BR: For The Love of Wine by AliceFeiring

Just finished reading Alice's new book. Ever since I read her first book: "The Battle for Wine & Love: How I Saved the World from Parkerization" (which I see absolutely no signs that she did, indeed, save us from Parkerization), I've not had a whole lot of respect for SweetAlice. I find the strident polemics of her books, and articles, quite tedious & tiring. Whenever I read one of her articles, I just sorta roll my eyes and think "Whatever...Alice". This feeling was further accented when she moderated a panel at SantaFe Wine&Chile Fiesta of winemakers on "natural wine", which was mostly about promoting herself & her books and she came across as a complete idiot.
So it was with a great deal of hesitation that I ordered her latest book: "For the Love of Wine: My Odyssey Through the World's Most Ancient Wine Culture"... being the country of Georgia, of course.

It turns out that the book is actually a pretty decent read. She does a good job of describing the people & winemakers of Georgia. Her descriptions of her journeys about the country are illuminating. Her excitement is palpable when she encounters an ancient winemaking site and seeing an ancient last remaining BlackHorseBreast grapevine.

That said, the book still grates on my nerves.

1. It is filled w/ the same tired/strident polemics of her support for "natural wines". If she hasn't convinced the entire wine world that "natural wines" are God's (and hers) gift to mankind, she's not ever going to do it.

2. Her intense dislike for Clark Smith (who she can only bring herself to call "Mr Reverse Osmosis") is patently obvious. She rails against his evil machine that separates a wine into sludge/water/alcohol so the winemaker can reconstitute it. She was very upset & threatened by his presence there in Georgia, certain he would destroy the Georgian wine industry (if that's what it's called). SweetAlice is at her polemic best when she says: "So I summoned my courage to tell him to keep his tricks away from Goergian wine or I would turn into a strong warrior unafraid to protect what she loved". Sure Alice...whatever. Roll of the eyes again.

3. On the one hand, she's wishing to promote the "natural wines" of her beloved Georgia and make the wines better know. On the other hand, she decries the arrival of indoor plumbing for these peasant farmers making "natural wine", their conversion from driving donkey carts to evil mechanical trucks, and, as they expand their plantings, the appearance of neat/orderly rows of vines going up-hill & down-dale and the disappearance of old vines trained onto trees and the growing of beets & cabbages underneath them on poverty-stricken farms. Clearly she's threatened by the coming modernization (and it's definitely coming) of the Georgia wine scene. She pines for the return of imporvished farms and outdoor outhouses. OK, Alice...you can't have it both ways.

4. I'm sorta curious about her take on the use of DNA analysis for grapevine identification. Reading between the lines, I suspect she's opposed to DNA as being "unnatural" and wishes for a return to the good ole days where HaroldOlmo would eyeball a vine and pronounce the Primitivo as Zinfandel. The evils of modern life must be driving Alice crazy.

Anyway...the book is a reasonably good read of the Georgia wine scene....just be prepared to do a lot of eye-rolling as SweetAlice mounts her high-horse time & again and delivers her usual sermons.
Tom

Nice review, Tom. I've been thinking of getting this book for some time - still don't know if I will. I suspect my reactions will be very similar to yours - mixed.

I wonder if AF steadily pines for outhouses in the midst of winter. I suspect she has, utilizes, and appreciates indoor modern plumbing. Yet she thinks her 'beloved' Georgians should not wish for those things?

Against DNA typing? She is against information and knowledge? What is so wrong about using a (now simple) scientific process to know what you have in a vine? Where's the threat there? Unless, of course, ignorance is bliss, and I suppose with some people it is.

Alice reminds me of the major character of the "pneumatic" young lady in the novel "Brave New World" by Alduous Huxley (alas, probably not as widely read as it used to be). For her going to a 'wilderness' excursion was tremendously exotic and inspiring. Of course, the absence of modulated air conditioning, shelter, insulation from the wild animals and the mosqutioes, and all the other hindrances and annoyances crop up, she lost quite a bit of that romantic naivete.

Im willing to bet Alice would be amused by a peasant convincing a mule or donkey to be a beast of burden, and pine of the simple good ol' days. She would never wonder why oh why that same peasant would happily accept a bright green and yellow John Deere tractor if offered.

I once knew a farmer in Mendocino whose vineyard went into some wineries and got great acclaim. It was championed by the marketers as "sustainable, organically farmed, no pesticides or herbicides and largely non-interventional farming philosophy".

When I talked to the farmer, though, and someone lauded his brilliant approach to farming like this, he scruffled his foot around in the dirt and said (paraphrase faithfully): Well, uh, you see, that's how we farmed because that's how we HAD to farm. We were poor, couldn't afford all those chemicals and tractors and irrigation systems and stuff. Besides, the soil was just to damn thin to support a lot. Nothing else would grow there, and, hell, a lot of the vines wouldn't even survive. And of course, although the grapes had good flavor, they never showed much of a crop. If we'd made a little more money off that stretch of vineyard we could've made it pay off better, but we were just to poor. Now they call it "dryfarming"...but that's only because we couldn't afford to drive a well and put in an irrigation system."

I'd forgotten about this thread, and in the meantime I have read the book and visited Georgia. My reaction to the book was, as predicted, very similar to yours, Tom. Overall I enjoyed the narrative of the book and, while not agreeing with all of Alice's views, managed to let them wash over me without getting too annoyed - as in a work of fiction almost.