Wine Cocktails: 50 Stylish Sippers That Show Off Your Reds, Whites, and Roses (50 Series) [Hardcover]

A. J. Rathbun (Author)

Book Description

Series: 50 Series | Publication Date: March 25, 2009

Wine cocktails have long been a part of the cocktail culture in Europe, and in this 50-recipe, full-color book, cocktail connoisseur A.J. Rathbun shows Americans how easy it is to create memorable cocktails with more than just Champagne. Recipes make use of the many wine varietals, liquors, liqueurs, and fresh fruits and other mixers that have become readily available in recent years to make such drinks as Aloha Punch, Blue Train, Sake'd Saint, Whistling Orange, and Cactus Berry-unique and delicious alternatives to the conventional cocktail!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A. J. Rathbun is a freelance food and entertaining writer and the author of Champagne Cocktails, Wine Cocktails, Dark Spirits, Luscious Liqueurs, Party Drinks!, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award-winning Good Spirits. Rathbun earned his MFA in creative writing from Western Michigan University, and has worked variously as a buyer for Amazon.com, an usher at the Art Institute of Chicago, a rock band roadie, an envelope stuffer, a marketing assistant, the director of the Poetry After Hours program at the Seattle Art Museum, an online editor, a waiter, and of course, a bartender. In addition to his cookbooks, Rathbun is the editor of In Their Cups and the author of Want, two poetry collections. Rathbun has been a guest, talking about drinks, food, entertaining, and kitchen products, on numerous radio shows, including Martha Stewart's Everyday Food satellite radio program and USA Radio, has done interviews with a variety of publications, including the Seattle Times, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Arizona Republic, and has contributed to the magazines Every Day with Rachael Ray and Wine Enthusiast, among others. He is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and the Museum of the American Cocktail. He teaches cocktail classes at the cooking school Dish It Up, one of which was recently profiled in the magazine Traditional Homes. Rathbun lives in Seattle, Washington. To learn more about him and his books, and to read his blog, Spiked Punch, and check out a few of his drink-making videos, visit his website at www.ajrathbun.com. 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press (March 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558324070
• ISBN-13: 978-1558324077
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,249,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A.J. Rathbun is a food and entertaining writer and poet and the author of Champagne Cocktails, Dark Spirits, Wine Cocktails, Luscious Liqueurs, Party Snacks!, Party Drinks!, the IACP Award-winning Good Spirits, Double Take (in collaboration with chef Jeremy Holt), and editor and contributor for In Their Cups. In addition to his cocktail books and cookbooks, Rathbun is the author of Want, a collection of poems. He lives in Seattle, Washington. To learn more, visit Rathbun's website at www.ajrathbun.com and drink up his blog Spiked Punch (it's lonely, and needs attention).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Size matters! Great photographs but little substance in this 96-page entry., August 15, 2010

By 

Jared Castle (Roseburg, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Wine Cocktails: 50 Stylish Sippers That Show Off Your Reds, Whites, and Roses (50 Series) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

A 96-page cookbook that reads like a magazine; credit Melissa Punch for impulse purchases as her photography stars in this lightweight mixology entry.

A.J. Rathbun and The Harvard Common Press produced two great bartending books. I wrote five-star ratings for Good Spirits: Recipes, Revelations, Refreshments, and Romance, Shaken and Served with a Twist released in 2007 and Dark Spirits: 200 Classy Concoctions Starring Bourbon, Brandy, Scotch, Whiskey, Rum and More released in 2009.

The former came in at 484 pages, a weighty tome that fit better atop a coffee table than crammed between barware. Good Spirits eschewed the standard bartending book organization by alcohol type in favor of separating the 450 recipes into 12 chapters like Unburied Treasures (great old drinks lost to the years), Pacifying a Crowd (punches) and Fresh Faces (newer creations). Rathbun splashed humor in the recipes and sidebars of obscure facts, drink-related prose and bar talk.

Good Spirits won the 2008 Food Photography and Styling Category from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, recognizing the mouth-watering work of photographer Melissa Punch and food stylist Brian Preston-Campbell.

Dark Spirits served 200 cocktail recipes in 307 pages, focusing on darker liquors that often sit in the back of bartending books, behind vodka, tequila and Champagne. Blessed with the luscious photography and styling of Melissa Punch and Brian Preston-Campbell, I enjoyed Dark Spirits more than its predecessor, toting it to several bars for recipe tests. I started the book as a lover of the Rusty Nail and finished it a slave to the Lalla Rookh.

So, why is Wine Cocktails disappointing? The truth is that size matters.

The book offers 50 recipes divided in four, conventional chapters, abandoning much of the charm that made Rathbun's larger works so enjoyable to read. Rathbun fills less than two pages introducing different wine types under the heading, "A Word or Two about Wine." He writes, "The recipes do cover some ground in the wine they use...if you're not a wine aficionado, don't let this worry you."

I wonder who other than a wine aficionado would consider buying this book.

What is the book missing? Well, for example, Rathbun suggests using "a California Chardonnay" for the Champagne Bowler. That type of specificity is what makes this 96-page cookbook so maddening. He should provide a recommended list of 10-15 brands so we know whether a Central Valley Chardonnay (read: mass produced box and jug wine brands) will suffice. The book should include a cursory overview of American Viticultural Areas, some buying tips, storage tips and suggestions from winegrowers, too. That's just off the top of my head; I'd make a longer list but you get the point.

In summary, this 96-page cookbook offers little that is not readily available through a Google search. Melissa Punch's photography makes this a passable coffee table book - yet, there isn't a single picture of a wine bottle in the entire book -- but the writing is a shadow of Rathbun's earlier works.

Rating: 3 stars.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Yummy Wine Cocktails, April 24, 2010

By 

Jody (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Wine Cocktails: 50 Stylish Sippers That Show Off Your Reds, Whites, and Roses (50 Series) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I never thought about doing much with wine, other than pouring it into my glass and letting it breathe. I am not a wine expert by any means but there were many fun and tasty wine cocktails in this book. The recipes range from complex to simple. I recommend the vanilla-pear mimosa - (or make it a mom-osa which is all I can drink right about now) - delish!

4 stars because I wish that less recipes mixed with other alcohol. We all know what happens when you drink wine all night and then go out and have some tequila shots. So - why do I want to mix the two in a cocktail?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Bottle of Wine, Improved., April 22, 2010

By 

Patrick McCormack (New Brighton, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wine Cocktails: 50 Stylish Sippers That Show Off Your Reds, Whites, and Roses (50 Series) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I am the kind of guy who likes a martini with just a tiny bit of good vermouth.

I am the kind of guy who wonders whether Sangria would be nice on a hot day.

I live with straight gin drinkers who think they are having martinis, and who prefer a bottle of wine and a glass of wine and that is how you drink wine, darn it, as wine!

Forced to go it alone, I went out and got a few bottles of rose, some nice white wine, a red, and this book. The recipes are easy, simple syrup is fun to make, the idea of how to mix wines in a pleasing way without "juicing" the wine up is well presented in this book. I found that the different drinks enhance the wines, and among many good concotions, I found my good Sangria recipe.

I recommend this book. And here is the rub.... (No, there is no rub in this book, but here is the nub)... The rub and the nub is this, when you make a good pitcher of one of the drinks in this book, the most stern wine only drinker will come back for seconds. No higher praise exists...

PS: One reviewer complains that to make all the recipes in this book, many esoteric kinds of liquers would have to be purchased. This is true, and gosh, wasn't it ever fun!