The Feiring Line

What's New?

The book--the whole experience--almost feels as if I've been prepping a feast for two years. I'm waiting for the guests to arrive. No one has RSVP-ed. Some knocked on the door. Some entered the foyer and took a glass of champagne from me, a gougere or three. Some liked what they ate. Some didn't understand the flavors or the techniques. Some couldn't deal with the spice or the heat. Others others stayed for more wine, food and conversation. Those that have hung out at the table are: Adam Morgenstern of the and Patrick Comiskey of the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-wine14-2008may14,0,1592371.story). For those who want to know more about me, my Canadian publisher has posted a Q&A. You can read it at: http://blogs.raincoast.com/weblog/alice-feiring-q-a/. The door is still open. There's still plenty of food. Please. Come in. Thanks.

What's New?

The book--the whole experience--almost feels as if I've been prepping a feast for two years. I'm waiting for the guests to arrive. No one has RSVP-ed. Some knocked on the door. Some entered the foyer and took a glass of champagne from me, a gougere or three. Some liked what they ate. Some didn't understand the flavors or the techniques. Some couldn't deal with the spice or the heat. Others others stayed for more wine, food and conversation. Those that have hung out at the table are: Adam Morgenstern of the and Patrick Comiskey of the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-wine14-2008may14,0,1592371.story). For those who want to know more about me, my Canadian publisher has posted a Q&A. You can read it at: http://blogs.raincoast.com/weblog/alice-feiring-q-a/. The door is still open. There's still plenty of food. Please. Come in. Thanks.

How To Tell A Fake?

I was at Hearth night-- dinner given by Christie's before an auction featuring 'biodynamic wines.' It was a BYOB. One of the magnetic draws was the lure of 1995 Leroy Corton-Renardes . I have had far too little Leroy in my life. Even though I was on the verge of pneumonia and vetting death threats from California winemakers, there was no way I was going to miss it. But the real conversation stopper (or starter) of the evening was one of the silver foiled bottle, presented by one of the Christie's staff. Hmm. My first smell and taste and I said, "spoof.' Guess what? I wasn't alone. The wine seemed old but it seemed to have no real place. There was a little bit of syrah like horse, there was some reduction and there was some spice but utterly no grip and plenty of faded fruit. The color was cloudy as if there should have been sediment but there was no sediment. Bordeaux perhaps? Left bank? Right bank. Ah, balls, we said. No way. No one, and one of us happened to be an MW, Lisa Granik, penned it as a Bordeaux. Impossible. We clucked our tongues. Nope. No Petrus here. Faux Petrus. The Christie's guy having been flummoxed by the bottle back at the shop wanted to pass it by us. This was a lulu. The label did look faux. I don't know if you can tell but there is something not quite accurate with that face or the typeface. The real stunner was the cork. That looked real. So these crooks might be going around recylcing (how Green!) the corks from old real bottles of Petrus and reshnoozing them into the bottle? What seemed suspicious to me was how clean the cork's heel was. It seemed steamed clean. No deposits. No crud and no seepage. The Crystie's guy (sorry, cannot remember his name) said this was not unusual, but I'd never seen a cork from a bottle that was 30+ years old that smooth. This is a wild industry problem and we started to talk about the Ponsot debacle at the Acker Merril auction in April. Seems that amongst other major boo boos they had listed a 1929 Clos de la Roche--estimated to go for 14k-19k a bottle but the problem was that they didn't even start the domaine until 1934. There was a similar problem with the 1945, 1949, 1959, 1962, 1966 and 1971 Cos St. Denis. They didn't make a Clos until 1982. According to Peter Hellman's story in the Wine Spectator, Laurent Ponsot found similar problems with all of the wines in the auction. But there was indeed a legendary 1982 Petrus and that makes those fakes more difficult to spot. I would love to sit down with a wine counterfeiter and see how they do it. Can you imagine the alchemy? Do they have high tech apparatus? Do they do it with a button or do they have Michel Rolland or some other master blender? The Petrus wasn't the only unrecognizable merlot that evening. The other was sandwiched in-between two burgundies. Amazingly, it was not a counterfeit though it certainly smelled and tasted like a phony. It smelled like a vanilla scented lotion from The Body Shop. It's middle had been erased. There were no tannins except for wood. Paul Greico called it as a zinfandel. I said, whatever it was, it was my notion of wine hell, and it would have also been a costly hell--- $55. Pride Merlot 2005. Don't worry. It wasn't all painful. One of the most spectacular wines of the evening was the 1996 Coulee le Serrant and its undeniable sense of place and grape. A beauty. Lisa G. called it, dynamic. The 2003 La Fourchade, an Anjou Blanc from Marc Angeli's La Ferme de la Sansonnire, Les Fouchards. Anjou lush and apple-y with a touch of sweet residual and kept on changing and swerving. Both were a shame to have to dump out. The Leroy Corton-Renardes was a delight. In facti t might have cured my cold. Put my nose in it and sighed.......stems! Love those stems. Stems lay in another element or twelve of complexity that often gets cleaned up with the destemmer. In here there was musk and that intense chanel #5 rose oil. The finish was a little weak, but what the hell. I could have kept my nose in the glass forever --brought me back to playing Peter Pan in the empty lot in July as a little red headed tom boy, before the world turned.

How To Tell A Fake?

I was at Hearth night-- dinner given by Christie's before an auction featuring 'biodynamic wines.' It was a BYOB. One of the magnetic draws was the lure of 1995 Leroy Corton-Renardes . I have had far too little Leroy in my life. Even though I was on the verge of pneumonia and vetting death threats from California winemakers, there was no way I was going to miss it. But the real conversation stopper (or starter) of the evening was one of the silver foiled bottle, presented by one of the Christie's staff. Hmm. My first smell and taste and I said, "spoof.' Guess what? I wasn't alone. The wine seemed old but it seemed to have no real place. There was a little bit of syrah like horse, there was some reduction and there was some spice but utterly no grip and plenty of faded fruit. The color was cloudy as if there should have been sediment but there was no sediment. Bordeaux perhaps? Left bank? Right bank. Ah, balls, we said. No way. No one, and one of us happened to be an MW, Lisa Granik, penned it as a Bordeaux. Impossible. We clucked our tongues. Nope. No Petrus here. Faux Petrus. The Christie's guy having been flummoxed by the bottle back at the shop wanted to pass it by us. This was a lulu. The label did look faux. I don't know if you can tell but there is something not quite accurate with that face or the typeface. The real stunner was the cork. That looked real. So these crooks might be going around recylcing (how Green!) the corks from old real bottles of Petrus and reshnoozing them into the bottle? What seemed suspicious to me was how clean the cork's heel was. It seemed steamed clean. No deposits. No crud and no seepage. The Crystie's guy (sorry, cannot remember his name) said this was not unusual, but I'd never seen a cork from a bottle that was 30+ years old that smooth. This is a wild industry problem and we started to talk about the Ponsot debacle at the Acker Merril auction in April. Seems that amongst other major boo boos they had listed a 1929 Clos de la Roche--estimated to go for 14k-19k a bottle but the problem was that they didn't even start the domaine until 1934. There was a similar problem with the 1945, 1949, 1959, 1962, 1966 and 1971 Cos St. Denis. They didn't make a Clos until 1982. According to Peter Hellman's story in the Wine Spectator, Laurent Ponsot found similar problems with all of the wines in the auction. But there was indeed a legendary 1982 Petrus and that makes those fakes more difficult to spot. I would love to sit down with a wine counterfeiter and see how they do it. Can you imagine the alchemy? Do they have high tech apparatus? Do they do it with a button or do they have Michel Rolland or some other master blender? The Petrus wasn't the only unrecognizable merlot that evening. The other was sandwiched in-between two burgundies. Amazingly, it was not a counterfeit though it certainly smelled and tasted like a phony. It smelled like a vanilla scented lotion from The Body Shop. It's middle had been erased. There were no tannins except for wood. Paul Greico called it as a zinfandel. I said, whatever it was, it was my notion of wine hell, and it would have also been a costly hell--- $55. Pride Merlot 2005. Don't worry. It wasn't all painful. One of the most spectacular wines of the evening was the 1996 Coulee le Serrant and its undeniable sense of place and grape. A beauty. Lisa G. called it, dynamic. The 2003 La Fourchade, an Anjou Blanc from Marc Angeli's La Ferme de la Sansonnire, Les Fouchards. Anjou lush and apple-y with a touch of sweet residual and kept on changing and swerving. Both were a shame to have to dump out. The Leroy Corton-Renardes was a delight. In facti t might have cured my cold. Put my nose in it and sighed.......stems! Love those stems. Stems lay in another element or twelve of complexity that often gets cleaned up with the destemmer. In here there was musk and that intense chanel #5 rose oil. The finish was a little weak, but what the hell. I could have kept my nose in the glass forever --brought me back to playing Peter Pan in the empty lot in July as a little red headed tom boy, before the world turned.

Q & A With Alice F. After the deBord Attack

Q: In your opinion do most Californian wines stink? A:Yes. Q:Why is that? A: So many reasons. But generally, the grapes are grown to a point of ripeness that too often obliterates a sense of place. Then, those grapes can't produce structured wines and so the structure often has to be imposed, much like the bones on a girdle, but in this case through chemistry and process. The point of view seems wrong to me as most California and New World wines are made for the market -- the most obvious taste--than the product of a carefully matched grapevine to land and climate and a passionate winemaker who is part artist/philosopher and part scientist. I find the mindset is man over nature. There's a little spoiled child saying, I want to plant pinot; so what if it is the wrong place and climate! Thanks to technology that winemaker can indeed plant pinot but the result and what they have to do to the poor wine, is not something I want to drink. Seems totally ass backwards to me and often tastes that way. If California continues on the path that Matthew Debord so clearly outlined, as a place that doesn't believe that where a vine is grown matters. or if more people believe as Vinovation owner, Clark Smith does, that industrial yeasts are better than native then...wow, then I'll have to give up all hope. When I was a tot my mother was told not to breastfeed me by her gyn. "Are you a cow?" he asked her. Same thing with frozen food--healthier than fresh. I believe we are in the same era with wine. When I was growing up my parents thought the neighbor who went mushrooming or had a garden was nuts. Q:Are there exceptions to the awfulness of California wine for you? A:Of course! Right now, there are some producers in the state who believe place matters and strives to express it in a somewhat natural way. More are coming down the pike. Q:But then? A:Then still, I fear even then the wines will be like most of California, too overpriced. In my budget if I choose to pay over $30 a bottle, it is a bottle that will age gracefully and knock my socks off. Q:Can you tell the difference between a well made Californian wine that is just not to your taste? A:Yes. Q:Are you allowed to your own taste? A:Yes! What a question! And I hope you do too! Q:Do you tell people who like Californian wine they have no taste? A:Are you kidding? I also, and this will shock you, I don�t take it personally what other people drink. Q:Would they be your best friends? A:Probably not. On the other hand, one of my best friends voted for Bush. But we like the same wines. Q:Could you fall in love with a big Cali Cab or Pinot Guy? A:Probably not. Q:Is that snobby? A:Probably not. Q:Than what is it? A:I think the closest people to me have shared aesthetics. Wine is one of them. We don't agree on everything but that is as it should be. Q:Are most of your wines unrecognizable names that cost under $25 a bottle? A:Yes. Q:Are most of them French? A:Yes. Q:Why? A:The give the most expression for the money, and they get me excited. Q:Is not buying mass produced wines snobby and pretentious? A: Buying for status symbols is pretentious, buying wines that I love that are affordable like I do? You tell me. Q:When Alice Waters started the food revolution out of Chez Panisse, was she accused of pretension because she wanted more honesty and purer growing techniques and less process in her food? A:No. Q:I see. In that case, why when someone wants the same quality and approach in their wine as their food is there an outcry about heresy? A:Excellent question. I rest my case.

Q & A With Alice F. After the deBord Attack

Q: In your opinion do most Californian wines stink? A:Yes. Q:Why is that? A: So many reasons. But generally, the grapes are grown to a point of ripeness that too often obliterates a sense of place. Then, those grapes can't produce structured wines and so the structure often has to be imposed, much like the bones on a girdle, but in this case through chemistry and process. The point of view seems wrong to me as most California and New World wines are made for the market -- the most obvious taste--than the product of a carefully matched grapevine to land and climate and a passionate winemaker who is part artist/philosopher and part scientist. I find the mindset is man over nature. There's a little spoiled child saying, I want to plant pinot; so what if it is the wrong place and climate! Thanks to technology that winemaker can indeed plant pinot but the result and what they have to do to the poor wine, is not something I want to drink. Seems totally ass backwards to me and often tastes that way. If California continues on the path that Matthew Debord so clearly outlined, as a place that doesn't believe that where a vine is grown matters. or if more people believe as Vinovation owner, Clark Smith does, that industrial yeasts are better than native then...wow, then I'll have to give up all hope. When I was a tot my mother was told not to breastfeed me by her gyn. "Are you a cow?" he asked her. Same thing with frozen food--healthier than fresh. I believe we are in the same era with wine. When I was growing up my parents thought the neighbor who went mushrooming or had a garden was nuts. Q:Are there exceptions to the awfulness of California wine for you? A:Of course! Right now, there are some producers in the state who believe place matters and strives to express it in a somewhat natural way. More are coming down the pike. Q:But then? A:Then still, I fear even then the wines will be like most of California, too overpriced. In my budget if I choose to pay over $30 a bottle, it is a bottle that will age gracefully and knock my socks off. Q:Can you tell the difference between a well made Californian wine that is just not to your taste? A:Yes. Q:Are you allowed to your own taste? A:Yes! What a question! And I hope you do too! Q:Do you tell people who like Californian wine they have no taste? A:Are you kidding? I also, and this will shock you, I don�t take it personally what other people drink. Q:Would they be your best friends? A:Probably not. On the other hand, one of my best friends voted for Bush. But we like the same wines. Q:Could you fall in love with a big Cali Cab or Pinot Guy? A:Probably not. Q:Is that snobby? A:Probably not. Q:Than what is it? A:I think the closest people to me have shared aesthetics. Wine is one of them. We don't agree on everything but that is as it should be. Q:Are most of your wines unrecognizable names that cost under $25 a bottle? A:Yes. Q:Are most of them French? A:Yes. Q:Why? A:The give the most expression for the money, and they get me excited. Q:Is not buying mass produced wines snobby and pretentious? A: Buying for status symbols is pretentious, buying wines that I love that are affordable like I do? You tell me. Q:When Alice Waters started the food revolution out of Chez Panisse, was she accused of pretension because she wanted more honesty and purer growing techniques and less process in her food? A:No. Q:I see. In that case, why when someone wants the same quality and approach in their wine as their food is there an outcry about heresy? A:Excellent question. I rest my case.

Meet the Sean Hannity of the Wine World

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-debord12-2008may12,0,6289192.story I wish on Mr. Matt, nothing else in his cellar but Au Bon Climat, Flora Springs, Joseph Phelps, Far Niente and Ridge. Now, what could make the fellow happier? Commentary to follow. Feel free not to wait. Signed...one of the terroir jihadist.

Meet the Sean Hannity of the Wine World

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-debord12-2008may12,0,6289192.story I wish on Mr. Matt, nothing else in his cellar but Au Bon Climat, Flora Springs, Joseph Phelps, Far Niente and Ridge. Now, what could make the fellow happier? Commentary to follow. Feel free not to wait. Signed...one of the terroir jihadist.

Fortune Small Business recommendation

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0805/gallery.biz_books.fsb/3.html The Battle for Wine and Love By Alice Feiring (Harcourt, $23) Feiring fears for the existence of wine - authentic, Old World-style wine, not the overmanipulated, standardized products churned out by too many vintners trying to impress wine critic Robert Parker. This book is part polemic, part love note to the small winemakers and importers struggling to keep traditional methods alive.

Fortune Small Business recommendation

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0805/gallery.biz_books.fsb/3.html The Battle for Wine and Love By Alice Feiring (Harcourt, $23) Feiring fears for the existence of wine - authentic, Old World-style wine, not the overmanipulated, standardized products churned out by too many vintners trying to impress wine critic Robert Parker. This book is part polemic, part love note to the small winemakers and importers struggling to keep traditional methods alive.