A review of Alcohol Today: Abstinence in an Age of Indulgence by Peter Lumpkins. Melanie Rehak on Red Wine and Blue: Americans have a long and contradictory history of imbibing and proscribing. Moonshine returns: The fabled liquor of outlaws and gangsters is making a comeback with craft distillers — too bad it's still illegal. A review of The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire by Linda Himelstein. Cheers: Robert Messenger on the cocktail renaissance. The natural habitat of the Picon Punch — among Basque shepherds, in the wilds of California — is its great appeal. Julian Baggini takes on his toughest assignment yet — drinking wine with Barry C Smith and Tim Crane. Veddy Unfortunate: How the greatest wine hoax ever has diminished a brilliant British oenophile. A review of Alice Feiring’s The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization. Amber Ale: An article on brewing beer from 45-million-year-old yeast. Breaking up Big Beer: Should Obama go after the bloated brewers? Why does Coke from a glass bottle taste different? A review of Wellsprings: A Natural History of Bottled Spring Waters by Francis Chapelle. How did a plastic water bottle, imported from a military dictatorship thousands of miles away, become the epitome of cool?
