Empire of Booze: British History Through the Bottom of a Glass

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Jeffreys traces the impact of alcohol on British culture and society: literature, science, philosophy and even religion have reflections in the bottom of a glass. Filled to the brim with fascinating trivia and recommendations for how to enjoy these drinks today, you could even drink along as you read… Henry Jeffreys is everything you want a wine writer to be: funny, knowing, unpretentious but also un-blokeish, funny, clever, refreshing, original, funny and inquisitive. And did I say funny? Craig Brown, author and parodist Then you get a bit specialist. “ Inside Burgundy” (Jasper Morris) is the book I reach for most when I need to know something. It is impeccable. “ The Wines of Burgundy” (Clive Coates) is up there too. For a reference point on older wines then “Vintage Wine” (Michael Broadbent) is a must. And the paragraph above is lifted straight from what I wrote about “ Pomerol” (Neal Martin), which is the sort of book I’d like to write. Neal’s book is the last wine book I’ve read. The book is easy to read, with good humor, and good pace. I really liked the sections "Drinking the Empire" in which he gives suggestions for each of the drinks, especially those he thinks would be most like what used to be drunk at the time.

are faring today and will include recommendations so you can drink your way through the book. Britain’s legacy has been much argued over. The lasting gifts Winner of the Fortnum and Mason Best Debut Drink Book Award 2017 From renowned booze correspondent Henry Jeffreys comes this rich and full-bodied history of Britain and the Empire, told through the improbable but true stories of how the world’s favourite alcoholic drinks came to be. Read about how we owe the champagne we drink today to seventeenth-century methods for making sparkling cider; how madeira and India Pale Ale became legendary for their ability to withstand the long, hot journeys to Britain’s burgeoning overseas territories; and why whisky became the familiar choice for weary empire builders who longed for home. Jeffreys traces the impact of alcohol on British culture and society: literature, science, philosophy and even religion have reflections in the bottom of a glass. Filled to the brim with fascinating trivia and recommendations for how to enjoy these drinks today, you could even drink along as you read… So, raise your glass to the Empire of Booze! Empire of Booze by Henry Jeffreys – eBook DetailsThis is a difficult one to answer as following that rioja epiphany I got a job in Oddbins in Headingley where we drank a lot of very good wine though often in slightly strange circumstances: a bottle of Pesquera drunk after a techno night or a 1976 Von Buhl Spatlese drunk whilst watching the sun come up over Harrogate. These were memorable wines and I was certainly closer to my maker though not sure the wines were the main reason. choice for weary empire builders far from home. Is it any wonder that one of the world’s bestselling whiskies, Cutty Sark, is named after that 19 th century symbol of globalisation, the clipper ship? As the dominant power at this time, it was Britain that created the first global drinks.

How did this small archipelago exert such influence on drinks? Like most cold countries, we have a fondness for alcohol. The Russians have vodka, the Henry Jeffreys is everything you want a wine writer to be: funny, knowing, unpretentious but also un-blokeish, funny, clever, refreshing, original, funny and inquisitive. And did I say funny?” – Craig Brown, author and parodist I suppose I would have liked to read more about booze in America. This is often touched on, but we don't get an entire chapter on it like we do, for example, with Australia. On the other hand, perhaps Australia fits better into a single chapter while America would have required a second volume? No offense to the Aussies. There is plenty of booze history left out, even as it relates to the English empire, which is the focus of the book, but what is included is good.

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topic of discussion was which country’s booze we could not do without. It was during one of these high-spirited arguments that I mentioned that without strong drinks such as rum and India Pale Ale that could stand long hot journeys were developed. Whisky, an indigenous British drink, became the drink of Breezy read on the history of the British Empire as it interacted with and influenced the production and distribution of alcoholic drinks. Jeffreys' main point is that, though most spirits/wines are not produced in Britain, over the last centuries they have been produced mainly FOR the UK market, and thus English tastes have been hugely influential in determining what wine, whiskey, port, rum, champagne, gin, sherry, madeira, and beer taste and look like today. Hydrometers used in gin-making at the Balmenach Distillery, Speyside. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian British connection. Champagne? The technology for making sparkling came from England and the taste for a bone-dry wine also came from these shores: without

I am a great admirer of Henry Jeffreys and have been eagerly awaiting his booze and empire book for many years!" – Elif Batuman, author, academic and journalist. In the late 1990s I worked for a wine merchant. We were paid very little, but given a thorough education in wine. After a long evening tasting, a favourite

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Britain, champagne would have been flat and sweet. Port? Well, the names on the bottles are a clue: Taylor’s, Churchill’s, Smith Woodhouse. We went on to Read about how we owe the champagne we drink today to seventeenth-century methods for making sparkling cider; how madeira and India Pale Ale became legendary for their ability to withstand the long, hot journeys to Britain’s burgeoning overseas territories; and why whisky became the familiar choice for weary empire builders who longed for home.

If you are just starting to learn about wine you need two books: “ The Oxford Companion to Wine” (Jancis Robinson) and “ The World Atlas of Wine” (Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson). These two are so good and, between them, so comprehensive in their coverage of just exactly what is what that, unless you need to start pretending to be some sort of authority, they’ll do you forever. Without alcohol, the pre-20 th century global economy could not function. The thirst of Britain’s burgeoning overseas empire needed slaking, so Charming . . . Never mind books about drink – a book you can drink, now that’s a Christmas gift. Spectator The British are the most cosmopolitan people in all history. Forget the empire for a moment; that was just part of it. Aside from that, Britons travelled and traded in the world far more widely than they colonised it, unless you want to count travel and trade as forms of “imperialism”, which some do. They also emigrated, sometimes to their colonies, but more often not. This is why their presence and their legacy are still felt, even after all these years of shrinkage as a nation. In Empire of Booze Henry Jeffreys traces their contribution t o the alcoholic drinking habits of the world. His claim is that Britain, rather than, say, France or Germany, “the country with the greatest influence on wine and drink in general”. It’s a bold assertion, but after reading this book one can see what he means. From renowned booze correspondent Henry Jeffreys comes this rich and full-bodied history of Britain and the Empire, told through the improbable but true stories of how the world’s favourite alcoholic drinks came to be.

to the world of the English language, railways and organised sports are much noted, but I would argue that our greatest gifts to the world are our Otherwise Britain’s contribution was the mercantile one; “commercial nous”, as Jeffreys puts it, “rather than viticultural skill”. It was merchants who were responsible for the vast spread of Scotch whisky, as opposed to Irish or Bourbon, over the world. It was a Briton who built the first brewery in India. (His son was later responsible for the most notorious atrocity in Anglo-Indian history, the Amritsar massacre; Jeffreys has missed this.) Fascinating pub trivia . . . Henry Jeffreys is a wine columnist and drinks writer who clearly knows his stuff Mail on Sunday Swedes have schnapps and the Mongolians have fermented mare’s milk. The British, however, have a whole smorgasbord of drinks to compensate for the cold, Of course, it didn’t happen. It was always very unlikely to. Most book don’t sell. I also think the timing was bad. When I first started working on Empire of Booze , narrative non-fiction was all the rage. You know the kind of thing, how one man’s quest for cheese conquered a kingdom and changed the world. By the time it came out, such books were dead. Furthemore a book celebrating British exceptionalism in 2016 seemed to really annoy some people. I can’t think why.