Cooking & Food > Wine & Beer

This best-selling title, now in its 20th year of publication, is firmly established as the most authoritative and sought-after guide to New Zealand wines. Updated yearly with new tasting notes and vintage ratings, including the most current vintage, this is a 'must-have' publication for the new initiate and the established wine-buff alike. This book will help the buyer to make informed choices about the best value and best quality wines available. Divided by grape variety to help selection, this comprehensive guide includes vintage... read more

For millennia, beer has been a staple beverage in cultures across the globe. After water and tea, it is the most popular drink in the world, and it is at the center of an over $450 billion industry. With the emergence of craft brewing and homebrewing, beer is experiencing a renaissance that is expanding the reach of the beer culture even further, bringing the art of brewing into homes and widening the interest in beer as an important cultural item. The Oxford Companion to Beer is the first reference work to fully investigate the hi... read more

Want to become your own brewmeister? Homebrewing For Dummies, 2nd Edition, gives you easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for everything from making your first "kit" beer to brewing an entire batch from scratch. Before you know it, you'll be boiling, bottling, storing, pouring, and kegging your own frothy, delicious suds. This friendly, hands-on guide walks you through each step in the brewing process at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. It fills you in on all the homebrewing basics with a comprehensive equipme... read more

Colours of Wine is a beautifully evocative portrait of wine making in the Languedoc region of southern France, with stunning images from the area of Saint-Chinian, one of its rising stars. Denis La Touche's photographs capture the changing seasons and the rhythm of the vineyard cycle with its many facets, conveying a profound sense of the people and the place. The progression of the wines from the Languedoc region has been remarkable over recent years, as has been noted and reported by wine writers and wine lovers around the wo... read more

"Hugh Johnson's masterpiece; combining his gifts as writer, taster, and historian to superb effect. Quirky, informative and extremely readable, with enlightening chapters on everything from the birth of claret to the rise of the New World." Tim Atkin, on the first edition. Written by the world's best-selling wine author, this new edition of Hugh Johnson's Story of Wine is an enthralling read, tracing the story of wine from the dawn of civilization through the bacchanalian splendour of the ancient world to the present day. Updated t... read more

A collection of over 700 recipes ranging from essential classics to flamboyant tropical concoctions. The book also covers how to serve them, basic mixology and stocking your bar, with advice on flair bartending and event management.

Containing the author's tasting notes, this book on Irish whiskey covers: the history of Irish whiskey making; distillery and brand histories; pot still, pure malt and blended whiskeys; rare vintage bottlings; Irish whiskey liqueurs; poteen; and visitor facilities on Ireland's whiskey trail.

Ever wondered how to make your own beer, cider or fruit wine? Home Brew provides the recipes, techniques and essential information to get you started as well as the low-down on the kit needed. Handy tips and guidance will ensure that before long you are enjoying your own brew. Brewing 'your own' is the perfect way to make the most of seasonal fruits and gluts and there are recipes for every taste - from scrumptious blackberry wine to sparkling cider, fruity cherry beer, or non-alcoholic ginger beer.

The New Zealand Wine-lover's Companion is the perfect book for anyone who's enthusiastic about wine but intimidated by the esoteric language that often surrounds it. Assuming no prior knowledge, it takes every puzzling reference that a casual wine drinker might encounter in wine articles and reviews, in wine shops or wineries, on labels or in conversation and explains it in simple, but not condescending, language. From grape varieties and winemaking techniques to the terminology used to articulate the subtle attributes of wines, th... read more

Cocktails, whether served at a dedicated cocktail party or as a precursor to an elegant meal, lend an air of sophistication and glamour. There are hundreds of different cocktails, some of which experience fleeting popularity before disappearing into obscurity while others remain popular for decades. In "501 Must-Drink Cocktails", the timeless favourties are collected together with more recent and modern classics.

This guide assesses the quality and value of over 1000 wines, each featuring tasting notes and information on the maker, releases, best vintages, and price. There is also advice from experts on slecting wine, matching food, decanting, and cellaring. Paperback (B-Format)

Enjoyment of wine is not just a matter of knowing what you like - it is always enhanced by knowledge of what you are drinking. This text presents a distillation of all the essential information for wine-lovers and would-be wine-lovers, drawn from the author's "Oxford Companion to Wine".

In its inaugural release, Taste Food & Wine 2007 leapt into position as the number one best-selling wine guide in Australia. The consumer-friendly style of this definitive guide made it extremely popular with the consumer market. Taste Food & Wine 2008 is even bigger and better.This year it’s been reworked to fully embrace wining and dining in New Zealand. A detailed reference to choosing the best wine to match with any dish, the book features engaging language to keep every reader entertained, It includes a strong emphasis on New... read more

'I've never heard anyone say: "This wine is perfect." Admittedly I once gave a wine 20 out of 20 at a wine show, but it was the very first wine of the very first day of the show, and I only did it to signal to the other judges that I'm essentially a pretty facetious person. Every other judge had given it a 14.' As wine writer Ben Canaider admits, wine is an inexact science. But that doesn't stop him carrying out his own search to find his, and THE perfect glass of wine. This book is the result: a rollicking account of Canaider's... read more

This book contains recipes for more than 200 classic and contemporary cocktails, plus expert tips on preparing and serving the perfect mixed drink. The first part of the book, Bar Essentials, explores the top tools of the trade and how to use them. Next, The Art of Mixology, reveals all you need to know to create drinks of your own. With flavour profiles, advice on balancing flavours and how to achieve the perfect serve, you will soon be mixing your own cocktails with confidence. In The Recipes, there is a cocktail to suit everyone... read more

Wine Class: Everything you need to know about NZ wine is an entertaining and informative guide to wine that aims to equip the reader with the confidence to hold their own in any discussion on NZ wine and discover what they like and to understand wine. First published July 2009.

The original and best, Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book is the ultimate compact guide. Now in its 35th edition, it is the UK's number one wine book appealing to wine-lovers and professionals alike. It is the key reference for enthusiasts, investors and collectors and this year's edition boasts up-to-date news on more than 6,000 wines, growers, and regions, plus invaluable vintage information from experts around the world. A new colour supplement focuses on the array of wines from the South of France, while a new section offers the r... read more