Mead (honey wine) is the new buzz among beverage hobbyists as more and more consumers start to make their own. This up-to-date title tells the novice how to begin and the experienced brewer or winemaker how to succeed in this newest of the beverage arts.

Customer Review: The most Complete book you'll find

No book can tell you *EVERYTHING* about making mead. There are new ideas and opinions brewing all the time. That being said, this book is a true blessing for anyone interested in making mead.

I wish Ken Schramm spoke more on fermentation temperature and methods of controling it. Not everyone has the luxury of air conditioning (or even indoor brewing). Here's a bit that may help fill in this gap:

For most wine yeasts, ideal fermentation temperatures should be as follows:

Start fermentation - 78F/26C
Main fermentation - 65F/18C
Near end fermentation - 80F/27C

Commercial grape wineries ferment with wines at 60F/15C - 70F/20C. I've even heard 55 F to 70 F.

For practical purposes, 70F/21C - 75F/24C will do just fine for most meads, depending on the tolerance of the yeast used. The lower end of this range ensures a robust fermentation while minimize harsh fusel alcohols that affect the taste of the finished product.

The best way to ensure proper fermentation temperatures is to take a somewhat high tech approach from the beer home-brewers and use a chest freezer or refrigerator equipped with a plug-in temperature controller (Ranco makes a good one) - Simple and efficient. It'll get you through the icey days of winter and the dog days of Summer.

Customer Review: Worth Every Penny.

The yeast and honey tables in this book make it worth the price. It gives a good history and theory of mead, as well as a good few great recipes. Definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in making or drinking mead.

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Behind the seasonal splendors -- asparagus, artichokes, fava beans, zucchini and mushrooms -- which Tuscans so passionately feast on are these large red onions, as aromatic and fruity as they are flavorful. Traditionally jarred to preserve the Fall's harvest throughout the unyielding Italian winter, today these magnificently-colored onions, with a nose redolent of fresh apples, are freshly packed in Italian wine vinegar.

Our Executive Chef Gianluca Guglielmi recommends them for rice and farro salads or paired with fresh artichokes or asparagus or as a cool, colorful flourish to an antipasti platter.

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Customer Review: A great gift

I reviewed several pocket wine books before purchasing 20 copies of Hugh Johnson's book to give as gifts. This edition has the perfect balance of content to educate the novice and inform the expert.

Customer Review: Continues to be very good, although has some flaws

I have been using this annual guide for many years and I continue to find it extremely useful. Johnson's approach is much more in-depth and informative than the various single-number raters. Compared to previous editions, however, I note two deficiencies in the 2008 edition:

* There is much less vintage information on many individual wine entries. (I refer to the vintage data in the individual listings, not the regional vintage summary table.) Past editions gave much greater history of which vintages were still recommended, ready, or at peak with unmentioned vintages being unrecommended. This edition in many instances lists only a few vintages. This important insight is no longer included.

* Johnson's publisher should pay attention to ensuring clear visual contrast. A different color is used to denote a vintage "at peak" from a vintage that is "just ready". The two colors are too close together and it can be difficult to discern which vintages are at peak.

While the guide is still extremely valuable and a truly comprehensive resource, these factors step it down a notch in my opinion.

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Choco-La'te Wine Nuts are a new and different snack. They have the delicious flavors of chocolate and coffee with the crunch of slow cooked peanut. They appeal to chocolate, coffee and peanut lovers. Uniquely seasoned, extra large, jumbo peanuts are cooked to create a delightfully rich, roasted flavor, finishing with a delicious taste of Mocha chocolate and a good cup of coffee. All Natural, Gluten Free, No High Fructose Corn Syrup & Certified Kosher.

Ingredients: Peanuts, Vegetable Oil, (contains one or more of the following oils: Canola, Coconut, Peanut), Sugar, Dried Coffee, Cocoa.

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BLOOMINGTON — In case you haven’t seen the jazzy commercials or spotted the dog sporting a jet pack at your local liquor store, Oliver Winery has introduced a new wine label dubbed SkyDog.

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Customer Review: Loving Italy More

Reading this books is like visiting Umbria in Italy vicariously. Michael Tucker's description of the country, the food, and the wine and only increase my desire to visit Italy. However, I don't think I could indulge in the food and wine as much as he does! It's also good to see that one Hollywood couple has established a good long, loving relationship. Great read if you love Italy.

Customer Review: Loved this book!

I highly recommend this book. If you love travel stories that are well-written and funny, this is it. Mr. Tucker has written a charming story of the good life and a wonderful marriage. Makes me want to book my ticket to Italy sooner rather than later. Well done, Mr. Tucker, you have a real talent for the written word.

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Ever wonder what it would be like to pursue your passion for cooking to the furthest degree? Such is the story of artisan Paola Calciolari, a pharmacist from the Old Town of Mantova, who gave it all up to start a small cooking school in 1991. In 1996, her devoted students demanded that she avail her homemade preserves, mostarde and antipasti to the public and a small storefront arose at the school. Today, Paola operates a small Laboratorio dedicated to the innovative presentations of antique recipes. All of the fruit and vegetables in her products are harvested and cleaned by hand. All are preservative-and-additive free.

A perfume of fresh flowers lends the sensation of strolling amidst meadows of alpine wildflowers. The intoxicating nose delightfully extracts the milky creaminess of fresh, young cheeses. An excellent pairing with fresh ripe strawberries and dry patisserie.

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Ray Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. Dandelion Wine stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author's most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small-town summer in 1928.

Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole wide world that lies beyond the city limits. It is a pair of brand-new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather's renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley's bell on a hazy afternoon. It is yesteryear and tomorrow blended into an unforgettable always. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.

Come and savor Ray Bradbury's priceless distillation of all that is eternal about boyhood and summer.

Customer Review: Excellent writing! A pleasure to read.

This is about a boy ...about life ...about 1928.

Bradbury writes about a summer when a twelve-year-old boy realizes that he is alive. That summer is about life, and death that goes with life, and how this boy reconciles these to himself.

It is also about a time now gone. Bradbury preserves life in 1928 in this book for us from his perspective when he was a boy.

This book is about what is real in contrast with that which is merely manufactured.

This book should survive time and be read years from now. It is a literary classic.

Customer Review: Worst thing I was forced to read in high school

This is the only book I've ever thrown across the room and stomped on when I finished it. It was incredibly frustrating to read as a high school student. Absolutely nothing happened. I did not care at all about the main character, 12-year-old Douglas. In fact, I honestly wished he would die when he got sick towards the end, just so something would HAPPEN. Maybe I'll enjoy this book when I'm seventy and have nothing better to do than reminisce about being a kid, but having to read it at fifteen was so excruciating that I never want to touch it again.

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Now more than ever, the value of Investment-Grade Wines (IGWs) and opportunities to invest in wine as an asset class are soaring. With a little research and a little risk, wine enthusiasts on every level will find it possible to gain big rewards in wine investment -- and there's never been a better time to try. IGWs have dependably outperformed blue chip stocks over the past 150 years, and the upscale wine market is still an area in which independent investors can profit handsomely.

A third-generation wine merchant, and CEO of one of the largest rare-wine companies in the world, David Sokolin knows how to turn fine wine into cold cash. And he knows how you can, too. In simple, practical terms, Investing in Liquid Assets provides all the information you need to understand the economic principles that govern the world of fine wine and take advantage of the resources currently available.

Using his insider's expertise, Sokolin defines Investment-Grade Wine and identifies the most financially important wine regions and styles. Defining the key players in the field, Sokolin shows you how to navigate the world of wine critics and understand the impact of their scores, and he explains why it's perfectly fine that your own personal tastes really don't matter. He offers tips on where to find reputable sources for fine wine, how to manage storage and resale, as well as all-important buying and selling strategies. In the second half of the book, he gives overviews of the world's greatest wine regions and offers his predictions about which regions and which wines are likely to represent the greatest investment opportunities in the near future.

Providing information and tactics previously known only to successful professionals, Investing in Liquid Assets turns your passion for fine wine into a valuable resource that will pay for itself.

Customer Review: the only book you need on the subject

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.

Customer Review: Must Have For Serious Wine Collectors

Dave Sokolin is the most dynamic and entrepreneurial man in the American wine trade, involved in everything from vineyards to retailing, but mostly in the business of making money from investing in wine. If you really want to know how the business of wine works, buy this book. You might make some money, too, in a commodity that is highly non-correlative with equity investments.

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Made with Chardonnay wine, a very light taste. Try with cream cheese and crackers, as a cheesecake topping, on croissants, crepes or bagels with cream cheese. Try as a glaze for Chicken or Fish.

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