I was very disappointed with Oscar Mendel- sohn's Dictionary of
Drink and Drinking (Mac- millan, 45s.). Naturally, anyone who sets out to provide a wordbook is going to leave a few words out and get himself taken to task for it, but what he does with the words that he includes is the real test.
On vodka: 'Why people have proved willing to pay a high price for neutral spirit under a fancy name is one of the romances of modern commerce and a tribute to the mysterious power of the advertising agent.'
`Brown water: Australian slang for beer. The English simple "brown" is better.' That should make Watneys pale.
Of Chablis: 'The wine is so highly esteemed that the name is widely misused outside France.' Only outside?
Of sulphur: 'Sulphur dioxide is also com- monly added to the poorer bottled dry wines and many people who are sensitive to sulphites find such wines nauseous. In general, sulphur, like fire, is a good servant but a bad master.' SO, means unhappy drinking.
It was a major lapse in a normally shrewd commentator to suggest that the gamay grape is used for 'fine wines, especially Burgundy,' when the great wines of the area derive from the pinot noir and the pinot chardonnay, and the use of prolific gamay is anathema outside the Macon or Beaujolais areas.
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