Topic: A Sip of Knowledge with David Wondrich, Author and Drinks Historian

Hosts: Liz Rhoades, Lew Bryson, & Martin Duffy

What You’ll Learn: Join a trio of drink industry veterans in weekly conversation on whiskey, spirits, distilling, marketing, and the current state of the drink industry. This week, David Wondrich, author and drinks historian, joins the group.

About David Wondrich:

David Wondrich is widely hailed as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the history of the cocktail and one of the founders of the modern craft cocktail movement. The Senior Drinks Columnist for the Daily Beast, Dr. Wondrich (he has a PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University) is the author of countless newspaper and magazine articles (most significantly, the almost 17 years’ worth he wrote as Esquire’s Drinks Correspondent) and five books, including the hugely influential Imbibe!, the first cocktail book to win a James Beard award (2007; an expanded and thoroughly revised edition was published in April, 2015), and Punch, which came out in late 2010 to broad acclaim and did much to spark the current boom in punch-making. His latest work is the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, of which he is the Editor in Chief. It will be released in October 2021. As a consultant, he has been involved in the creation of a number of spirits that are found on the backbars of practically every craft cocktail bar on the planet, including Ransom Old Tom gin and the multiple award-winning Plantation Stiggins’ Fancy Pineapple Rum. He is a founding partner in Beverage Alcohol Resource, America’s leading advanced training program for bartenders and other mixologists, and a frequent guest lecturer at venues such as the Smithsonian Institute, the Museum of the City of New York and fine bars on five continents and ships at sea. In 2019, he came in at number three in Drinks International’s inaugural list of 100 most-influential people in the bar world, based on a poll of top industry professionals. He is a longtime resident of Brooklyn, New York.

About the Hosts: 

• Liz Rhoades, founder of Spirit Safe Consulting, former research scientist for DIAGEO, distilling consultant, spirits writer for The Whiskey Wash & presenter.

• Lew Bryson, former managing editor for Whisky Advocate Magazine for 20 years, whiskey author, beer/whiskey writer and presenter.

• Martin Duffy, former DIAGEO Master of Whisky for the Midwest, DIAGEO Reserve Brand Ambassador for The Republic of Ireland, North American Brand Representative for Glencairn Crystal.