"A living iPod of drink lore and recipes" (the New York Times ), or, if you prefer, a "crazy, bearded Civil War general" (Conan O'Brien), David Wondrich is the world's foremost expert on the history of the American cocktail. As Esquire magazine's Drinks Correspondent, he has ranged far and wide through the world of booze, covering everything from Kentucky bourbon to Chinese cocktails. He has also written for numerous other magazines on the subject, including Wine & Spirits, The Malt Advocate (where he is the cocktail columnist), Oprah, Real Simple , Martha Stewart's Blueprint , Marie Claire , Bon Appetit , Gourmet and Saveur (where he is a contributing editor) . He has written three books on cocktails and mixology. The most recent of these, Imbibe! From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to Professor Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar has been greeted with widespread, and even sometimes fervent, acclaim and is the first cocktail book ever to win a James Beard award (it also won the Tales of the Cocktail Spirit Award for Best Drinks Book).

Wondrich's devotion to the gospel of the classic cocktail does not shrink from fieldwork: he conducts frequent seminars in cocktail history in which the participants get to absorb their lessons not only aurally but orally as well. Occasionally, he has been known to develop a cocktail list for a bar or restaurant. The drinks he created for New York's 5 Ninth caused the New York Times to say "Mr. Wondrich has an appreciation of the antique in cocktail-making, and a talent for contemporary context"; in 2005, they won Time Out New York 's coveted award for Best Cocktail List. He was also the motive force behind the Slow Food organization's 2003 Tribute to Jerry Thomas, in which some of the nation's most respected mixologists got together to pay tribute to the Professor--an event which the New York Times described as "an antiquarian lark, with overtones of a séance." He is a Founding Member of the Museum of the American Cocktail.

His professional interest in strong drink doesn't end with the cocktail: his writings on spirits in general are widely published, and his expertise in the field is recognized. Along with fellow-authorities Dale DeGroff, Doug Frost, Steve Olson and Paul Pacult, he is one of the five founding partners of Beverage Alcohol Resource, an award-winning educational program that offers the world's most rigorous education in spirits and mixology. Among his other recent activities in the field are curating the Museum of the American Cocktail's exhibit on the history of the cocktail in New York, serving as a judge in the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition, acting as chief historical consultant for The History Channel's Modern Marvels show on distilleries.