Alice Feiring: The Ramble

One of America's Great Wine Writers Rambles Down a Path With Me

I don’t recall when I first met or spoke to Alice Feiring. And I certainly don’t recall when I first read any of her writings on wine. Yet I don’t ever recall not thinking of her as one of my favorite wine writers of all. And so about a decade ago, upon hearing word that she would be coming out to Sonoma, I wrote to her and asked if I could arrange a dinner party in her honor. She graciously agreed and I went about putting together a list of folks who I thought were both interesting dinner companions and who also admired her as I did. We ate outside in the summer at The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma. I admired her even more when dinner was finished.

For the past decade or more, Alice Feiring has been on something of a crusade to popularize a more authentic approach to winemaking and wine drinking, championing Natural Wine in particular. She has written books, newsletters, and articles dedicated to this goal and has spoken about the necessity to overcome the monotony and sameness of too many modern wines. She appears fearless but I don’t know if she is. She has inspired countless to come along with her on this ride. I don’t always agree with Alice where Natural Wine is concerned but I can look at what she has done in this realm and on this issue and note that her work is foundational.

Alice’s latest book is something different: To Fall in Love, Drink This: A Wine Writer's Memoir. It will release on August 9. It is not about Natural Wine. It is a memoir about her life, her loves, and her observations on the world as she has encountered it. There’s wine, of course. But there is much more. I wanted to take this ramble with Alice in advance of this newest work of hers and to reconnect with her. I hope you enjoy it.

This interview approach, “The Ramble”, begins with one question emailed to the subject. They respond in any way they choose, which in turn prompts my next question, and so on. It is a less formal way of conducting an interview, results in something a bit messier and rambling, but also produce something more interesting and authentic I think.

TOM: Thank you for taking a ramble with me. You know, you’ve been on my list of Top Five Wine Writers as long as I’ve been keeping that list. A perfect example of why this is the case is “How My Plumber Turned Water Into Wine” that you published in the New York Times in 2006, I think it was. It remains one of my favorite wine articles I’ve ever read. In it you reveal some pretty intimate thoughts to a pretty big audience. I admire that and I admire the way your writing consistently does this without out seeming self-absorbed or pouty in any way. Can I expect the same from your upcoming new book that comes out next month?

ALICE: Well, thank you so very much Tom. So, that essay was published in 2007 (close!) and reappears here in a greatly expanded form, in fact, I think it gained 3,000 words.  

The book is a memoir. And it's a memoir in essays. 30 altogether. So expect are plenty of stories and I guess intimate details. There's escaping a serial killer. There's escaping my orthodox Jewish background. There is running away from home and teenager pain and angst. There is death. Love. Discovery. Getting trapped in the snow in Birkenau. Doing mushrooms. And miraculously, I hear that people learn quite a bit about wine in it. It has always been my desire to just write and use wine as my metaphor, bringing the reader along for the ride, even if they don't even think about wine obsessively as I do. 

TOM: Serial killers can be pesky.

Your description of your upcoming book, “To Fall in Love, Drink This: A Wine Writer's Memoir”, sounds much in the same vane as Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher’s “Love By the Glass” Tasting Note From a Marriage”. These are memoirs held together by wine or wine serving, as you say, as the metaphor for a life. Seems publishers (and I guess readers too) never tire of the “how to” or “introduction” to wine books. New ones are published every year. But what you are doing here is rare in the realm of wine publishing. Which brings me to this: You know wine publishing pretty well. This will be your 7th or 8th published book on wine. Tell me how wine publishing can be better. 

ALICE: I'll be very curious if you still think our books are similar after you read mine. 

So about publishing. This is my 6th book, but 8th book if you count the two that were work-for-hire. What could the wine publishing world do differently? Ooph! That's a huge question. And there's a lot of work to do culturally before the situation improves. 

The buy-wines-on-points system did a lot to kill the interest in a narrative. So much easier to buy by the number instead of the word. Same with Instagram and posting pictures of bottles. These behaviors help to reduce a bottle to a commodity, not the story. 

Contributing to the mess is that most wine writers are hooked into the pay-to-play press trip routine. I understand. Who pays expenses? But still, I would argue, who can write a real story after these junkets? They result in boring articles and builds a closed circle around writers willing to sing the PR person's song for travel. In addition, too much of wine writing (and promotion) focus on widely available 'brands' or portrays wine as an aspirational and a luxury lifestyle. IMOH, this is intimidating and smacks of such privilege; it's made to rebel against. So grab a cider or a beer or a cocktail. Right? Booze articles and books do far better than wine. You tell me why. 

So, here's the difficult solution. How to undo the damage? The subject must be shown respect (from the top). The market is flooded with crappy articles to fill the need for cheap or free content. 

Those assigning stories (or even those writing on their own platform) need to realize that much of wine writing is journalism. Wine writers must be held to the same standards of why this story and why now. And if they write in the first person--they have had to earn it. Wine needs to be woven into our culture. Not as a cheap beverage or aspiration, but as a part of life with a whole lot to say about agriculture, politics, climate crisis,  philosophy, class system, deliciousness, and miracles (to name a few). Then readers, even teetotalers, might be more willing to spend time turning pages and digging into a narrative. As a result, publishers could be more willing to buy wine books.  

TOM: I honestly haven’t seen much evolution in wine writing since I began working in the business 30 years ago. This must certainly have to do with 1) the nature of the beverage and how it is produced and with the nature of drinkers and how they approach wine. Though I don’t have the same disdain for ratings as you (I don’t see them as “writing” or journalism), I do get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I simply see the name of a wine and a rating and nothing else.

Culture. This is an interesting topic. In the past five years or so I’ve seen a discernible uptick in using wine as a vehicle for writing about social justice. This is new. Some of it is very good. Some of it is just very bad ranting. 

Your own writing over the past decade or so is really fascinating and instructive, Alice. Perhaps more than anything your passion for authenticity and the little guy shows through. And of course, your writing is beautiful and compelling. But there is also a good deal of advocacy embedded in your work. Advocacy for Natural Wine, yes, but also an advocate for what seems to me to be a sort of reform. It strikes me as a form of political advocacy. Is what I’m seeing a matter of your politics being shown through a lens of wine?

ALICE: You know, I have to thank you. I am thoroughly enjoying this conversation.  

And thanks for the compliment. I'll take all I can get!  But, do I  see wine as a vehicle for social justice? That is very complicated. Very. I can't address this in an email. We need a few bottles of wine and a long evening because I've written and trashed this email several times since I started to respond. Wine as a vehicle for social justice is a book, not an email response. 

However, for me, wine and viticulture have always been about lies vs. truth, about myth marketing vs. authenticity. It has been about what is right for the land and the people. Oh yeah, and making something to drink that stretches from drinkable to an extraordinary soulful expression. 

TOM: Regarding wine as a vehicle for social justice, I think it can be used to advance any number of social justice projects and certainly has been used in such a way, particularly over the past decade or so. But I am in no position to determine the extent to which this project has or will be successful.

But it’s this question of “authenticity” in wine that really interests me. You introduced me to the philosopher Guy Debord when you used a quote from him in a New York Times opinion piece on the potential corruption of the Natural Wine movement: “All that was once directly lived had become mere representation.” I think your observation in response that "The more that is fake in the world, the more potent is our craving for real” is astute and on the mark. 

Here’s what I want you to comment upon. Can a $15 bottle of “California” Merlot be “authentic” and, more importantly, do you think that wine can express soulfulness? In any way?

ALICE: Yes, Guy Debord.... loved natural wine and died an alcoholic. So, even wine without additives/sulfur can kill, a good reminder. However, he did have an engaging and true take on society. 

Depends on how that $15 bottle was made. 

If it's the way most $15 bottles are made, from bulk wine that has been treated to various techniques? No. That's would be a beverage made like supermarket cookies, from market research to glass. 

However, if that bottle of wine comes from someone's organic (this is important to me) backyard vine or old vineyard (as I am expecting that it is impossible to make a $15 wine from a newly purchased land), simply made, allowed to ferment without addition, made with no frills and just is allowed to be what it is, in other words, not pretending to be something else, not a Bordeaux or a Loire or a Napa, yes, it is possible. However these days, economics works against this. However is it possible to have a fun and drinkable $15 wine? Yes. Not everything has to be earth-shattering.  

TOM: My view of “earth-shattering” wine is that there is no such thing without context—an understanding of what the wine means, then the drinker being able to understand that context as it relates to some element of their own life.

But I want to move on to something else. I love wine writers. I love seeing how they think. I love being introduced to a new perspective. I love wine writers who value the language they use. And I love being able to introduce folks really great wine writers. Can you talk a little about those writers working today who you would like people who work in the industry and who drink wine to get to know?

ALICE: I absolutely don't agree. By earth-shattering, I'm hyperbolically talking about life path, or notion changing. And yes, wine can change lives. I've seen it, lived it. But yes, on to the next question.

Well, I would say first we need more serious platforms for wine writing. There are some people I miss, like Mike Steinberger who wisely saw that there was no way to make a living as a wine writer and jumped ship. Whatever Felicity Carter has to say, I usually want to listen. The ex-editor in chief of Meininger's Wine Business International is now at Pix, mostly on the editing side, but she knows her stuff and her take on the wine world is always super fun to read and highly informed.

Miami-based Dinkinish O'Connor. Unlike me, (I hate doing wine notes) she grooves into them and spins poetry. They're quite fun and of course, we have similar palates so I'm often into what she's drinking. 

She not only has ideas but the beautiful writing to support them. Her piece Bones, Bottles and Black Folk was stunning. And for those of us who love editing/developing with another writer, the experience for me was also enriching. Okay, I don't want to gush too much.  I'm a fan. 

TOM: Gushing is allowed, particularly when there just isn’t enough gushing when it comes to superb wine writing. And she can certainly write! And I’m with you on Felicity also. My immediate thought when her name comes up is “pro”.

There is another thing I wanted to hear you on, Alice. It’s the experience of being a wine person in New York. I grew up in California. I spent my wine career in Glen Ellen, the town of Sonoma, Napa Valley and now the Willamette Valley. There are wine cultures in these places. Wine opportunities abound. And I recommend it. But I’ve always thought of New York as the center of the wine world, perfectly placed between Old and New world, but with different kinds of opportunities and people. Talk about the experience and meaning of being a wine lover and wine writer in New York.

ALICE: When I first returned to NYC I was stunned at the incredible opportunity to taste, it was relentless and perfect for someone developing their chops. Plenty of walk-around tastings. There was the Italian Wine Center which was phenomenal and other places for tutored tastings and that was while there were still plenty of authentic wines around (before the dark ages of the late 90s and early aughts.)  Every wine of import had to be in NYC, we had much more availability than on the west coast. Perhaps not having an active wine culture we were free to be more 'international' and less local? 

When I was starting out  I did see a big difference in east coast/west coast palates. The west was more tolerant of wines of solarity and fruit. The east more subtle and savory.  I think now the playing field has evened out, sometimes I'm jealous of the wines I see out west that I cannot get here. And as far as behavior? I think on the west coast you're more likely to see people drinking at lunch because it is, actually more in the daily culture and vines all around..etc. 

TOM: Thank you, Alice. I’ve enjoyed this ramble and your generosity. Let me end with this last question. You’ve spent the past many years being among the greatest advocates for authentic and natural wine. That commitment has all the qualities of a career-defining move for which I think a generation or more of wine lovers and occupants of the wine industry will be in debt to you. Is this your continued primary path for the foreseeable future? Or, is there another kind of turn you have been eyeing or thinking about? 

ALICE: This is a question a lot of people are asking me lately. And I wonder why? You first, then I'll answer. 

TOM: Why am I asking about your next path? I can count the number of wine writers on just one hand who have the talent to draw and keep the attention of folks no matter what they write about. You’re one of them. I think dedicated wine people want to be a part of movements and ideas that have meaning. Like the natural wine movement. So, I’m wondering if there is a path you think wine people ought to travel down and whether or not you’ve given any thought to helping them along.

If you are asking instead what MY next move is, I’m on that path now. I’m in it to reform anti-consumer and anti-competitive laws that burden both the industry and consumers

ALICE: Noble work, Tom!

As for me, after a 20-year detour, I feel my work is done in this particular world. I always wanted to write about wine but not exclusively. 

Natural wine doesn't need me anymore. 

It's no longer a movement, it's an establishment. 

Natural wine education? Maybe that does need me, perhaps another avenue to explore.

However, of course, I'll continue to write my newsletter The Feiring Line. I'll hopefully write for magazines. I wouldn't say no to a 'column' somewhere, but good opportunities like that don't exist. My hope for this memoir was that it finds a larger audience, a general reader-- drinker or non-drinker-- who happens to love a good coming-of-age story because my aim is to return to.. writing. Like what? A screenplay based on the memoir? (I'm starting).  I am working on a novel. But yet,  the starving artist image at my age gets to be a little long in the tooth, though I don't know if that will stop me from pushing forward.  Nevertheless, hoping that unexpected yet exciting opportunities come my way.  I certainly couldn't have predicted I would have had this career twenty years ago, and maybe I'll say that again.. in another ten. 
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Alice Feiring’s upcoming book, To Fall in Love, Drink This: A Wine Writer's Memoir, is published by Scribner and will release on Tuesday, August 9.