Bacchus At Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes & Victorian Drinking Lore

The great friendship between Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson began with a chance meeting in a bar. Bearing this in mind, Patricia Guy, internationally known wine journalist and member of the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, has written a witty study of Victorian drinking habits, including information about the best vintages (with tasting notes written in an age when people were not afraid to express their exuberant enthusiasm or icy contempt), details on drinks advertising, a look at a Victorian cellar and medicinal uses of wine, along with a fine compendium of popular Victorian and Edwardian cocktail recipes. Of course, there are chapters comparing the art of wine tasting with the art of detection, and the way Sherlock Holmes’s knowledge of wine led to the resolution of criminal investigations, as well as an essay on what drives wine merchants to crime (their motives have not changed).