On Good Drink

On Good Drink, from the April 2006 issue of The American Enterprise
	Is there an equivalent of the word “foodie” to describe those of us who are passionate about beverages, who love everything from gourmet sodas (Sioux City Sarsaparilla, anyone?) to exquisite high-end bourbon (Van Winkle, aged 20 years) and all that lies in between, hard and soft alike?

The indescribable fans of liquid refreshments will no doubt be interested in Tom Standage’s book 'A History of the World in 6 Glasses.' Standage, technology editor at The Economist, examines how six beverages—beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola—serve as “fluid testaments to the forces that shaped the modern world.”

Standage excels in the earliest chapters, detailing the links between agriculture, beer, and the beginning of civilization. Interestingly, Mesopotamia played a major role in the early history of beer (though Mesopotamians drank their beer through straws, which bothers me more than it should). I hope Iraqis will keep this in mind as they rebuild their country. Baghdad Brew has a nice ring to it.

The scope of Standage’s project is so large (his narrative begins around 10,000 years before Christ) that some details get lost in the shuffle. Still, interesting factoids abound. For example, we learn another reason to be suspicious of French-lovin’ Thomas Jefferson: “He denounced ‘the poison of whiskey,’” and tried hard to make America a land of wine drinkers. I love wine, too, but where would we be without bourbon? (More sober, I guess.)

Speaking of bourbon, this book’s shortcoming is the spirits chapter. Little is said about what makes bourbon bourbon. And the other great Dixie spirit, Tennessee whiskey (no, Jack Daniel’s is NOT bourbon) isn’t even mentioned. Neither is vodka, which surely will annoy some Polish and Russian readers. Gin is curiously absent.

A similar problem afflicts the soda section, which, as the title “Coca-Cola and the Rise of America” implies, is really about Coke. Sure, Coke’s the Big Man on the soft drink campus, but I would have loved a mention of some of its early competitors, like the notoriously bad-tasting Moxie. And yes, Coke did originally have cocaine in it, and descended from a drink called French Wine Cola, which contained both cocaine and alcohol. And I thought having an espresso after a martini was a wild ride.

Another drink Standage looks at—wine—has inspired whole books. A recent example is Hugh Johnson’s 'A Life Uncorked,' which is just as much about wine as it is about the author himself. Johnson has written about wine for nearly 50 years. Back in the days before chirpy sommeliers such as TV’s Andrea Immer, or the rise of Robert Parker Jr., he was toiling (oh, to be so burdened) as a vinocommentator.

Johnson is a wine writer of the old school. He eschews the modern day point systems of Parker and such, stating he “misses the point” of “percentages of perfection.” Nor does he care much for the terminology of contemporary wine critics, whose reviews too often read “like a recipe for fruit salad.” To Johnson, wine tastes like wine.

Johnson’s long experience and deep love of his subject matter allows him to convey far more than Standage could in his chapters on wine. Of course, reading Johnson on champagne doesn’t help you understand the history of mankind. It just makes you want to drop $200 on a bottle of Krug.

Oenophiles will surely disagree with some of Johnson’s opinions. I don’t quite get how he can love Prosecco, yet dismiss Cava. But that’s all beside the point. Johnson is a witty, talented writer, and his love of the grape comes across in his book—which is just as rich and rewarding as, well, a good glass of wine.