Clinking Outside the Box: The World in a Glass

"There can be no good living where there is not good drinking." Benjamin Franklin

Proving the wisdom of Franklin's adage, Harry Drung, a long-time executive in the international wine, beer, and spirits industry, takes the reader with him to many of the world's most beautiful places as he shares his adventures in the wine trade. On a whirlwind tour from Napa to New Zealand, from Niagara to France, and a myriad of gorgeous vineyards, restaurants, and wine bars in between, Harry's degustation gusto creates a treat for the senses.

This is a highly entertaining compilation of stories, anecdotes, trivia, quotes, cartoons, photos, labels, and clever ditties. He provides plenty to interest and inform the most serious oenophile or member of the trade as well as anyone who simply likes to enjoy a nice glass of wine with friends. Readers will come to appreciate wine's historical, cultural, and geographic roots as well as exploring its gastronomic connections.

Part wine manual, part travelogue, part comic observation, and part memoir, it chronicles an enviable career and a lifelong appreciation for the great arts of wine making and wine enjoyment.

Harry Drung has spent most of his long career in the international beverage alcohol industry. In that time he's learned that international travel is quite rewarding, consuming wine and food is an awfully pleasant social activity, and the beverage alcohol business is a unique and fascinating sector. While water separates the peoples of the world, wine unites them.

Harry holds an Advanced Certificate from the Wine & Spirit Trust (UK) and is the winner of the 2018 Drinks Ontario Achievement Award, given "in recognition of his contribution to enhancing the profile of wine, beer, and spirits in the Ontario marketplace." He has been an International Wine Judge. In 2021, Harry was awarded the Riesling Fellowship by the German Wine Institute.

Harry lives in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada with Ingrid, his wife and business partner of forty years.