The Feiring Line

How Natural is Natural: the Debate

The irrepressible Clark Smith has a l-o-n-g editorial up on Appellation America. Do check it out. A good chunk of it puts me to use more than it takes me to task. Clark owns Vinovation and sells wine technology which mostly helps produce wines I don't enjoy drinking. About half way through his article, he kicks off the Alice portion by putting me in Eric Asimov's company (I am flattered.) and then recalling the time he asked me to state my terms of what a natural wine is. He writes, ++The strange thing about Alice�s list is the omissions: electricity, stainless steel, refrigeration, inert gas, sterile filtration. None of it traditional, just post WWII innovations. Nobody argues that pumping over is better than punching down, or that gravity feed is inferior to pumped transfers. These are conveniences, not quality improvements. Why isn�t the Internet full of criticism of these powerful and dangerous technologies? ++ Note his use of 'traditional' above. I spend quite a bit of ink in my book talking about Clark and the word--a lovely four syllable one. Who knew it was so controversial? Clark for some reason believes me to be a Luddite who might as well be trying to ban the bottle and the cork from wine in the name of "tradition." Through the article he hammers the same argument about his technologies that chemical salespeople made to farmers who previously had been farming organically, "This is the modern way." The message is that there is something wrong with the person who doesn't want to step up to the new technologies. There is an attempt to shame people who aren't 'modern' thinking and who are afraid of 'new.' Anyway, the article had a sort of tabloid journalist sensibility with its 'gotcha' attitude, as if he were waiting to catch a vegetarian actor eating cheese or a Jewish politician eating pork. Meanwhile the vegetarian ain�t a vegan. The Jewish diner doesn�t keep Kosher. ** A few years ago, I was talking to Nicholas Joly who was embracing people like Clark and his technologies and the wines they give birth to. His reasoning was somthing like-- without the tyranny of fast food there wouldn�t be the rush to embrace slow.

How Natural is Natural: the Debate

The irrepressible Clark Smith has a l-o-n-g editorial up on Appellation America. Do check it out. A good chunk of it puts me to use more than it takes me to task. Clark owns Vinovation and sells wine technology which mostly helps produce wines I don't enjoy drinking. About half way through his article, he kicks off the Alice portion by putting me in Eric Asimov's company (I am flattered.) and then recalling the time he asked me to state my terms of what a natural wine is. He writes, ++The strange thing about Alice�s list is the omissions: electricity, stainless steel, refrigeration, inert gas, sterile filtration. None of it traditional, just post WWII innovations. Nobody argues that pumping over is better than punching down, or that gravity feed is inferior to pumped transfers. These are conveniences, not quality improvements. Why isn�t the Internet full of criticism of these powerful and dangerous technologies? ++ Note his use of 'traditional' above. I spend quite a bit of ink in my book talking about Clark and the word--a lovely four syllable one. Who knew it was so controversial? Clark for some reason believes me to be a Luddite who might as well be trying to ban the bottle and the cork from wine in the name of "tradition." Through the article he hammers the same argument about his technologies that chemical salespeople made to farmers who previously had been farming organically, "This is the modern way." The message is that there is something wrong with the person who doesn't want to step up to the new technologies. There is an attempt to shame people who aren't 'modern' thinking and who are afraid of 'new.' Anyway, the article had a sort of tabloid journalist sensibility with its 'gotcha' attitude, as if he were waiting to catch a vegetarian actor eating cheese or a Jewish politician eating pork. Meanwhile the vegetarian ain�t a vegan. The Jewish diner doesn�t keep Kosher. ** A few years ago, I was talking to Nicholas Joly who was embracing people like Clark and his technologies and the wines they give birth to. His reasoning was somthing like-- without the tyranny of fast food there wouldn�t be the rush to embrace slow.

Come to a Reading? Mine?

I will be reading snippets from The Battle for Wine & Love on Wednesday night, December 5th, and I sure hope you can come. Reading with me that evening will be two memoirists; owner of the clothing shop D.L. Cerney, the utterly singular Linda St. John (Even Dogs Go Home to Die) and coming in from the midwest, Barbara Robinette Moss (Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter & Fierce). Music by Louis Watterson. Please come and help me cut my teeth on these things! Besides, it should be fun. WHERE: Cafe Via dela Pace (downstairs) 48 E.7th Street, just east of 2nd Avenue WHEN: 7pm

Come to a Reading? Mine?

I will be reading snippets from The Battle for Wine & Love on Wednesday night, December 5th, and I sure hope you can come. Reading with me that evening will be two memoirists; owner of the clothing shop D.L. Cerney, the utterly singular Linda St. John (Even Dogs Go Home to Die) and coming in from the midwest, Barbara Robinette Moss (Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter & Fierce). Music by Louis Watterson. Please come and help me cut my teeth on these things! Besides, it should be fun. WHERE: Cafe Via dela Pace (downstairs) 48 E.7th Street, just east of 2nd Avenue WHEN: 7pm

Conde Nast Portfolio: Bubble Economy

http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/food-drink/2007/11/19/Farm-Grown-Champagne

In most industries, double-digit growth would be something to celebrate. But in the champagne business, it's cause for quiet unease. Rising wealth, particularly in Russia and China, has led to new markets for a product with an inherently limited supply. (Under French law, all champagne must be made from grapes grown within 84,000 acres of the Champagne region.) While sales of Mot Hennessy were up 13 percent worldwide last year, the figure for Asia was 25 percent.

To address the anticipated shortage, champagne producers have lobbied to expand the growing districts of Champagne. But that could take years, as it requires permission from the notoriously bureaucratic Institut National des Appellations d'Origine, the French government agency that protects the identity of wine regions. Another option is to wring more grapes out of the farmers who grow them. Some 20,000 individuals own land in Champagne, in plots that range in size from a single acre to 50.

Many farmers don't want to sell more grapes, though, because they're now producing their own sparkling wines. Known in the business as grower champagnes, these wines are made in tiny quantities�100,000 bottles at most�and are catching on at top U.S. restaurants like Napa Valley's French Laundry, Chicago's Charlie Trotter's, and New York's Gramercy Tavern. Below, some notable grower champagnes (all available in major U.S. wineshops or at Wine-Searcher.com). 

Larmandier-Bernier
Pierre Larmandier practices "biodynamic" viticulture, an �ber-organic style of growing that eschews chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The 2002 Cramant ($75) consists entirely of chardonnay grapes from Cramant, a village given grand cru status as one of France's best regions.

Jacques Lassaigne
The Champagne region is divided into four areas, and Lassaigne's property is in the desirable southern Montgueux section, close to the Burgundy border. The family's Les Vignes de Montgueux ($45) is served at such restaurants as El Bulli, outside Barcelona, Spain.

Tarlant
The Tarlant family has been farming in the Champagne region since 1687 and currently produces about 12,000 cases a year. Brut Zero ($45) is made with both white and black grapes�equal parts chardonnay, pinot meunier, and pinot noir.

Franoise Bedel
To make a blanc de noirs, or white champagne from black grapes like pinot noir, Bedel quickly drains the juice from the skins. Like Larmandier, she works biodynamically. Entre Ciel et Terre ($65) is made from chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier.

Pierre Gimonnet & Fils
Didier and Olivier Gimonnet, descendants of Pierre, grow mostly chardonnay grapes and produce blanc de blancs, or white wines from white grapes. The Fleuron 2002 Blanc de Blancs ($60) has fresh ginger, orange, and lime flavors.

--Alice Feiring

I Give In To Temptation

I just barked out loud as I sat at my computer (trying to get back to work) and read this on Lyle Fass's", terrific (okay, terrific, funny and like-minded) blog; *Mao Squires locked it down . .because . .gasp . .an opposing viewpoint was entertained on his bulletin board. But he let them trash Alice for a while as she could not defend herself. Karma's a bitch Squires and I am excited to see the day you are being force fed Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses while being given psychedlic eyedrops while watching Mondovino over and over again.* Lyle's referring of course to the Big Daddy of the Robert Parker bbb, and to the eBob thread discussing that ten-most overrated wine piece. The reading is pretty funny. As someone who spend over a decade working on psychiatric units and studying group dynamics, I find their cigar chomping, posturing worthy of microscopic study. This cannot be great for Mr. Parker�s public persona. Some great guys voiced their discomfort with the display of misogyny. So, they�re not all that bad over there! I�ve eliminated the guys names (but kept their TYPOS). You can to the website for the full picture. **OMFG this woman there is no way this woman is married I just finished reading her web site I want to shoot myself. This is the kind of woman you run from, she is right no matter what and she will defend that position to the very end even when proven wrong. Forget her love or hate of Parker but her narcisim seems to no no limits. These are the 10 most overrated wine because she did not rate them so they must be tainted somehow. Man I am have 1st wife flashbacks I need to lay down **Thanks for the link... I think she's spot on. It's certainly a better piece than any wine writing in Men's Style has any right to be. **I just went to her website and read some of her blog posts. A very uptight, arrogant, self-absorbed, panties in a bunch kind of gal. Other than that, she seems wonderful. She definitely has a hard on (can I write that?) for Parker. When was the last time she got laid (can I write that?)?? **Misogyny correlates with a taste for ripe fruit bombs? Who knew? ***Secondly, did anyone notice the big Beaujolais Nouveaux add on the web site! Ha! (THE ABOVE BRIGHT LIGHT DIDN'T SEE THAT THAT 'AD' WAS AN ILLUSTRATION. DUBOUEF NOUVEAU LABEL WITH �AND IT SUCKS� WRITTEN ACROSS IT. THE QUICKNESS TO ATTACK WITH NO REASON SUMS UP MANY OF THE SHOOTERS ON THAT BOARD)

I Succumb to Temptation

I just barked out loud as I sat at my computer (trying to get back to work) and read this on Lyle Fass's", terrific (okay, terrific, funny and like-minded) blog; *Mao Squires locked it down . .because . .gasp . .an opposing viewpoint was entertained on his bulletin board. But he let them trash Alice for a while as she could not defend herself. Karma's a bitch Squires and I am excited to see the day you are being force fed Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses while being given psychedlic eyedrops while watching Mondovino over and over again.* Lyle's referring of course to the Big Daddy of the Robert Parker bbb, and to the eBob thread discussing that ten-most overrated wine piece. The reading is pretty funny. As someone who spend over a decade working on psychiatric units and studying group dynamics, I find their cigar chomping, posturing worthy of microscopic study. This cannot be great for Mr. Parker�s public persona. Some great guys voiced their discomfort with the display of misogyny. So, they�re not all that bad over there! I�ve eliminated the guys names (but kept their TYPOS). You can to the website for the full picture. **OMFG this woman there is no way this woman is married I just finished reading her web site I want to shoot myself. This is the kind of woman you run from, she is right no matter what and she will defend that position to the very end even when proven wrong. Forget her love or hate of Parker but her narcisim seems to no no limits. These are the 10 most overrated wine because she did not rate them so they must be tainted somehow. Man I am have 1st wife flashbacks I need to lay down **Thanks for the link... I think she's spot on. It's certainly a better piece than any wine writing in Men's Style has any right to be. **I just went to her website and read some of her blog posts. A very uptight, arrogant, self-absorbed, panties in a bunch kind of gal. Other than that, she seems wonderful. She definitely has a hard on (can I write that?) for Parker. When was the last time she got laid (can I write that?)?? **Misogyny correlates with a taste for ripe fruit bombs? Who knew? ***Secondly, did anyone notice the big Beaujolais Nouveaux add on the web site! Ha! (THE ABOVE BRIGHT LIGHT DIDN'T SEE THAT THAT 'AD' WAS AN ILLUSTRATION. DUBOUEF NOUVEAU LABEL WITH �AND IT SUCKS� WRITTEN ACROSS IT. THE QUICKNESS TO ATTACK WITH NO REASON SUMS UP MANY OF THE SHOOTERS ON THAT BOARD)

No Wine At Alice's Restaurant This TDay

This Thanksgiving, my mother played the guilt card and if I didn�t drive her to my cousins she would sit home and �knit.� "Don't worry about it. You go and have a nice time," she added for a nifty, little kicker. I don�t have warm and fuzzy memories of the holiday with family. My best ones were/are with friends or the many years Ronny and I went up to a run down farmhouse in the country and picked frozen apples off the tree and made applesauce, his brother came out, they fussed over a turkey, pies, the whole nine yards, we spend three great days chopping wood, playing instruments, eating and looking forward to the first uncorked bottle of the evening. I love Ethel. She�s feisty, still drives, goes to work but easily gets lost after dark. So what do I do when she plays Jewish mother? Where I used to dig my heels in and say �Hell, no,� now I look at the calendar, wonder how many years left she has to play her favorite guilt inflicting role and I say, "I�ll cancel my plans. I�ll drive." I�d say she�s as happy as a clam, but that�s not kosher. She�s as happy as a piece of kishka. But while I made the decision, there is something nagging at me. I feel just a little sullen. I�ve been catapulted back to my teen years and I can�t stop that trapped feeling from burbling up. I have twenty-four hours to attitude adjust. And I will. I thought about what wine I could bring to share with everyone ( very few wine drinkers amongst the crowd) that would sweeten the pot. Two magnums of 2004 Desvignes Morgon? That would do it. My host (little cousin) said, sorry. Disallowed! Not possible. The Sands Point Country Club (just for the record, going to a �club� on a holiday seems rather grim to m.) will not allow me to bring wine to their premises. I�ve seen their wine list. It seems I'll have to have my Thanksgiving wine tonight 'cause tomorrow it will be seltzer or scotch.

No Wine At Alice's Restaurant This TDay

This Thanksgiving, my mother played the guilt card and if I didn�t drive her to my cousins she would sit home and �knit.� "Don't worry about it. You go and have a nice time," she added for a nifty, little kicker. I don�t have warm and fuzzy memories of the holiday with family. My best ones were/are with friends or the many years Ronny and I went up to a run down farmhouse in the country and picked frozen apples off the tree and made applesauce, his brother came out, they fussed over a turkey, pies, the whole nine yards, we spend three great days chopping wood, playing instruments, eating and looking forward to the first uncorked bottle of the evening. I love Ethel. She�s feisty, still drives, goes to work but easily gets lost after dark. So what do I do when she plays Jewish mother? Where I used to dig my heels in and say �Hell, no,� now I look at the calendar, wonder how many years left she has to play her favorite guilt inflicting role and I say, "I�ll cancel my plans. I�ll drive." I�d say she�s as happy as a clam, but that�s not kosher. She�s as happy as a piece of kishka. But while I made the decision, there is something nagging at me. I feel just a little sullen. I�ve been catapulted back to my teen years and I can�t stop that trapped feeling from burbling up. I have twenty-four hours to attitude adjust. And I will. I thought about what wine I could bring to share with everyone ( very few wine drinkers amongst the crowd) that would sweeten the pot. Two magnums of 2004 Desvignes Morgon? That would do it. My host (little cousin) said, sorry. Disallowed! Not possible. The Sands Point Country Club (just for the record, going to a �club� on a holiday seems rather grim to m.) will not allow me to bring wine to their premises. I�ve seen their wine list. It seems I'll have to have my Thanksgiving wine tonight 'cause tomorrow it will be seltzer or scotch.

What Does the Top Wine of the Year Mean?

I ground the coffee, boiled the water and poured into the French Press. I slipped a polar fleece vest over my ice blue, silk, loungey thing. Looking like quite the morning apparition, I plodded down the stairs to collect the paper, praying my neighbors were still asleep. I climbed back up the stairs, happy to have completed the mission in privacy. Once back inside my apartment, I plunged the coffee, pour in the heated milk and opened the paper. Did you ever think you were going to get this intimate with me? Mid-cup, I saw yet another FULL PAGE ad for the Wine of the Year from the Wine Spectator in the Times and realized that I forgot to look. So, to make amends, I headed to the computer and fired up the Wine Spec site to find out who was the champ. Clos des Papes Chateauneuf de Pape. Chateauchamp of the year. I really liked that wine in the 90's when it was affordable in its pre-Parkerized era. But now that it's $75 + a bottle, I haven't tasted it in quite a while. I'm sure it's big and bold and dense but perhaps still safe from new oak and does not have a 'marketer' or an advertising budget so I assume the tasting group at WS really did like it. What's not to like. But what IS a Wine of the Year? On their video presentation they explained their choice as one that was unanimous. it was the wine that they all agreed on at a tasting! That seems so peculiar to me. The wine of the year was from a tasting and not from drinking? And, the wine of the year was a collective decision? That�s politics, not passion. A mass decision for the masses doesn't seem to be fueled with enough emotion to warrant full page ads in the Times for several days running. I mean if Bruce Sanderson said, the wine he could not get out of his head, the wine that haunted him all year was the Chateauneuf du Pape, I might be curious. And so I thought about the issue of The Top Wine. I thought. I rode my bike. I DID NOT GO CONTRA DANCING (all dressed up and just couldn�t do it even though I love it so much. You know, balance and swing and sweat and gypsy and waltz and pass through.) instead I went to Margot at the Wedding (commendable but disappointing) and thought some more. The top wine of the year to me is one that I couldn�t have survived the year without. The wine of the year has to be something I am happy to drink every day. It is a wine that gives as much comfort as my favorite books or sweater. It is home in the best sense and never fails to excite, and I can afford it. For me the top wine is the one that pulled me out of the trenches. The previous year it was a 2005 Clos Roche Blanche Gamay. This year? Ladies and Gentlemen, .... Clos Roche Blanche again, their Arpent Rouge! From the red zinger of grapes, Pineau d'Aunis. I might add that Pierre Rovani, remember him? Used to work for Robert Parker? Well, Rovani a few years back, referred to the grape that grows beautifully in the Loire as a "talking dog. It can speak but it was nothing to say." I believe, I drained the market of every last bottle. Bring on the talking dogs. I am sorry about that. But what could I do? My survival was at stake.