Sho Chiku Bai Classic is the best-selling sake in America, brewed by Takara in California from Sacramento Valley rice. Junmai means pure rice, with no distilled alcohol added. Round and savoury, about 15 percent, $12.99, and it drinks well chilled or gently warmed. It is gluten free and carries an OU.

The blade and the bow are the two parts of an old key, a nod to the Stitzel-Weller Distillery. A solera-aged Kentucky bourbon at 91 proof, soft and fruity, $59.99. What the solera means, the kosher question, and cheaper wheated bourbons if you like the style.

Voda is US grain vodka, the cheapest good handle on the shelf at $17.99. Lvov is Polish potato vodka and kosher for Passover, from $17.99. Pravda is five-times-distilled Polish rye, OU, $32.99, the one to sip. Plus what the names mean and why Lvov Spirytus at 192 proof is a different bottle entirely.

Walder's is a cream liqueur on a non-dairy base, OU-Pareve, so it can follow a meat meal. Two flavours, Vodka and Vanilla and Scotch and Coffee, $25.99 for 750ml and $14.99 for the 200ml mini. About 17 percent alcohol. How it compares with a dairy cream liqueur, and how to serve it.

Nine kosher Proseccos, cheapest first, with the hechsher and the alcohol on each. Glera from the Veneto, fermented in a steel tank rather than the bottle, which is why it tastes of green apple and pear instead of toast. Seven of the nine are mevushal. Also: why extra dry is sweeter than brut, and how cold to serve it.

Smirnoff No. 21 comes in three sizes: 750ml at $16.99, 1L at $19.99, and the 1.75L handle at $22.99. Per drink the handle is roughly forty percent cheaper than the small bottle. Plus No. 57 at 100 proof, the two green apple bottles, the gluten free question, and how many drinks are in each size.

Amaretto is the category; Disaronno is the brand inside it. The full name used to be Amaretto di Saronno, which is where the confusion started. There are no almonds in it - it is built on apricot kernel oil and seventeen herbs and fruits. 28 percent alcohol, OU certified, $39.99 on our shelf, and four things worth doing with it.

Margaux is a village on the left bank of the Gironde, not a grape and not a chateau. It is the perfumed one of the four great Medoc communes, it holds more classified growths than any other, and three of its estates are on our shelf between $129.99 and $149.99. What the 1855 list means and what you are paying for.

Brandy is distilled fruit - plums make slivovitz, figs make boukha, grapes make the rest. Nine bottles from $19.99 to $249.99, what VS, VSOP and XO really mean, why so much of it is marked Kosher for Passover, and which one to bring to a bris, a kiddush or a gift table.

Jameson Original is $34.99 and Black Barrel is $54.99 - but the first question is the cask, not the price. Why the cRc lists Jameson as not recommended, what triple distillation actually does, the difference between the two bottles, and which Irish whiskeys on our shelf are aged in bourbon wood only.

A litre of Ketel One is $39.99 - exactly what a litre of Grey Goose costs on the same shelf. The Dutch pot-still wheat vodka the Nolet family has made since 1691, why it is the bartender's martini default, where forty dollars sits on the vodka ladder, and the one thing to know before Pesach.

Ten four-packs from $16.99 to $24.99 - sparkling moscato, dry Israeli rose, a real gin and tonic, a brunch mimosa and a pina colada, all in 250ml cans. Which are mevushal, which are kosher for Passover, and which pack to grab for a park, a kiddush or a Shabbos brunch.