The Drops of God

The award-winning comic about wine that has been a hit not just all over Asia but also in France! Learn about legendary bottles as well as affordable secrets while enjoying a page-turner that's not about superheroes but people with jobs to keep. When world-renowned wine critic Kanzaki passes away, his will reveals that his fortune of a wine collection isn't bequeathed as a matter of course to his only son, who in a snub went to work sales at a beer company. To come into the inheritance, Shizuku must identify—in competition with a stellar young critic—twelve heaven-sent wines whose impressions the will describes in flowing terms …

“My favorite wine book of [the year] … Pick up this first volume at your sleep's peril. It's a one-nighter, a wine tale that is equal parts coming-of-age, love and detective stories. Along its nervy way, it nonetheless plainly explains various wines, wine talk and the how-to of wine tasting. As a graphic novel, it gets across a lot more emotion and imagery than mere prose … You'll be drunk with anticipation.” —Chicago Tribune

“An almost psychedelically beautiful work… It's like Speed Racer crossed with Wine Spectator.” —The Daily Dish (LA Times)

“Absolute page-turner … It's the sweeping two-page illustrations of taste-transporting moments (a shirt-tearing jam by rock band Queen, a maiden fleeing through strawberry fields) that better capture wine's great allure than a thousand dry scribblings on history and weather conditions.” —Time Out New York

“It presents wines rapturously and in creative ways … I'm a vodka man, but Drops of God left me with a new appreciation for the grape, new vocabulary words like terroir (the flavors and aromas that soil and geography impart to a wine) and a fascination with decanting, which the book depicts as an art form.” —The New York Times

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

ABOUT.COM BEST NEW MANGA OF 2011