These are our favorite books of 2024 that celebrate our love of wine and cocktails.
If you’ve got a passion for wine and cocktails the way that we do, you’re likely as into learning and discovering as you are into imbibing. With that in mind, we’ve been poring over this year’s brilliantly boozy new books. From wines around the world to cocktails that celebrate a place or space, pick your poison from 2024’s latest, greatest swillable reads.
The Connaught Bar: Cocktail Recipes and Iconic Creations
by Agostino Perrone - Giorgio Bargiani - Maura Milia - Massimo Bottura - Anistatia Miller
'When I think about the Connaught Bar, I return again and again to the hospitality, the methodology and the quality experiences that I have experienced there over the past decade.' -Massimo Bottura
Food & Wine's Best Cookbooks of Spring 2024, and as seen in The Evening Standard, Epicurious, and Imbibe
Re-create the Connaught Bar's signature cocktails at home, with over 200 recipes for drinks and homemade ingredients.
Step inside one of the best bars in the world and learn how the Connaught Bar's virtuoso mixologists create 100 elegant cocktails - both contemporary and timeless classics - with easy-to-follow recipes and clear instructions on how to recreate them at home. Alongside expert guidance for essential bar tools, glassware, and spirits, there are 120 additional recipes for homemade syrups, infused spirits, and garnishes that Master Mixologist Agostino Perrone and his team use to make their signature celebrated drinks, including the famed Connaught Martini.
Each cocktail recipe is introduced with a narrative from Perrone about the inspiration and ingredients that make these cocktails truly sensational experiences. With a foreword by legendary chef Massimo Bottura and a preface by Anistatia Miller and specially commissioned cocktail photography by Lateef Okunnu, The Connaught Bar is the ultimate cocktail recipe and hospitality book and companion.
Natural Wine, No Drama: An Unpretentious Guide
by Honey Spencer
Discover the wonderful world of natural wine... without all the drama.
Award-winning sommelier Honey Spencer opens up the world of natural wine and shows us how to embrace all its unique beauty as she shares her straightforward advice on how to find, choose, pair and enjoy all that each glass has to offer.
Alongside her masterful wine knowledge, Honey shines a light on the most innovative newcomers and leading women in the industry - including winemakers, importers and sommeliers from around the world - revealing the exciting personalities, stories and techniques behind natural winemaking in countries such as Italy, Georgia, the USA, Australia and more.
You'll also find a unique selection of recipes and pairing notes from world-famous chefs, alongside an easily digestible glossary to make quick sense of winemaking in a way that truly opens up the world of natural wine to anyone that wants to enjoy it.
This book is perfect for wine lovers and anyone interested in trying natural wine but is not sure where to start.
The Cocktail Parlor: How Women Brought the Cocktail Home
by Nicola Nice - Robert Simonson
Throughout American history, women have helped propel what we know as classic cocktails--the Martini, the Manhattan, the Old-Fashioned, and more--into popular culture. But, often excluded from private clubs, women exercised this influence from the home, in their cocktail parlors. In The Cocktail Parlor, Dr. Nicola Nice, sociologist and spirits entrepreneur, gives women their long-overdue spotlight in cocktail history and shows how they still impact cocktail culture today.
Journeying through the decades, this book profiles a diverse array of influential hostesses. With each historic era comes iconic recipes, featuring a total of 40 main cocktails and more than 100 variations that readers can make at home. Whether its happy hour punch à la Martha Washington or a Harlem Renaissance-inspired Green Skirt, readers will find that many of the ingredients and drinks they're familiar with today wouldn't be here without the hostesses who served them first.
Mexico City Cocktails: An Elegant Collection of Over 100 Recipes Inspired by the City of Palaces
by Rosa Martha Márquez Oropeza
Journey through the bustling bars and hidden gems of one of the world's most dynamic cities.
From mezcal to tequila, from classic concoctions to innovative creations, uncover the secrets behind Mexico City's most beloved beverages with this spirited collection. With over 100 recipes and dozens of bartender profiles, you can drink like a local wherever you are. This book is broken down by neighborhood, so you can find the best bars and finest signature creations that Mexico City has to offer. Residents and tourists alike will discover locations and drinks that are sure to satisfy all tastes.
Within the gorgeous, die-cut covers, you'll find more than 100 essential and exciting cocktail recipes, including recipes for bespoke ingredients and other serving suggestions; interviews with the city's trendsetting bartenders and mixologists; bartending tips and techniques from the experts; food and drink destinations across the city; and much more!
Get a taste of Mexico City's craft cocktail scene without ever leaving your zip code with Mexico City Cocktails.
Let's Do Drinks: Inspirational Tips, Personal Secrets and 75+ Recipes for a Fancy Night Out Without Leaving the House
by Elliott Clark - Alex Day
As see on “Good Morning America!” Let's Do Drinks provides all the information you need to turn your home space into a classic cocktail bar experience!
This visually stunning book provides all of the information readers need to understand the needs of a home bar and tailor those needs to the space they live in, enabling them to create the optimal bar space for entertaining, parties, friendly gatherings and more.
Written by self-proclaimed cocktail nerd, Elliott Clark, the book reads as if you're having a personal conversation with the author, during which he shares all of his good advice, tips and the occasional secret for developing a killer bar, along with the materials needed to ensure you can make the widest range of drinks needed on demand.
The book provides set up instructions and considerations, tailored for a variety of spaces, insights into a wide variety of spirts and liqueurs, necessary tools of the trade, glassware, and more.
Readers will also find 75 incredible recipes that start with the tried-and-true classics and evolves into the author's signature house menu of original cocktail recipes, including seasonally inspired drink recipes any home entertainer, and novice cocktail enthusiast can mix up.
As a self-proclaimed cocktail nerd, Elliott Clark is considered to be one of the leading and influential voices in the world of spirits, cocktails and home bartending. A highly-respected tastemaker, he is the personality behind Apartment Bartender - an award-winning drink blog and brand that's become synonymous with elevated experiences at home and beyond . . . minus the pretension.
In this book, Clark provides everything readers need to know about creating a world class drink experience in the comfort of their own homes.
Pretty Simple Cocktails: Margaritas, Mocktails, Spritzes, and More for Every Mood and Occasion
by Julianna McIntosh
Eighty-five deliciously dreamy cocktails, mocktails, and simple syrup mixers from the beloved social media drinks specialist Join Jules.
Self-taught cocktail pro Julianna McIntosh offers spirited inspiration and recipes for home cocktail makers of all levels. From state-of-mind spritzes to margaritas for every mood, punches, martinis, and booze-free beauties, Jules's dazzling collection is served up with grace and flair. In addition to recipes for drinks, home mixologists will learn how to make their creations stand out using floral ice cubes, salted and sugared rims, dehydrated citrus, and bruléed fruit.
Recipes include relaxed refreshers like Tequila Mango Refresher, Low-ABV Spicy Fizz; a margarita for every mood, including the Pineapple Mezcal Margarita, and Aperol Strawberry Coconut Margarita; drinks for cozy occasions, like the Tiramisu Espresso-tini and Homemade Citrus-Cello; and booze-free beauties like the Watermelon Smash and Garden Refresher Punch.
With practical guidance for batching up, serving, and stocking your home bar, too, Pretty Simple Cocktails is the new go-to for drinking with style.
Forbidden Cocktails: Libations Inspired by the World of Pre-Code Hollywood
by André Darlington - Mark A Vieira
A stunning package for classic film buffs and drinks enthusiasts alike, all the "forbidden" fun of Pre-Code Hollywood and the Prohibition and speakeasy era meet in this stylish cocktail book.
What might Jean Harlow have sipped for Dinner at Eight? What did Barbara Stanwyck take to steel herself in Baby Face? If you're a classic film fan who's ever pondered these questions, or are a bartender or at-home entertainer who adores Prohibition-era cocktails, this guide to mixed drinks inspired by Pre-Code Hollywood is essential reading. The stars and stories of the "forbidden" time in moviemaking before strict censorship was enforced and the movies reflected a raucous freedom that would be unseen again for decades take the spotlight in Forbidden Cocktails. With 50 film-and-drink pairings and packaged handsomely with more than 100 full-color and black-and-white photos throughout, this is a practical and stunning homage to a singularly exuberant and evocative era.
Italy in a Wineglass: The Story of Italy Through Its Wines
by Marc Millon
"Compulsory reading" - The International Wine Review
A leading travel writer guides readers on a sumptuous journey through time and flavor to understand how and why wine transformed Italy . . .
"It's not often that a wine writer can engross and enthrall you with the history of a culture where wine merely plays its part along with many other players. Marc Millon does this absorbingly and impressively, telling the intriguing, exasperating, but ultimately optimistic story of Italy and its wines." –OZ CLARKE, author of The History of Wine in 100 Bottles
The world is enamored with Italy: its culture, art, food, and fashion, its beautiful landscapes, and famous cities – and, of course, its wine.
From the ancient Greeks to the Medici, and from fascism to feminism, Italy has always been entwined with wine. Through the millennia, it has been a celebratory libation at great events, given solace in times of despair, and fortified warriors before battle. Whether Possessioni Rosso, still made by descendants of Dante; Barolo "Lazzarito," from a wine estate founded by the son of Italy's first king; or Terre Rosse di Giabbascio, pressed from grapes grown on ex-Mafia land, the peninsula's wines provide an intoxicating insight into the ideas, events, and personalities that shaped Italian history.
If history can sometimes be throat-achingly dry, writer and wine expert Marc Millon serves up a delightfully fresh take on Italy's past, present, and future, best enjoyed with a glass in hand.
Who's Afraid of Romanée-Conti?: A Shortcut to Drinking Great Wines
by Dan Keeling
"I love this book. There's pleasure on every page. It's essential reading for wine lovers and wine novices." - Keira Knightley
Wine can be daunting without an incisive guide. Who's Afraid of Romanée-Conti? is a no-holds-barred voyage of discovery, from sourcing good cheap vino to drinking its most unattainable and holiest of grails - Romanée-Conti - and the universe of interstellar wines that lie in-between.
From new-school Burgundy, Barolo and Champagne to Tenerife, Corsica and Chianti, Noble Rot co-founder Dan Keeling visits some of the world's most renowned vignerons and vineyards on a quest to find out why some wines matter - and why many others don't. Throughout, he details the complex aspects of traditionalist wine culture, offering insights into subjects such as sulphur in winemaking, building a cellar, and many personal recommendations on what to buy for every pocket.
It's wine - but not as you know it.
Sake: The Art and Craft of Japan's National Drink
by Yoshiko Ueno-Müller
The definitive book on Japan's national drink, this visually stunning celebration of the culture, craft, and history of sake pairs perfectly with the growing boom in its consumption across the globe.
Sake is more than just a beverage – it is an art form deeply embedded in the fabric of Japanese heritage. Expertly researched and written by one of the few women to be awarded the prestigious Master of Sake Tasting qualification, this sumptuous, wide-ranging volume features lavishly illustrated chapters that explore the beverage's role in Japanese history and tradition; its production, key ingredients, and sourcing; aroma and taste profiles; and pairing it with food.
Filled with beautiful full-page photographs, this book showcases the rituals and customs of sake drinking and profiles prominent rice farmers and brewers. It illustrates the different varieties of rice and the fundamental production processes from rice-polishing to aging. Readers will learn about sake tasting; various types of drinking vessels; and the fundamental flavors and styles of Japanese cuisine. Breathtaking in its sweep and allure, this uniquely comprehensive book invites enthusiasts and connoisseurs alike to immerse themselves in the history, culture, and craftsmanship behind every glass of Japan's famed rice wine.