Why perry deserves a place in your glass: a review of ‘Perry – A Drinker’s Guide’

Perry is having a bit of a moment, and it’s long overdue. A well-made perry, an ancient beverage fermented from the juice of pears, is a thing of beauty. It can conjure thrilling comparisons to an ethereal white wine, or evoke visions of something with a larger tannic grippiness, earthy and big boned, depending on the particular pears involved. It is fortunate, then, that  drinkers who have less familiarity with perries now have the recently released Perry – A Drinker’s Guide, written by acclaimed drinks writer Adam Wells. Not only will this guide inform, but it will inspire exploration of this underappreciated drink.

Perry – A Drinker’s Guide has been sensibly organized to walk the reader through a cohesive story, starting with a brief yet comprehensive history followed by chapters on orchards, varieties, perry making and styles. Wells also explores the practicalities of buying, storing and serving perry before he takes the reader on a trip through the global perry scene. His smooth prose is rich and evocative, bringing us as close to a direct experience of both the orchards and the drink that can be managed with the written word alone.

All our senses are engaged. We smell the fresh green of the moist orchard floor and feel the breeze wafting soft white petals that kiss against our cheeks. Wells writes about the astonishing spectrum of shapes that pears can take: “… tiny orbs of gleaming electric emerald, clustered like bunches of grapes; huge, ugly, lumpen potato-shaped monsters, all russet-brown parchment to touch; perfect, pyriform beauties, glossy-skinned and blushing red, next to weird, alien oblate things you might never recognize as a pear if someone wasn’t there to tell you … .”

One of the best features of this terrific book is how it approaches information about pear and perry aromas and flavors. Wells has the truly brilliant idea to create four distinct flavor camps that he uses to bring an easily grasped organizational structure to what could otherwise be an overwhelming list of possibilities. A true gift to the nascent perry drinker, this choice also allows Wells to deal with the troublesome reality that flavors and aromas can be such distinctly personal experiences, born of individual genetics and history. Wells is clearly quite serious about perry, but his approach is so relaxed and friendly — a here-are-some-things-to-know-but-really-just-enjoy-yourself kind of attitude — that you can’t help being infected with his enthusiasm. If you buy but one book about food or drink this year, Perry – A Drinker’s Guide should be it. A joy to read, it is for my money probably the best book written in the cider/perry category in the last 20 years.