Recent Posts in Book News
Alice au Pays du vin naturel, par Le Monde
February 26, 2010
The Paris Book Party, 2/18
February 20, 2010
The day started with a lunch at Chez Casamir near the Gard du Nord. I was meeting with Jean Paul Gene, columnist with Le Monde magazine (out the last Friday in February). My publisher Jean Paul Rocher was joining, he was under the weather, with a cold. Never the less, the three of us knocked off two 2008s; Dard & Ribo Crozes blanc and Overnoy Plouss. Made the interview cheerier. Actually the interview was stimulating and it started with a joke ( I think.) "So, Alice, people might ask you if you've saved the world yet, but what we really want to know is if you've found love yet." I blushed, stammered and was relieved this was not captured on film. But I thought about that moment, as my spoon was in the vegetable soup, for days. I wasn't obsessing about the reality or my answer, but about the cultural differences between Americans and the French and I'm glad that love is still on their minds. The last question he asked was another that sat in my brain. 'You wrote that it is easier to have friends with different politics than different tastes about wine. Why?" I realized that wine...
La Bataille du Vin et de l'amour
January 27, 2010
View image Now on Amazon, FNAC and elsewhere in France, Jean Paul Rocher's website....
Showing up in Connecticut
April 20, 2009
After showing up to claim my rental car without a license, quickly thinking: don't panic, it's got to be in the mess of your apartment...somewhere! there were no other glitches. Taxi's showed up at my feet, easy, to ferry me back and from the apartment where I knew exactly to find the forgotten document. There was no traffic. There was no stress. I thought. I solved the world's problems in my head. A great big, public thank you to Ted and Barabara who were responsible for bringing me out to the New Jewish Book Festival, Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation-Emek Shalom. The event was terrific, at least for me. I need to get out into the hinterlands a little bit more often because it is all too easy to sit here in the comfort of the shtettle where I can find everything I want. I get spoiled. I forget that not everyone knows who P***** is. And mostly I forget that not everyone deeply cares about wine. No wonder wine books are such a hard sell. Few people care. People were curious whether natural wines aged (I talked about some of my favorite older wines that predated much technology and aged...
The Paperback is Coming, and come to see me in Farmington!
April 11, 2009
Download file I just fished my first copy out from the mailbox. Synchronicity was working to keep me humble and not enjoy the event too much, because almost in the same moment I received a note from an Ontarioan lacerating me for the mistakes in the Francais. I know. I know. Some were mine (in the book I do confess my French is awful) the ones that aren't mine are more embarrassing. In fact they are terribly embarrassing. Fingers and toes crossed that all are corrected in this version of the book. The recession-priced book will hit the book stores the first week in May. ALSO, LIVE IN THE WEST HARTFORD VICINITY? Come and shmooze with me at the Farmington Valley Jewish Center as part of the JCC book festival. +++Join us on Sunday, April 19 from 4-6 p.m., for a fascinating talk from Alice Feiring, New York Times Best-Selling Author of "The Battle for Love and Wine." The book documents her journey to discover biodynamic wines. Feiring makes an argument for wine authenticity through adherence to old techniques. She's against what she calls Big Wine—viticulture as business and technology—and blames the shrinking appreciation for hand-vinified, long-aged Old World...
The Decanter Magazine Review: Jews, Meat and British
November 20, 2008
A friend called me from Texas to read me the December 2008 review of my book. The reviewer calls me a jolly green jihadist on a mission and his sign off is something like I'm good at raising hell. My heart is on my sleeve, but isn't that the right place? Here's the bit that got me. "There's a nagging gap; raised in a Jewish orthdox household she does not eat meat or shell fish. Which raises a question she never addresses, with this sort of truncated regime, what for her is wine's purpose?" Why do people think I have to eat meat to love and understand wine? Why is there pity in their eyes--no steak and claret? How can you live? And some take it even further. A few years ago a book editor once screamed at me at a dinner, you don't eat meat and write about wine? Off with your head! Don't you know people who will eat anything that walks but that is because they have no sense of taste? I do. And what is so great about meat anyway? I stopped because I don't like it, not because I'm on a regime. Have they ever...
BIONDIVINO, THE GREAT CERI SMITH AND ME
October 27, 2008
In San Francisco this Wednesday ? Come hang out with me and Ceri and some Dressner Selections at Ceri's fabulous SF store, BIONDIVINO. I have no idea what the hell we'll do from 6-8 on October 29th, but we'll work at making it fun. 1415 Green Street (Polk) 415-673-2320 on Russian Hill...
Alice and Additives in the News
September 14, 2008
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/Tendencias/pensamiento/unico/Robert/Parker/elpepitdc/20080913elpepitdc_1/Tes Spanish wine is hot. But why are they so interested in me then? Might Spaniards be secretly pissed off with the style of wine that has taking over the country? (Errata report: they cite Parker as being with the Wine Spectator and not the Wine Advocate. Hey it's all the same to them.) Then in my morning Industry Roundup comes a story in SIFY, an Indian on-line news source which distilled a spot that ran on British TV on the funny business in wine making. It's actually amongst one of the poorest pieces of journalism I've seen. They never do answer the question about why some wines give hangovers and others do not. (Could it possibly be too much drinking?) Well, you know, I prefer not to buy wines with these 'additives'--but other than the chemical residue in the wine that is a by product of conventional farming, they're no worse for you than commercial bread, but yet it's "Oh, my God, they are adding yeasts to start fermentation, can you imagine?" Why some wines give you hangovers and others don't However, when asked, it was revealed that Hardys add yeast to their merlot red wine and use egg,...
Kermit Lynch On Sept 23/ Sante Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta on Sept. 25th
September 6, 2008
On Tuesday Sept. 23,6:30! If you live there or are visiting or can make it, I'll be at Kermit Lynch's in Berkeley, California, to read and chat. Check the PDF link and head to page ten for the detail. Download file ------------ Sante Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta (and if you have any clue how I should handle the men on my panel, please chime in!) Wine Seminar: The Winemaker, The Owner, The Merchant, The Author and Her Book: The Battle for Wine and Love "Winemakers like to say wine is grown in the vineyard, but more and more wine is grown in the lab," writes Alice Feiring, author of The Battle for Wine and Love, or How I Saved the World from Parkerization. Feiring leads a timely and compelling panel tasting of eight wines with wine merchant Neal Rosenthal, winemaker Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon and winery owner Jason Haas of Tablas Creek. Does the wine in your glass exhibit a sense of place? You be the judge. (WS4) 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM, La Fonda $75.00 http://www.santafewineandchile.org/...
Reading and Wine on August 6th
August 1, 2008
THE SHRINKS ARE AWAY READING with Susan Shapiro, Jonathan Fast, Alice Feiring, Liza Monroy & Kimberly Auerbach Wednesday August 6 from 7-8:30pm McNally Robinson Booksellers in Soho 52 Prince Street (at Mulberry) WINE IS BEING SPONSORED BY THE INDIE WINE FESTIVAL, PROUDLY FEATURING THE FIRST VINTAGE OF RESONANCE PINOT NOIR, BIODYNAMIC GROWN AND MADE WINE WHICH, AF APPROVED. Also, tune your radios for the show that prompted the host to tell me I needed some media training tomorrow. It's West Coast time. WCRW, Saturday, August 2. Good Food airs every Saturday from 11:00am-noon Pacific, locally at 89.9-FM and online at www.kcrw.com. You can also access the interview after that time from the archives at www.kcrw.com/goodfood...
Alice On Lenny Lopate: Tuesday July 22nd
July 21, 2008
WNYC with Lenny. I do see why people get media trained. I get it. Next time I will not be so damned polite. But still, it was a kick to be on the show. Thank you Leonard....
Una Heroina contra P*****
July 9, 2008
That's what Spain's Sibaritas Magazine plastered on their front cover. Inside? I'm their centerfold. I can't read a word of it, but I imagine they like me. On the same day I got a tear sheet from Michael Broadbent's August piece in Decanter magazine where somehow in his oh-so-simpatico way, he wove me into his narrative. "I rarely plug someone else's book but her views coincide with mine, and are brilliantly presented." I have always adored Broadbent, I love his book, Vintage Wine. Really just his notes but in his notes is a woven narrative that I have always found compelling. Honored to get his approval? Oh yes, indeed. Acclaim by someone I respect is a gift. Happy birthday to me. Speaking of which, in case you want to know what I was drinking, Bollinger 1985 from "the young collector's" (chapter one!) cellar. Gorgeous. Lime. Apple pie crust and treacle molasses. Drunk on the porch in Pinecones with the clack of waltz clogs in the background and Round Pond peeking through the piney woods....
Terroir Wine Bar Part Two
June 26, 2008
(picture courtesy of Amy Lillard) Terroir Natural Wine Merchant 1116 Folsom Street (at 7th) San Francisco, CA 94103 I’m used to some of the rough and tumble wine bars in Paris, and this was familiar. I never met this Alder of Vinography but his sharp, snarky review made me realize why I feel so alienated on this planet. But if his review keeps the wrong people away from this gem, terrific. Gosh, I loved that place. Its comfort strips away some of the alienation. The feel for me,was familiar like the mossy green leather shoes I bought in the Florence's main piazza eight years ago that I should have bought five of. The kind of old shoes an old beau used to threaten to pitch out the window, comfortable and special, the kind of shoes that are the most form and function you could possibly stick your toes into. They have a certain charge of electricity about them. A buzz. Those kind of old shoes, the ones that strike the harmonic seventh. I digress. Unlike the other events, Terroir turned into a book party. Hi, I’m Alice Feiring. So, last night I was at Book Passage at the Ferry...
Book Events This Week And July
June 23, 2008
Hey There---It's not all about me this week in New York, but I do get to show up and hope you can as well. --A TUESDAY June 24th NATIONAL ARTS CLUB 8-9:30 pm w/ Sue Shaprio Dana Jennings & Liza Monroy 15 Gramercy Park at 20th street THURSDAY June 26th, 6:30-8:30 pm PANEL: SECRETS OF BOOK PUBLISHING PANEL, BRYANT PARK w/Karen Siplin, Dana Jennings, Liza Monroy & moderated by Susan Shapiro Bryant Park West 42 Street (btw 5th & 6th Ave) WHERE IS IT? the Reading Room, it is located on the 42nd side of the Park – in between the back of the library and 6th Avenue – look for the burgundy and white umbrellas. In case of inclement weather, the rain venue is - The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen at 20 West 44th Street (between 5th & 6th Avenue). Please know that we will be in touch that day if there is a switch in venue, so let me know your cell number as soon as possible. BACK IN CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO: THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB Alice Feiring: The Battle for Wine and Love 07/16/08 Feiring leads you on an exciting journey through the history of wine(...
My Night in Healdsburg
June 21, 2008
Besides the me, me, me, of all of this I came away touched by those out there who love books and paper. On Monday I traveled to Healdsburg for the reading sponsored by Copperfield's. I was doing my thing at the local library, Bo Simmons the librarian, gave me a brief tour of the wine books. Now, that's a place I could see losing several weeks over to blissful research. He pulled out a few 15c books written in Latin. The pages were in perfect condition. �Parchment,� he said, �the real stuff holds up forever. He then pulled out a new book, modern, crappy paper, yellowed long before his time with disdain. When I told him of my interest in fermentation, he showed me a book from the late 1880�s written by Pasteur. The illustrations of saccharomyces cerevisiae were like etchings. I had never seen yeasts illustrated so tenderly. I went in to the room, which made me remember the painful days of high school, assembly and all of that. A few locals looking for thrills were waiting. The story my friend, Jeff Garigliano told me flashed through my eyes. His novel, is a fine one, Dogface, (story of a...
Parker Speaks To Forbes
June 12, 2008
In Forbes' June 30th issue, writer Michael Maiello was able to coax a quote from Mr. P*****. Take a peek if you like HERE. Did you take a look? Well, what does Feiring think? The Forbes title is editorially catchy, I understand the spin for drama, but do I really think like P***** is killing off the wines as if he was some new virus that attacks the vine? No. Do I think he's part of the one world, one taste phenomena? Of course. And, I don't use the word Frankenwines, I use the much more PC spoof. And it isn't that I refuse to eat meat, I just don't care for it. But the article is a zippy, fun read. I think the points are well made, even if there is a bit of a National Enquirer meets The Onion tang to it all. Meanwhile, for my non-sequitur of the day: I've been reading the 1981 interview with Vin Naturel deity, Jules Chauvet in the Le Vin En Question. The hard core natural wine movement genuflect at the grave of Chauvet as he, in the late 70's pioneered the much sneered at working with natural yeast and no S02....
Alice On Women & Wine Radio
May 29, 2008
Today, Thursday at 2pm PST/ 5PM EST. www.voiceamerica.com and then it goes onto archives on www.womenandwineradio.com starting tomorrow for a free download from iTunes. I haven't heard it yet, so I hope I don't sound like a complete idiot. If I do, I'm sure you'll let me know....
JUNE BOOK EVENTS/NYC & CA
May 23, 2008
More coming but here's the dance card so far. Hope you can come. --Alice NEW YORK CITY EVENTS MONDAY JUNE 2nd (DEBUT IN NYC. HELP. AUDIENCE NEEDED. MEET ETHEL!) BARNES & NOBLE 7pm 97 Warren Street Tribeca 212-587-5389 WEDNESDAY JUNE 4th BOTTLEROCKET WINE & SPIRIT 6 � 8 pm 5 W.19TH Street Flat Iron Tasting & Signing and maybe a reading? TUESDAY June 24th NATIONAL ARTS CLUB 8-9:30 pm w/ Sue Shaprio Dana Jennings & Liza Monroy 15 Gramercy Park at 20th street THURSDAY June 26th, 6:30-8:30 pm PANEL: SECRETS OF BOOK PUBLISHING PANEL, BRYANT PARK w/Karen Siplin, Dana Jennings, Liza Monroy & moderated by Susan Shapiro Bryant Park West 42 Street (btw 5th & 6th Ave) CALIFORNIA EVENTS SATURDAY June 14 4:30 pm Readers' Books 130 E. Napa St. Sonoma, CA 95476 Tel: 707-939-1779 MONDAY, June 16 7pm COPPERFIELD�S 104 Matheson Street 707-433-9270 Healdsburg, California TUESDAY Jun 17, 2008 6:00 PM BOOK PASSAGE 1 Ferry Building, #42 San Francisco, CA 94111 (415) 835-1020 WEDNESDAY June 18th 5pm TERROIR WINE BAR 1116 Folsom Street San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 558-9946 LOS ANGLES THURSDAY June 19th Lou on Vine 6pm 724 N Vine St. Los Angeles CA (323) 962-6369 (check here...
What's New?
May 21, 2008
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 Organic Wine Journal 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....
Fortune Small Business recommendation
May 9, 2008
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....
The New York Sun Story
May 7, 2008
Peter Hellman wrote a wonderful (if I say so myself) review/profile in today's Sun. You can read it HERE....
Oh, Those Boys
April 26, 2008
After the Globe and Mail profile, Mr. Crosariol wrote me an email. "You must have really thick skin," he said. "You get these often?" He was referring to a piece of, well, hate email. He received a nasty one from a California 'winemaker' who disapproved of Crosariol's reportage of me. Truth is, I don't have thick skin at all, but I better grow one quickly. The offending 'gentleman' who wrote his mind to Crosariol, continued his bashing on the ebob board. He told his buds... ++++I actually e-mailed the author telling him he was really embarrassing himself by trying to write about wine. Designer yeast? Adding urea when yeast are tired? Filtering out moulds from wine? Micro-ox bubblers commonly used? It's apparent he really has no clue about winemaking. His article does nothing but propagate misinformation. What a fine bit of writing. Not!+++++ Note: the writer, Mike is a winemaker! (or hires one) and he doesn't know that micro oxygenation is wildly used? Superfood? Designer yeast? Or that mold is an issue? I have a feeling he is so intellectually challenged that he didn't recognize the British spelling of mould as mold. The board didn't help set Mike's neurotic...
Alice in Toronto's Globe and Mail
April 23, 2008
Saving the world from Frankenwines The Globe And Mail Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Page: L1 Section: Globe Life Byline: Beppi Crosariol http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080423.DECANTER23/TPStory/?query=Feiring It's a quaint myth: Wine is a product of nature, the simple spawn of fruit and airborne yeast. To drink anything more ancient or unadulterated, you'd have to dip your cup into a stream, crack a coconut or milk a cow. That's how it has been for 9,000 years, but over the past two decades, myriad technologies and lab tricks have turned that typical weeknight bottle into the potable equivalent of cake from a mix. At least that's the feeling you get after reading the book The Battle for Wine and Love by New York writer Alice Feiring, out next month. An industry answer to Fast Food Nation and Kitchen Confidential, the book paints a distressing picture of a world full of Frankenwines (my word, not Ms. Feiring's),cheap-trick sops with all the engineered flavour, artificially smooth texture and proximity to nature of a McDonald's shake. For example, winemakers now generally kill off natural yeasts with sulphur and replace them with designer strains that can add flavours of, say, strawberry, cocoa or banana.The yeasts are often fed urea when...
The Events Start
April 8, 2008
They're starting to roll in and hopefully soon we'll have a nice little dedicated space for them but as of now, book your calendar: PORTLAND, OREGON May 2nd 3-5 I'll be leading a seminar on How Natural is Natural for the kick-off of the Portland Indie Wine Festival. The panel will be exciting. Be prepared for fireworks and banter. *Clark Smith (Vinovation & WH Smith) *Doug Tunnel (Brick House) *Aaron Lieberman (Owen Roe and his own Indie wine, Cottonwood) *Amy Lillard (La Gramière, from the Rhone) Price: $35 May 3rd: Book Reading at the FABULOUS Powells 2pm 1005 W Burnside Portland, Oregon...
Publisher's Weekly Is UP!
March 23, 2008
What is this woman doing on my blog? And where is Mr. Big? And what a review it is. Here's the thing. When the bad reviews hit, and I am sure there will be, will I be girl enough to put them up here as well? I really don't know. But the PW one is terrific though it does feel strange to get a stranger's take on the book and hear me compared (or at least my situation) to Carrie Bradshaw's. I mean, we have completely different senses of fashion. But, it is exciting that this is the first review from the non-wine reading world and the first clue I have that my book works for us and the rest of the world. Have I really lucked out and made discourses on yeast and tannin sexy? ++ *** In this entertaining oenological salvo, wine blogger and journalist Feiring makes an argument for wine authenticity through adherence to old techniques. She's against what she calls �Big Wine��viticulture as business and technology�and blames the shrinking appreciation for hand-vinified, long-aged �Old World� wines (like the Barolo that eventually led to her career) on, among other things, the UC�Davis School of Enology and...
Alice Expunged From eBob
March 12, 2008
Just in from a reader in Oregon about the eRobertparker.com forum. "If you attempt to type "Feiring" it gets completely asterisked out." Just for fun, I did a little search on my name on the site, and sure enough, old threads on my stories, like my irrigation story and there it is Alice *******. Good going guys. So, I'm sure there are others but, they blocked Jeremy Parzen from signing up, they kicked off Lyle Fass and Bill Nanson of The Burgundy Report......but they let Jamie Goode post? I guess he's not said anything to piss them off. What's that section from my book? Here it is, straight from the pages of Chapter 8, "My Date With Bob." Parker: "I have always believed in diversity of opinion,” he told me as if he had gone through these speech oh-so-many times. “I mean, I never commented on that woman’s book (Elin Mccoy’s biography, The Emperor of Taste) but the one real annoying thing that was totally untrue she said about me is that I have thin skin, that I don’t accept criticism and I go after wine writers." Isn't it lucky that the powers that run the eBob board are into...
Jenny's French Language Wine Maker Seminar (and the mysterious bottle)
March 9, 2008
So much to tell and so little time to spit it out. So I’ll work backwards. Last night I attended the seminar the petite wine importer, Jenny Lefcourt was giving at the new Astor Center with a few of her producers entitled Vins Purs. Who knew there were so many would attend a French wine seminar in French, my only wish is that it would have been presented as a class so I could have felt empowered to ask for clarification as my French is...ahem.... pathetic. One of the big treats, by the way was a 1989 Domaine Oudin 1er Cru Chablis, "Vaugiraut." An incredible treat to see how that wine aged. Sure it was evolved, round, leesy, creamy, mandarin-orange like with piercing acidity and wool with brazil nut meets dulce de leche finish. After the seminar some intense guy was pressing the tall, angular vigneron Laurent Tibes (Clos des Camuzeilles) to tell him what was the matter with the wine he made. I wondered if he made the wine in his New York bathtub or perhaps one of the Crushpad custom made wine deals. The wine was really vile, but the first thing I smelled was sauerkraut and then...
Want to See the Book Jacket?
March 6, 2008
It's starting to feel even more and more real. This just in from my publisher. Download file...
My First Review: Wine & Spirits Magazine
March 2, 2008
I didn't think it was going to be this hard to read reviews. I know there are going to be some people who will hate the book and some who will love it. But the April issue of Wine & Spirits magazine included editor and publisher Joshua Greene's take on my book. And I kind of panicked. For the first forty-eight hours the actual letters looked like hieroglyphics then after coffee and the NYTimes this morning the words looked more coherent and when the coffee burned off the fog, I was stunned. I felt the way I did the first time I saw a play of mine read and the actors understood what I had written. Mr. Greene understood. He got it. I was so happy. He got the irony, he got the humor and of course, he got the wine stuff. I didn't even flinch when he described me as having "a train of frizzy red hair," and I was moved to hear his last lines: ...like Lynch (Kermit), Feiring's storytelling muscle takes the book beyond the neat genres established in the trade. This is a great read, a great perspective on the movement for natural winemaking and it's...
My First Review: Wine & Spirits Magazine
March 2, 2008
I didn't think it was going to be this hard to read reviews. I know there are going to be some people who will hate the book and some who will love it. But the April issue of Wine & Spirits magazine included editor and publisher Joshua Greene's take on my book. And I kind of panicked. For the first forty-eight hours the actual letters looked like hieroglyphics then after coffee and the NYTimes this morning the words looked more coherent and when the coffee burned off the fog, I was stunned. I felt the way I did the first time I saw a play of mine read and the actors understood what I had written. Mr. Greene understood. He got it. I was so happy. He got the irony, he got the humor and of course, he got the wine stuff. I didn't even flinch when he described me as having "a train of frizzy red hair," and I was moved to hear his last lines: ...like Lynch (Kermit), Feiring's storytelling muscle takes the book beyond the neat genres established in the trade. This is a great read, a great perspective on the movement for natural winemaking and it's...
Alice Makes Page Six
February 14, 2008
I'm in Spain and a friend sent the link, which unfortunately I cannot get to work on this site. At first I thought it was a joke! Read the text below or use your Google. +++ Critic Blamed for 'Raspy' Wine Posted Wed. Feb. 13, 2008 7:05am by Page Six Filed Under Fresh Ink AN award-winning food writer has declared war against influential wine critic Robert Parker, saying the power he wields in rating cabernets, chardonnays, merlots and other vintages has caused vineyards to dumb down their wines just to please him. In The Battle for Wine and Love — Or How I Saved the World from Parkerization, Alice Feiring, a James Beard Foundation Award-winning journalist, fumes that Parker's "tastes have become bigger than himself . . . the quest to make a wine that will attract Parker's attention has created wines that have such concentrated power that delicacy and minerality are overpowered." For years, Parker, 60, has defined American wine criticism with his "100-point scale" in The Wine Advocate magazine — reviews that can raise or lower prices and are relied upon by wine merchants around the world. That's led vineyards to create a "standardized wine" that could be...
News From the Sandbox: What they're saying about me.
February 3, 2008
In the continuing saga.... Got a psst....email on Saturday "Possibly Bad Publicity is Good Publicity?" The publicity in question was the threat on ebob. http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showthread.php?p=2028908#post2028908 Someone had discovered my book on the Harcourt site. Posted it. A discussion of it went on. Plenty of speculations about..."too bad she has a chip on her shoulder," stuff like that. Some people voiced interest. Oddly enough there wasn't too much bashing. Actually, more interest than bash and some people didn't know who I was. Squires chimed in at the end saying that I, a nobody, must need publicity pretty badly to write such a book (like he knows what I wrote?) and then he said a lot of people are jealous of Robert Parker's fame. I suppose he meant me. He then he locked the thread down with a thwat and bam. Then he removed said thread. Maybe he realized that I got about 200 hits from the conversation? Did anyone happen to see it before it was removed? I used to work on psych units and this behavior is always fascinating to me. Especially because it boosted my Amazon ratings. Thanks guys! On the other hand, I have always been comfortable with...
The Book Kick-Off Season
January 24, 2008
Forget the Super Bowl, book season was kicked off with a wine gathering at my house to intro the aforementioned mistake-riddled galley. This meant I was cleaning for 10 days and now have to do a discovery around the 660 square feet to find whatever I squirreled away. If you weren't invited I have to beg your apology, because even though it was in my space, I wasn't in charge of the invite list and who showed up at the door was a complete surprise. What I was in charge of? Enlisting Melissa Clark for the food. Many thanks! Her great Fondue story was in the Times on Wednesday and while she should have been raking in the congratulations for a really terrific piece, she was slaving over smoked trout on potato chip and other delicacies. (foto courtesy of Jeremy Parzen) Oh yes, I was also in charge of the wine. To get this done I had to do the unseemly and hit up some importers for specific donations. I hate this. I really do. But, they came through. Wines were kindly donated by Polaner, Louis/Dressner, Jenny & Francois, David Bowler, my private stash and one lone purchased bottle...
The Book Kick-Off Season
January 24, 2008
Forget the Super Bowl, book season was kicked off with a wine gathering at my house to intro the aforementioned mistake-riddled galley. This meant I was cleaning for 10 days and now have to do a discovery around the 660 square feet to find whatever I squirreled away. If you weren't invited I have to beg your apology, because even though it was in my space, I wasn't in charge of the invite list and who showed up at the door was a complete surprise. What I was in charge of? Enlisting Melissa Clark for the food. Many thanks! Her great Fondue story was in the Times on Wednesday and while she should have been raking in the congratulations for a really terrific piece, she was slaving over smoked trout on potato chip and other delicacies. (foto courtesy of Jeremy Parzen) Oh yes, I was also in charge of the wine. To get this done I had to do the unseemly and hit up some importers for specific donations. I hate this. I really do. But, they came through. Wines were kindly donated by Polaner, Louis/Dressner, Jenny & Francois, David Bowler, my private stash and one lone purchased bottle...
Humbling Moments in the Book World
January 22, 2008
I just shipped off my manuscript to San Diego and the fabulous managing editor on the job, David Hough. This morning, was the last time I will see the document before it appears in hardcover, my ego is in Mr. Hough's hands and that is a difficult intangible to hand over. Yet, the team has been great and I have no real reason to fear except fear itself. So you get the picture? As I sailed out of Fed Ex I was gripped by the cold, skeletal fingers of terror. You see, I had tons of corrections to make. Tons. Several are essential and I can do nothing except trust, which is not so very easy. For example: will the several spellings of Clicquot be resolved to the correct one? will Tao-Kalon turn into the proper, To-Kalon? will Claude Leflaive get the correct sex and name change to Anne-Claude? was I really behind Noelle Pangay instead of Noel Pinguet? And what about some details that were questionable and I decided to give them the axe? Just how forgiving are editors of uncorrected proofs? I am hoping very. Because this week the galleys get sprinkled over the country and meanwhile, the...
What I Learned At the First Reading
December 22, 2007
I meant to learn from the experience of that first reading and I did. I learned that I should go first or second, but never go last. Don't know about you but when I'm told to prepare a reading that is 15 minutes tops, I prepare 12 minutes because when you are one of three PLUS musical interludes, 15 minutes of being read to is potential torture. Those who read before me read for 36 & 40 minutes and by the time I went up, I was ready to shoot someone. It was hard to say, "Alice, chill." I did not take my time, I raced through my pages because material because all I was thinking was that the audience needed to be released from their chairs! Though the turnout was fantastic and i was able to get a few laughs, and they seemed to really like the way I personified Syrah, it was just too much to ask the audience to sit still a little longer. Later, to make it all worse, viewing the video was as humiliating as seeing your ex-lover in the supermarket on a day you might have forgotten to brush your teeth. Torture. Why were...
Come to a Reading? Mine?
November 25, 2007
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...
I Give In To Temptation
November 21, 2007
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...
The Parkerbeeste and Nossiter
November 1, 2007
A relative of the Parkerbeeste Like many other wine folk I�ve been amused by the going ons over at the eBob.com site this week. While the Parkerbeestes*** feasted on Jonathan Nossiter�s book and politics and questioned his palate and wine knowledge, he�s proved to be a champ in France. His book has outpaced Agostini�s kiss & tell offering on with an Amazon ranking of 37. For over a decade, the author/auteur, lived around the corner from my apartment. We first met around 1992 or 1993. I was interviewing the owner of a Crosby Street tapas place. Jonathan wrote their wine list. I admit that I found him a little annoying. I admit that I didn't find him as cute as the fierce eyed owner of the place whom I was trying to interview/flirt with while Jonathan kept on trying to steal the attention. When I realized he had a palate simpatico with mine, I segued into heavy wine speak and some good drinking. It turns out he was the first person I met who used cynical to describe wine, way before we used Bettanized, Parkerized or spoofulated. Nothing like a good word to turn a girl's head. ***PARKERBEESTES are...
Jonathan Nossiter's New Book (Interruptus)
October 31, 2007
Jonathan Nossiter's new book was released in France today. (Taste and Power or as French Amazon has it listed as...Mondovino: The Book.). I've been immersed in my own book cover debate, as a result I have been obsessed with the symbolism and power of other wine book cover art. Yes, it nicely recalls the clouds from the Mondovino image. Now, look at his name, placed like cojones on either side of the tumescent wine glass' stem? An accident? The wine journal, Decanter, wrote on their site that Nossiter gives it to everyone--and especially Parker. And as a result, (thank you Tyler for alerting me) Mr. Robert M. Parker Jr. ripped a characteristically snarky tirade. Get this snippet that he posted on his website eBob.com. "It is Nossiter and his ilk (call them the scary wine gestapo) chanting the same stupid hymn that demand wines be produced in only one narrow style.....but bring on the suckers and fools....some one will certainly buy into his propaganda as they did that migraine-inducing disingenuous...." The entry visible to all on his ebob website is a rant. Now, I rant, but I do try to stay away from name calling. So in the middle...
Hanna Agostini's Parker Book Shakes the World!!
October 27, 2007
Hanna Agostini, Parker's past point-woman in Bordeaux who in 2003 had been questioned in connection with improper exploitation of Parker’s stationery and his good name, (I don't know what happened to that case, does anyone?) has released a kiss and tell book about the world’s most famous wine critic’s work practices. Who would have thought that the book that puts Robert M. Parker on a skewer and placed him over the barbecue could have generated press from the front page of Yahoo to the New York Post and of course all around the world? Yet as shoddy as the Agostini book might or not be, the reportage surrounding the book was mostly schlock. Except for an interview in Sud Ouest it seemed that no journalist bothered with any real research. Storiess seemed regurgitated from a press release (if you have one, I would love to see it.***) I think this one must have been the Christmas fruit cakes of press releases to have been passed around and fed so many pens. The world-wide repetitive ink was on the news that Parker has important friends in Bordeaux (shocking! ) who makes wines he loves and awards points and that he...
Book Update
October 20, 2007
For those of you who don't know, I do have a book date. FINALLY. The fabulous publisher, Harcourt will present my book, THE BATTLE FOR WINE & LOVE (or How I Saved the World from Parkerization) , to the world in the merry month of May 2008. My editor placed the blue-marked, mess of a copy-edited manuscript in my hands this week. Currently I am plodding over it (alternately liking it and hating it)--this is exactly the kind of task when one wishes one was born a Virgo. I am not. I have no Virgo in me at all....