Wine Book Reviews: Alice Feiring How I Saved the World from Parkerization & Neal Rosenthal's Reflections of a Wine Merchant
The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization by Alice Feiring
Reflections of a Wine Merchant: On a Lifetime in the Vineyards and Cellars of France and Italy by Neal I. Rosenthal
These are two of the most important books written about wine in the past decade. Neither may sell as many copies as the books of Robert Parker or Jancis Robinson, but both Feiring's and Rosenthal's books will have a deep impact on the direction wine takes in the coming post-Parkerista period. Both books champion natural, honest, honorable wines with distinctive terroir, made with native grapes and native yeasts, and without the horrid use of over-oaking as a flavoring agent--an aberration which is now changing, after having been elevated to a near religion by consultants and marketeers (not for aesthetic or good taste reason, rather because new oak is too expensive, especially now during this world economic crisis). Real wines relective of their sense of place--wines made more in the vineyards than in the cellar--will become the standard, not gross, overwrought wines that panders to certain reviewers, so-called market forces and homogenization.
Forget about the title of Alice Feiring's book and get over Bow-Tie Man, the Owl Man, etc. Alice Feiring (pronounced Fire-ing) has a right to air her personal stuff. After all this is her book. And as to complaints that the second part of the title is silly and designed to help sell books. So what? Somebody had to have the cojones to take on Robert Parker, whose, IMHO, 'silly' reviews have helped wipe out the demand for many truly authentic wines and have promoted the facile, manipulated wines of the new rich and enriched any number of his favored status importers and formulaic consultants--who are not wine tailors, they are knock-off artists.
Alice is the real deal and so is Neal Rosenthal, whose Confessions of a Wine Merchant comes on the heels of Alice's book, echoing themes about the authenicity and sense of place in truly great wines and railing against the tragic (for real wine lovers) imposition of industry homogeneousness and wine manipulation over the real thing.
Both these books are deep--not frivolous, as some people would like to paint Alice Feiring's book--complex and filled with nuances that everyone who really cares about great wine should know and appreciate. Neither book is jammed with appreciation for overripe fruit, residual sugar, palate numbing alcohol levels and, Thank God, neither comes in a horrid new oak binding (barrels where supposed to be aging vessels, not gross flavoring agents that override grape varieties, terroir, etc.).
My prediction is that these two books are going to have an enormous impact on young (and not so young) sommeliers, wine directors and wine buyers (especially non-retail types, who don't use Parker scores to flog wines), because they both espouse the greatness and distinctiveness of terroir-driven, authentic, artisan wines that have a sense of place. Since these are not mass market Parkerista wines, I think this philosophy will not have an immediate effect on the Parker consumer, but it will have on restaurant wine lists run by younger sommeliers, who believe it or not have been fed up with tasting Parkerista wines for quite some time. They will seek terroir-driven wines to lend distinction to their lists and push these wines as those which help set their wine lists and restaurants apart.
Restaurant goers will discover these wines and begin to look for retail stores that carry them. It will not be long before the already choppy anti-Parkerista waters build into a very big wave, which, pardon me, copycat American wine journalists will soon see as a bandwagon to jump on, at least those who still have a palate left after tasting all the overripe, sweet, over-oaked, alcoholic junk that they have been barraged with over the past decade or so. And with greening and organic movements growing stronger in response to environmental changes, more and more conscientous wine drinkers will begin to question the manipulation of wines.
Alice Feiring: ". . . At stake is the soul of wine. This is giant corporation vs. independent winemaker. This is international and homogenous vs. local and varied. This manipulated and technical wine vs. natural and artisanal. . .wine is being reduced to the common denominator. . .I visit producers who make wines that inspire love and devotion. . . I unmask the modern way--the reverse osmosis, the tannin addition, the yeasts, the enzymes, the cold soaks, the sawdust, oak chips, the barriques, the micro- and macro-oxygenation, the rotor fermenters, and the cherry drops. There will be scientists and consultants, who help create cookie-cutter wines for the mass palate. I will deal with those who say terroir (the magic that brings soil, climate, vintage, and winemaker together in a bottle of wine) and natural winemaking are simply excuses for making bad wine."
Neil Rosenthal: ". . . proof that there is some seriously fine terroir to be found in California and elsewhere, terroir that merits being left to express itself rather than being dominated and destroyed by human manipulation in the form of superextraction or immersion in new oak barrels or any of dozens of other laboratory tricks that "correct" what nature gives us." Alice Feiring and Neal Rosenthal are heroine and hero!!! Buy both these books and take a trip through the world of real wine, you will never turn back.
About the author
Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine.
Reflections of a Wine Merchant: On a Lifetime in the Vineyards and Cellars of France and Italy by Neal I. Rosenthal
These are two of the most important books written about wine in the past decade. Neither may sell as many copies as the books of Robert Parker or Jancis Robinson, but both Feiring's and Rosenthal's books will have a deep impact on the direction wine takes in the coming post-Parkerista period. Both books champion natural, honest, honorable wines with distinctive terroir, made with native grapes and native yeasts, and without the horrid use of over-oaking as a flavoring agent--an aberration which is now changing, after having been elevated to a near religion by consultants and marketeers (not for aesthetic or good taste reason, rather because new oak is too expensive, especially now during this world economic crisis). Real wines relective of their sense of place--wines made more in the vineyards than in the cellar--will become the standard, not gross, overwrought wines that panders to certain reviewers, so-called market forces and homogenization.
Forget about the title of Alice Feiring's book and get over Bow-Tie Man, the Owl Man, etc. Alice Feiring (pronounced Fire-ing) has a right to air her personal stuff. After all this is her book. And as to complaints that the second part of the title is silly and designed to help sell books. So what? Somebody had to have the cojones to take on Robert Parker, whose, IMHO, 'silly' reviews have helped wipe out the demand for many truly authentic wines and have promoted the facile, manipulated wines of the new rich and enriched any number of his favored status importers and formulaic consultants--who are not wine tailors, they are knock-off artists.
Alice is the real deal and so is Neal Rosenthal, whose Confessions of a Wine Merchant comes on the heels of Alice's book, echoing themes about the authenicity and sense of place in truly great wines and railing against the tragic (for real wine lovers) imposition of industry homogeneousness and wine manipulation over the real thing.
Both these books are deep--not frivolous, as some people would like to paint Alice Feiring's book--complex and filled with nuances that everyone who really cares about great wine should know and appreciate. Neither book is jammed with appreciation for overripe fruit, residual sugar, palate numbing alcohol levels and, Thank God, neither comes in a horrid new oak binding (barrels where supposed to be aging vessels, not gross flavoring agents that override grape varieties, terroir, etc.).
My prediction is that these two books are going to have an enormous impact on young (and not so young) sommeliers, wine directors and wine buyers (especially non-retail types, who don't use Parker scores to flog wines), because they both espouse the greatness and distinctiveness of terroir-driven, authentic, artisan wines that have a sense of place. Since these are not mass market Parkerista wines, I think this philosophy will not have an immediate effect on the Parker consumer, but it will have on restaurant wine lists run by younger sommeliers, who believe it or not have been fed up with tasting Parkerista wines for quite some time. They will seek terroir-driven wines to lend distinction to their lists and push these wines as those which help set their wine lists and restaurants apart.
Restaurant goers will discover these wines and begin to look for retail stores that carry them. It will not be long before the already choppy anti-Parkerista waters build into a very big wave, which, pardon me, copycat American wine journalists will soon see as a bandwagon to jump on, at least those who still have a palate left after tasting all the overripe, sweet, over-oaked, alcoholic junk that they have been barraged with over the past decade or so. And with greening and organic movements growing stronger in response to environmental changes, more and more conscientous wine drinkers will begin to question the manipulation of wines.
Alice Feiring: ". . . At stake is the soul of wine. This is giant corporation vs. independent winemaker. This is international and homogenous vs. local and varied. This manipulated and technical wine vs. natural and artisanal. . .wine is being reduced to the common denominator. . .I visit producers who make wines that inspire love and devotion. . . I unmask the modern way--the reverse osmosis, the tannin addition, the yeasts, the enzymes, the cold soaks, the sawdust, oak chips, the barriques, the micro- and macro-oxygenation, the rotor fermenters, and the cherry drops. There will be scientists and consultants, who help create cookie-cutter wines for the mass palate. I will deal with those who say terroir (the magic that brings soil, climate, vintage, and winemaker together in a bottle of wine) and natural winemaking are simply excuses for making bad wine."
Neil Rosenthal: ". . . proof that there is some seriously fine terroir to be found in California and elsewhere, terroir that merits being left to express itself rather than being dominated and destroyed by human manipulation in the form of superextraction or immersion in new oak barrels or any of dozens of other laboratory tricks that "correct" what nature gives us." Alice Feiring and Neal Rosenthal are heroine and hero!!! Buy both these books and take a trip through the world of real wine, you will never turn back.
About the author
Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine.
Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television
series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain
Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@hotmail.com
Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@hotmail.com
Labels: Alice Feiring, natural wine, Neal Rosenthal, Parkerization
Publicado por Gerry Dawes's Spain a las 11:40 AM
