Denman, J[ames]. L[emoine].

What Should We Drink? An Inquiry Suggested by Mr. E.L. Beckwith's 'Practical Notes on Wine.'.

London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1868.

Small octavo, 120 pages. First edition. A criticism of Beckwith's Practical Notes on Wine, which itself was a response to the wine offerings at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Denman's attack is spirited, visiting various styles of wine and punching holes in what he perceives to be Beckwith's uninformed fluffery. The champagne section, where he derides Beckwith's inconsistency on the sparkling wine's chemical "sophistication" (here it is a derogatory term, as it is in bookselling). With small contemporary newspaper article on Italian wines pasted down to the front fee end paper, otherwise a fine copy in publishers gilt and black decorated brick red cloth. This book is notoriously scarce in the marketplace. [Worldcat cites 15 copies].