Cognac: The Seductive Saga of the World's Most Coveted Spirit

by Kyle Jarrard

Book Overview

Rich in history and admirable scholarship. . . . It's a fine grande champagne of a book, to be savored over and over.
-Patricia Wells, author of The Provence Cookbook
Called the "brandy of the gods" by Victor Hugo, Cognac is a universal symbol of refinement and quality. In the first comprehensive history of this celebrated drink, Kyle Jarrard charts Cognac's birth in the 1500s and its transformation into the world's most coveted brandy. Along...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471459445
• ISBN13: 9780471459446
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Wiley (TP)
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Great read, great drink

It isn't often a book will change your life. This one semi sort of did. Leastwise, it changed my drinking. Mid-way into my 60s, I've set aside single malt scotch and switched to cognac. The book is just as satisfying, as much a history of France and it is cognac. Then, of course, one is pretty much the other. If you aren't a fan of cognac, you may soon be. Happy reading, happy drinking!

Cognac -- book to savor

Kyle Jarrard has voiced the subtlety, complexity and passion of a grande champagne wafting across the tongue. His gift for storytelling carried me from the dawn of time, through the emergence of the "eau de vie," to a promising future. The journey is fraught with peaks and valleys, perils and rewards, villains and heros. His infectious reverence for the people, region and products of Cognac blends poetry and journalism in a book that is parts history, personality profile, science text, gourmet cookbook and market analysis.