Investing in Liquid Assets: Uncorking Profits in Today's Global Wine Market Review

A book like this is long overdue. It's both authoritative and readable--a rare combination. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in investment grade wine, whether casually or professionally.Get more detail about Investing in Liquid Assets: Uncorking Profits in Today's Global Wine Market.

Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition Top Quality

Wild beers are the most unusual and elusive of all styles. They're difficult to brew and even difficult to buy. Their whole world is shrouded in mysteries of microorganisms and organic chemistry. Wild Brews spells it all out in an understandable way. It's easily the best source I've found on wild beers.

For brewers, such as myself, who don't care for wild beer, it's still enlightening. Wild Brews catalogs all sorts of microbes which may find their way into our brews and how to increase or reduce their impacts. It's also interesting to see the same critters floating in beer that make vinegar, cheese, and several other products.Get more detail about Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition.

The Geography of Wine: How Landscapes, Cultures, Terroir, and the Weather Make a Good Drop This instant

Terroir is the all-purpose French term for the land, the weather, the climate, the environment in which the wine grapes grow. It's what makes Bordeaux (the region) produce Bordeaux (the wine), Burgundy, Champagne, and Alsace likewise. American wines are labeled by the variety of grape in argument that that is the most important aspect, though Napa, Sonoma, and Russian River Valley also appear on the labels. But Pinot Noir does well in Oregon (as well as in Burgundy), as does Riesling (which does well in Germany too), but not so well other places. This book looks at how the land, the weather, and the choices of the people doing the wine making affect the wines.

It's a decent book which covers a lot of territory (literal and figurative) in a readable, non-technical manner. I've deducted a star only because this book could have been better, many times I was left with questions leading directly from the text, and the author had moved on. The coverage is thin in spots, and seems to have variations in what level of wine knowledge the reader is expected to have (in most places there's little or no assumed knowledge, but then suddenly one is expected to know quite a bit more).Get more detail about The Geography of Wine: How Landscapes, Cultures, Terroir, and the Weather Make a Good Drop.

The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire Immediately

The title "The King of Vodka - The Story of Pyotr Smirnoff and the upheaval of an Empire" captures only a fraction of a truly panoramic picture skillfully painted by Himelstein. She starts with a story about a serf who, without any formal education, builds the most popular brand of an alcoholic beverage and becomes one of the most successful businessmen in the 19th century Russia. She shows how this self-taught entrepreneur overcomes all odds that would have prevented any modern MBA from entering the business, let alone becoming its leader, including

1. tremendous competition (300 existing brands of vodka),
2. under-funding (he started from the proverbial scratch),
3. negative image (continuous anti-alcoholism campaigns at all levels),
4. inferior social standing, and
5. government hostility (which heavily depended on the taxes from vodka sales and periodically monopolized the entire industry).

Based on years of meticulous research, Himelstein turns a tale about an extraordinary man into a sweeping story about a dynasty, including several generations of his entire family, and stretching across almost two hundred years, starting with the inequities and the far reaching reforms of the Russian monarchy, the horrors of the Bolshevik revolution and socialism, and the first couple of decades of freedom and democracy in modern Russia. Her book is also a history of a brand, spanning two continents, from its creation and perfection in czarist Russia, to its choking but surviving in spite of mismanagement and internal feuds, to its complete vanishing under the communist destruction, to its awesome rebuilding in the United States. If starting a business that had to compete with 300 existing brands was not hard enough, think of starting it anew across the ocean in a country with centuries-old change-resistant culture of whiskey- and beer-drinking, and then driving the newly introduced beverage business to a multi-billion dollar operation!

A delightful reading for anybody interested in business development, large-scale change management, Russian history, or extraordinary biography.

Yuval Lirov, Medical Billing Networks and Processes - Profitable and Compliant Revenue Cycle Management in the Internet AgeGet more detail about The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire.

The Breuss Cancer Cure: Advice for the Prevention and Natural Treatment of Cancer, Leukemia and Other Seemingly Incurable Diseases Best Quality

The best book for overcoming any illness highly recommend for those with cancer. Difficult treatment but highly worth it if you can stay on the juice diet for the six weeks.Get more detail about The Breuss Cancer Cure: Advice for the Prevention and Natural Treatment of Cancer, Leukemia and Other Seemingly Incurable Diseases.

The Murray's Cheese Handbook: A Guide to More Than 300 of the World's Best Cheeses Get it now!

I make cheese, run a website and forum at CheeseForum org, and got this book to broaden my knowledge of different cheeses. "The Murray's Cheese Handbook" is a long thin ½ in/1 cm thick format good for putting in a pocket. It was written by the current owner of the famous Murray's Cheese Store in New York City, USA. It has the normal intro and FAQ and pairing with wine sections but the bulk of the book is a listing and summary of 300+ of the author's favorite US and international cheeses, roughly ½ a page per cheese, no pictures. Nice quality paper, binding and cover that would stand up to many trips in pocket while visiting cheese stores. But, if you want more details and pictures there are better albeit bigger encyclopedia type books out there.Get more detail about The Murray's Cheese Handbook: A Guide to More Than 300 of the World's Best Cheeses.

The Wine Club: A Month-by-Month Guide to Learning About Wine with Friends Buy Now

The book is what I expected it to be, a helpful guide to get a club going or just to help educate yourself. Great gift for a friend who likes wine and wants to learn more.Get more detail about The Wine Club: A Month-by-Month Guide to Learning About Wine with Friends.