1934 Cocktail Bill Boothby's World Drinks and how to mix them

WI NE S Their Selection and Service Connoisseurs of premier wines,even as the wines themselves, are rare birds. They are those who constantly seek out hidden caches of fine vintages (years),for the year of a wine's birth has all to do with its quality, and, by devious means, having pro cured that which they sought, retire into their secluded nook with much self-satisfaction. These self-same connoisseurs then will spend much time in sweet anticipation of the impending event and, when the au spicious moment arrives, and the treasure be drawn from its secret resting place, again it is they, and they only, who bask in its bottled sunshine and fawn in the flood of their friends' rap turous approval anent its body, bouquet, etc., etc. However, these connoisseurs being rare birds, indeed, it is not to them, who surely need no guidance in their quest for vintage, that this short treatise is dedicated. Rather to the com mon flock, or fledgling if you please, nine hundred ninety-nine strong to each connoisseur, this feeble effort from a sea of vol umes is respectfully offered. For those whose palates and whose nostrils are not so keenly attuned to that finesse acquired by the epicure in wines, for those who though they might enjoy the bouquet, yet do not readily recognize it, and, for the very life of them, could not name its vintage, the publisher offers.what aid he might. Wines,in one form or another, have come down to us from the days of the Pharaohs. It is claimed first to have been dis covered by the Egyptians in the earliest days of history. These pyramid builders are reported to have fermented, from the ten der shoots of the date palm, a liquid termed Araq. This was man's first knowledge of wine,and if history is to be relied upon, the fluid produced was plenty potent.