teas are explored in The Book of
Green Tea
, by Diana Rosen. The book gives the widest possible overview of an
increasingly popular subject, including the health aspects of drinking green
tea are explored; suggestions are made for beauty and hygiene applications,
and a number of delicious recipes are included for cooking with green tea.
In addition, readers can find fun ideas for using green tea in crafts and
projects around the home. Best of all, an extensive resource guide gives the
reader easy access to the many sources for green tea and products made with
tea no matter where they live. The Book of Green Tea is a classic in the
making. Soft duo-toned photographs, exquisite poetry, pithy sayings, and
interesting graphics accent the well-crafted text. Should please both the
tea lover and the health and fitness enthusiast. Be sure to visit our Tea section!


Bottled Wisdom
by Mark Pollman

Bottled Wisdom is a 170 page genuine sourcebook for anyone who likes to drink. It gives a wide variety of quotations, anecdotes, advice, humor and toasts about the entire subject of "let's have one." The joy, wonder, magic, and difficulties of intoxicating spirits are all here! This book is a must read for college students, parents, speakers, writers and historians of the human condition. Your favorite party host, bartender, entertainer and best man will love its spirited fun.


California Wine
by James Laube

Winner of the James Beard Award for best book on Wine and Spirits, this hardcover tome is an excellent reference book. Easy to use and informative, Laube quite obviously did his homework. A comprehensive guide to California's wineries, wines, vintages and vineyards.


The California Wine Country Cookbook II
by Virginia & Robert Hoffman

This 200 page book contains 172 exciting recipes from the most creative chefs of the California Wine Country. It includes appetizers, soups, salads, pastas & grains, meats, seafood, poultry, vegetable, and desserts-each an exciting addition to your culinary repertoire. Some recipes are quite simple, easy and fast to prepare, while others require more time and effort, but all are innovative and will bring the cuisine of the California Wine Country into your home.


The California Wine Country Herbs and Spices Cookbook
by Virginia & Robert Hoffman

72 chefs, winemakers, and wineries now share 188 of their best recipes featuring herbs and spices. They offer you new ways to use 37 herbs and spices, share secrets on how to make your own herb and spice mixes and how to make herbed and spiced vinegars and oils. They also tell of the romantic history of herbs and spices.


Cooking With Beer: Taste-Tempting Recipes And Creative Ideas for Matching Beer & Food
by Lucy Saunders

Cooking with Beer is a collection of recipes that would please any beer connoisseur or novice alike. Saunders pours an endless variety of beer into soups, salads, breads, meats, and even desserts! Learn to enjoy the fruity, bitter, and sweet essences of one of the world's oldest pasttimes-- beer.


Cooking with Wine
by Virginia & Robert Hoffman

Cooking with wine and pairing wine with food by some of the foremost winery chefs of America is the theme of this book. This 200 page book includes some of the recipes that have made these chefs world-famous for their creative cuisines. Also included is the most comprehensive wine to food pairing ever compiled. There is a description of the leading American wines and their compatibility with different foods.


The Cultured Cocktail
by Katharine Williams

The Cultured Cocktail provides 150 cocktail recipes categorized by types of liquor, plus a primer on cocktail glasses, stocking a home bar and bar equipment. "A cocktail that is prepared and served with classic accoutrements really does taste better," the author insists. One learns about the origins and distillation of each type of liquor, plus how each is used in the pantheon of mixed drinks. The recipes are straight-forward and meticulous, with instructions on what glasses and garnish to use and how to combine, chill or mix the ingredients. For the bourbon drink Sazerac, for example, the bartender is instructed to "muddle the bitters, water, and sugar with the back of a teaspoon." The spirit underlying the book is a generous one: it's as though the author is suggesting that our abstentionist ethic has gone too far (have we become a nation of prigs, or what?), and it's time to rediscover the joys of kicking back with a dry martini amid good company. Relax your furrowed brow, she coos, that Highland Fling you're knocking back is no more harmful than a flirtation. But, the inclusion of 40 nonalcoholic variations of cocktails is interesting. You might say that it's a sign of the times and evidence of Williams' marketing savvy. Then again, perhaps she, like too many of us, has gone to enough swinging cocktail parties to know that there are fragile people among us who desperately need a hand in order to fit in as we all cross that shaky bridge between two different American ways of life. Either way, it appears we have matured as a nation, at least so far as the tricky art of imbibing is concerned. On to the next Big Thing.


The Dictionary of American Food and Drink
by John F. Mariani

Some foods are central to American eating habits. Macaroni and Cheese, the Hamburger and Egg Foo Young all originated in the United States and all are a testament to the cultural melting pot that is American dining. These dishes, and more, are described in The Dictionary of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani. The tome contains American food slang, the history of beverages, lore, legends and over 500 classic recipes. Where else could you find a listing for Gatorade next to a recipe for gazpacho? Some of the entries will surprise even the most ardent food and recipe enthusiast. For example, "gibraltar" is listed as a "hard candy associated with Salem, Massachusetts," and "Ohio Pudding" is a "pudding of sweet potatoes, carrots, and brown sugar." Who knew?


The Great Domaines of Burgundy
by Remington Norman

The first edition of this book, which appeared in the US in 1993, did not cover all the domaines of Burgundy. Thirth-seven additional entries bring Norman's total to 131. Although not exhaustive, this book is a must read for any serious Burgundian student.


The Great Little Food With Wine Cookbook
by Virginia & Robert Hoffman

This little book contains 76 recipes on how to cook with wine. The Hoffman's provide you with 100 pages of simple and easy-to-follow guides on pairing your own recipes with wine, how and where to buy wine, ordering wine in a restaurant and how to read wine bottle labels. With each recipe they offer a wine selection, and all the wines suggested are American wines that are readily available.


Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine
by Hugh Johnson

Veteran wine writer Johnson includes a chapter on wine and food, and names good years for each varietal he lists. The wines are listed by country, rather than strictly varietals. An interesting and easy-to-use portable guide.


Jancis Robinson's Guide to Wine Grades, A Unique A-Z Reference to Grape Varieties and the Wines They Produce
by Jancis Robinson

This truly is a scholarly A-Z compendium, albeit each item from Abourion to Zweigelt is only briefly noted, with the type of wines produced, best vintners and other essential info. Ms. Robinson has a television show on wine and a larger, more encyclopedic tome that's a nice companion to this companion book to carry with you to the wine shop.


Napa Valley: The Ultimate Winery Guide
by Antonia Allegra

Antonia Allegra's user-friendly guide to the Napa Valley helps answer questions for first time and returning visitors alike. Such topics as distinctive architecture, spectacular panoramas, art, romantic gardens, picnic sites, hospitality and, of course, winemaking are covered. Illustrated with stunning, full-color photography, Napa Valley is as beautiful as it is informative.


Passions: The Wines and Travels of Thomas Jefferson
James M. Gabler

This is an indepth account of our nation's third president as relates to his love of wine and travel. Widowed at age 41, Jefferson left America to stay in Europe. During this time he traveled extensively and upon returning to the states, became President Washington's wine advisor (and Secretary of State). Jefferson later tried growing wine at Monticello.


Sake
by Hiroshi Kondo

This book remains the ultimate guide to sake. Everything is covered, and the color photographs are superb.


The Simon & Schuster Pocket Guide to Beer, Fifth Edition, The Connoisseur's Companion to Over 1,500 Beers of the World
by Michael Jackson

The world's best beers are rated from one to four stars with pithy comments on each. All are arranged by country of origin and the list reveals that beer is indeed a world beverage.


Simply Wine
by Heidi Yorkshire

A tool box of wine skills that will serve you whether you're spending $5 or $50 on a bottle. Simply Wine establishes a foundation on which you can build a lifelong appreciation of wine. It takes the mystery out of some apparently complex aspects of wine, like prices, labels and shopping, and introduces you to some of the real mysteries, especially the mystery of place, that make wine a lifelong joy.

 


Vineyard Tales: Reflections of Wine
by Gerald Asher

Gerald Asher has worked in the international wine trade for over four decades. His knowledge of vineyards, wineries and wines is unsurpassed. This book delightfully evaluates wines from around the world by taking us from vineyards on Crete to the celebrated Champagne houses of France.


Vintage Bar Ware
by Stephen Visakey

Vintage Bar Ware is the first identification and value guide dedicated to cocktail shakers, stemware, ice buckets, serving trays, recipe books, paper collectibles, cocktail picks, swizzle sticks and more. There's also a section of classic cocktail recipes. Stephen Visakay, whose collection numbers over 1,400 items, has been named one of America's Top 100 Collectors. Enjoy the 350 color photos in this hardbound book.


The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine
by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher

Only hours after Dorothy's and John's column appears each week in the Wall Street Journal, wine retailers from coast to coast are sold out of the couple's recommendations. Why? Because they provide straight talk for
consumers who want to get maximum enjoyment from the abundance of good wines available today. Don't continue to be lost in the wine store, afraid to take a chance on something different. In this guide, they share
everything you need to know about buying, drinking, and enjoying wine, along with listings of 300 great wine values to get you started.


Wine Country--California's Napa and Sonoma Valleys
by John Doerper

This in-depth look at two of California's valleys offers color photos, maps and wine labels. Doerper's lively and colorful style details the history of the regions and explains the ins and outs of wine tasting and wine making. Over 100 wineries are described with their best vintages. This is the perfect guide for wine lovers and travel connoisseurs alike.


Wine For Dummies
by Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan

Ostensibly for folks who've never tasted wine, Part I is actually of use to the more common occasional imbibers still working on getting their varietals straight. This remedial section -- which actually isn't so remedial -- covers major wine categories, tasting vocabulary, shopping, gadgets and uncorking. Part II delves into the different types of wines in the world. Part III explores the finer points of purchasing and storage. Throughout this 400-odd-page guide you'll encounter goofy, albeit useful, icons (such as the nerdy little guy for "technical stuff") who draws your attention to things like red wine sensitivities. The "Snob Alert" informs the reader of "affectations designed to make other wine drinkers feel inferior." And there are "Dummies Approved" recommendations of wines to try.


Wine With Food
by Joanna Simon

Simon debunks some of the traditional wine with food paring sterotypes and offers viable suggestions. She also lists some of the traditional wine and food matches for different geographical regions of the world. An interesting read!


 



Note: This information was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the businesses in question before making your plans.

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