Try it anywhere ... Sex on the Beach'TIS the season to be jolly - as most of us drink more booze now than at any other time of the year.
But as you nurse that hangover, perhaps it might be time to get to know the enemy.
And that's where Peter Grogan's A-Z Of Alcohol comes in.
The book fizzes with booze facts, and here DEBORAH SHERWOOD has mixed a tasty sample of the best...
Put a cork in it, Mick ... Hucknall has his own wineALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: AA was founded in 1934 in Akron, Ohio, and has two million members globally.
BOOZE: Slang term said to come from the 14th Century English verb "bouse" meaning to drink heavily. Others credit the term to 1860s US distiller EG Booz.
CELEBRITIES: Sir Cliff Richard, Mick Hucknall, Gerard Depardieu and Greg Norman have all put their names to wines.
DRUNKENNESS: State resulting from the consumption of ethanol at a faster rate than the individual is able to metabolise (approximately one 10ml unit per hour).
Gin and bear it ... Hogarth's vision of drunken LondonersEIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT: Change to the US Constitution in 1919 that established Prohibition.
FUZZY NAVEL: Cocktail of vodka or rum, peach schnapps and orange juice.
GIN: Originated in 17th Century Holland where troops got "Dutch courage" from it during the Thirty Years War with Spain before bringing it over to Britain.
HANGOVER: Gueule de bois (wood mouth) in France, Kater (tomcat) in Germany.
ITALIAN WINES: There are nearly 1,000 different grape varieties in the country.
JUG WINE: The most basic Californian wine was sold in large jugs with handles to carry home.
KOSHER BOOZE: Jewish dietary law allows only kosher ingredients in booze.
LUNGS: The size of a standard wine bottle is the result of the amount of air a glass blower can push out of the lungs.
MULLED WINE: Do not overheat - alcohol boils at 78?C and will disappear before the wine itself has boiled. The temperature should be around 55?C.
NEW ZEALAND WINE: First sold here in 1982 when winemakers cadged space for a few cases on a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane heading to the UK.
OUZO: Rough ouzo gives bad hangovers as it continues to ferment in the stomach.
POTEEN: Illegally distilled Irish liquor, usually made from barley or potatoes.
QUALITY: For wine, the geography and the climate of the vineyard, grape variety and the length of ageing influence quality.
RESTAURANTS: Some mark up wine by as much as 400 per cent a bottle. So order by the glass or go to the pub first. Only ever drink dessert wines at home.
SEX ON THE BEACH: A cocktail of vodka, peach schnapps, cranberry juice and orange juice.
THREE PENIS WINE: A Chinese treatment for flagging libido containing dried and powdered parts of deer, dog and seal.
UK BEER SALES: John Smith's is the UK's best-selling bitter - we down a million pints of it a week.
ODKA: Pyotr Smirnov created his brand back in the 1860s, although vodka has been around about 1,000 years longer.
WHISKY: Diageo has the biggest slice of the ?3.1billion Scotch export business. The most important flavouring ingredients of Scotch are smoke and oak.
XYNOMAVRO: A Greek red wine grape variety that mellows with age.
YIELD: The root system of a vine sucks nutrition from the earth. The more grapes, the less each gets. Reduce the number of grapes per vine and you get a better quality of wine.
ZINFANDEL: Robust grape variety planted in one in ten of California's vineyards.
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The A to Z of booze | The Sun |Features
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