By Randi Gollin
The Buzz catches up with Alice Feiring to find out more about her stance on modern-day winemaking and how she manages to find bottles that meet her standards.
If you’re ever going to invite Alice Feiring over for dinner, you’d best put some careful thought into the wines you’ll be serving. The Manhattan-based, James Beard Foundation Award–winning journalist may be petite and soft-spoken but she has some very strong oenological opinions, as evidenced by her blog (Veritas in Vino), the articles she writes for publications including The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and Condé Nast Traveler as well as the title of her new book: The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization.
Whether or not you agree that the world needs such saving – the title reflects her belief that too many wines are manipulated through technological means, often with the aim of winning high ratings from influential wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr. – the book offers some provocative reading. It’s a memoir-esque account of her visits to various independent and big-name wine producers interwoven with personal vignettes about romance and friendship.
Zagat Buzz caught up with Feiring recently – over lattes, we should add – to find out more about her stance on modern-day winemaking and how she manages to find bottles that meet her standards.
Zagat Buzz: What drove you to write this book? And what prompted The Battle for Wine and Love part of the title?
Alice Feiring: I was furious about what was going on in the wine world. I felt that by writing this book I was doing what I possibly could to make it easier for me to go and get something to drink. What love has to do with it, there is of course my love of wine, but also, I started the journey when my 11-year relationship broke up and it seemed to be an interesting parallel.
ZB: What made you so furious?
AF: The decisions by marketing teams to make wine towards a certain taste. Marketing teams mostly started taking over the role of the winemaker, and saying we want this kind of wine so it gets this kind of score. So whether there was a marketing team, or a winemaker who wanted to attract a certain critic, they would all use technology to push wine into a certain flavor profile. So wines no longer reflected the place or the vintage they came from.
ZB: So you felt wine no longer reflected the terroir.
AF: Terroir is the synergy of place, climate and soil, winemaker, when it all comes together. You can’t take the winemaker out of that equation for me, but he or she is just one of the elements. It used to be there were centuries in Europe of planting a certain vine that is suited for a certain kind of soil. In new-world winemaking you basically put in anything you want in any kind of soil and deal with the taste later. The emphasis is on the fruitiness as opposed to the grape transporting the DNA of that area.
ZB: Is the use of technology more of a new-world phenomenon?
AF: It is a new-world phenomenon that is used all over the old world at this point. You basically can say, I want this Albarino grape to taste like Sauvignon Blanc, so I’m going to use the Sauvignon Blanc yeast and I’m going to make it taste really grassy. There are enzymes that affect the color. Then there’s the reverse osmosis machine, which deconstructs the alcohol from the wine, then you can reconstruct it, as you see fit. There are added tannins. There’s a whole slew of flavoring and aroma shapers.
ZB: So you would define Parkerization as...?
AF: Big, big wine! … Parkerization would be what is considered by the general public to be a good wine. If it is a red wine, something with a very dark color, very thick, full-bodied wine that maybe has a taste and aroma of vanilla, cherry and maybe espresso. Basically, if somebody gets a light-bodied wine they say this is thin and they can’t judge it as an interesting wine. Delicacy in wine has absolutely no cachet; it has no value in the wine world anymore. And not every wine can be full-bodied, and isn’t … Also, a big wine in white: a big, oily, kind of viscous white wine.
ZB: So why does the world need saving from Parkerization?
AF: Besides the fact that I want something to drink, I want people to know that what every winemaker will tell you – that my wine is made in the vineyard – is absolutely not true. Most wines are made in the winery. And I think that once the public knows that, it will change their whole attitude and they may be curious, well, what is natural wine?
ZB: Can you pinpoint a region that makes what you call ‘real,' ‘authentic’ wine?
AF: Right now there is a revolution going on in France in winemaking, with a very strong vin naturel movement. There are brilliant young winemakers all over the country and that word is finally spreading now to Italy, certainly in Germany and Austria – they’ve always been slightly influenced by it – but it is mostly France. And if I am pinpointing regions, the Jura and Arbois. But also the Loire – the Loire probably has one of the greatest concentrations of great natural winemakers.
ZB: What would you define as real wine or authentic wine or traditional wine – are they all the same thing?
AF: Well, as I found out by the end of the book, using ‘traditional’ when it comes to wine is a dangerous term. There are a lot of bad things that were done in the name of ‘tradition.’ ‘Authentic’ wine is something that I like to use and the definition would be a wine from a very talented winemaker, because like I said you cannot take the winemaker out of the equation. But where no technique or ingredient is imposed on the wine to profoundly affect its flavor, texture, aroma, and so you do your good vineyard work, you farm as authentically as possible without the use of chemicals. You have choices about how you want to ferment, but if fermentation takes off naturally you don’t inoculate for malolactic. You basically don’t use any flavoring device on the wine. It’s what people expect wine to be but don’t know that it’s not. If the wine is a pale color you let it be a pale color. You don’t use enzymes to beef it up.
ZB: How – and where – do you find wines that you like? Give us some recommendations to seek out.
AF: New York City is blessed with great wine stores like Astor Wines and Chambers Street Wines. These days I’m drinking lots of wines from the Loire made from Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc as well as lesser known grapes. In the summer Muscadet is always refreshing. Some producers I love are Chateau De Coulaine, Catherine et Pierre Breton and Clos Roche Blanche.
ZB: How do you navigate wine lists in restaurants?
AF: That’s a tricky question. Personally I navigate first by my budget and then assess the options. If a wine list is unfamiliar to you, I can probably suggest getting the cheapest Côtes du Rhône available. This is more often than not a safe bet. Also, another tip if the territory is unfamiliar is to ask the sommelier the importer of the wine. If it’s Neal Rosenthal, Louis/Dressner, Jenny & François, Kermit Lynch or Polaner it’s probably worth taking a chance on.
ZB: What does the future hold?
AF: I think we’re on the brink of an extremely exciting time in winemaking where paradigms are going to bust. Winemakers heretofore who have been afraid of doing natural wine are going to embrace it. And regions will find their real voice.