Moveable Thirst or Best Bridal Shower Party Games

Moveable Thirst: Tales and Tastes from a Season in Napa Wine Country

Author: Hank Beal

A rollicking wine country travelogue paired with the only comprehensive guide to Napa’s public tasting rooms

Hank Beal is a wine pro–the executive wine buyer at an upscale supermarket chain. Rick Kushman is an ordinary joe–a guy who enjoys wine but doesn’t know a lot about it. Together, Hank and Rick set out to visit all 141 public tasting rooms in Napa during the course of a year. The result is A Moveable Thirst–an engaging, often hilarious book that’s one part Sideways, one part Frommer’s. The first part recounts their uproarious adventures on the road as Rick learns to sniff and spit like a true oenophile (but never stops asking stupid questions). The second part offers the most complete and detailed guide ever published to Napa’s wine rooms. For wine lovers and the more than 5 million people who visit Napa every year, A Moveable Thirst is a great read and an indispensable guide.

Publishers Weekly

There are 141 wine tasting rooms open to the public in California's Napa Valley, and Kushman, the TV columnist for the Sacramento Bee, decided he was going to visit them all with Beal, an executive wine buyer for a supermarket chain, offering his expert perspective. Both men are listed as coauthors, but it's Kushman alone who narrates their tours. He offers plenty of engaging vignettes, along with practical advice—don't wear white if you haven't gotten the hang of spitting yet—and accessible mini-lectures on subjects ranging from the history of white Zinfandel to the proper technique for fermenting wines in oak barrels. The stories, originally published as a series of newspaper columns, are consistently upbeat, reveling in Napa's image as "the heartbeat of American winemaking," and even Kushman marvels at how polite everyone at the wineries is during their visits. The generous spirit extends to the detailed tasting room guide that follows the main narrative, where about the worst they'll say is that the service in a popular place gets slow during busy hours. So the ratings won't tell tourists if one tasting room is better than another, but they do offer a workable idea of what to expect at each venue. (May)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

A Season in Napa Valley.

One: Downtown Napa.

Two: Oak Knoll District.

Three: Carneros.

Four: Yountville/Stags Leap.

Five: Oakville.

Six: Chiles Valley and Pope Valley.

Seven: Rutherford.

Eight: St. Helena.

Nine: North Valley.

Ten: The Mayacamas Mountains.

Eleven: Calistoga.

The Tasting Rooms of Napa Valley.

Tips for Wine Tasting.

Downtown Napa Tasting Rooms.

Oak Knoll District Tasting Rooms.

Carneros Tasting Rooms.

Yountville/Stags Leap Tasting Rooms.

Oakville Tasting Rooms.

Chiles Valley and Pope Valley Tasting Rooms.

Rutherford Tasting Rooms.

St. Helena Tasting Rooms.

North Valley Tasting Rooms.

Mayacamas Mountains Tasting Rooms.

Calistoga Tasting Rooms.

Tasting Room Index.

New interesting textbook: Presenting Service or Speaking With a Purpose

Best Bridal Shower Party Games: Four Pencil Games With Duplicate Game Sheets for Eight People Plus Four Entertaining Party Activities, Vol. 2

Author: Courtney Cook

Make your bridal shower fun!

Here's all you need to get your bridal shower off to a fast and funny start: four pencil games that everyone will enjoy (with duplicate game sheets for eight people) plus four entertaining group activities.