酒席で気の利いた話題を提供したい英語通訳ガイドの方に 本書『Drinking Japan』は、日本の酒文化に対する並々ならぬ愛情があふれる視点から書き下ろされた日英対訳の文化ガイドです。利酒師でありソムリエの上級資格ともいわれるWSET Level3を持つ著者が、日本酒だけではなく、様々な地域で造られている多様なお酒を、醸造の方法や種類の説明はもちろん、その歴史や普及の過程、はたまたぴったりな肴など、多岐にわたって紹介しています。 日本人でも知らないような日本の酒文化についての読み物として、なにより日本酒にかたよりがちな英文ガイドが物足りないという方に、ぜひ手に取っていただきたい一冊です。 Good drinking is a multidimensional experience. A finely produced wine or whisky, for example, will engage the drinker's four senses as he/she considers and evaluates such aspects of the drink as flavor, smell, appearance, and mouthfeel. This dimension should appeal to every serious sybarite. But the drinking experience is enhanced exponentially when one knows something about the history of the beverage, the culture from which it has emerged, its production process, and its marketing. In Drinking Japan—It' s Not Just Sake, we have provided our readers with all of this information and more. This intellectual dimension makes one a more interesting person, to be sure, but it may also provide input to the third dimension. The Irish call it “craic", which is the pleasure that good conversation and pleasant company bring. Of course, one can always talk about the weather or the latest blip, boom, bust, or belch from the stock market, but isn't it more interesting to discuss whether your Chardonnay is oaked or unoaked, your sake predominantly sweet or dry, or how long your whisky has been aged?