The Battle for Wine and Love: Or How I Saved the World from Parkerization

by Alice Feiring

Book Overview

"I want my wines to tell a good story. I want them natural and most of all, like my dear friends, I want them to speak the truth even if we argue," says Alice Feiring. Join her as she sets off on her one-woman crusade against the tyranny of homogenization, wine consultants, and, of course, the 100-point scoring system of a certain all-powerful wine writer. Traveling through the ancient vineyards of the Loire and Champagne, to Piedmont and Spain,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156033267
• ISBN13: 9780156033268
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

great read, great purpose.

I picked up this book because of the title. It sounded like it might be helpful with my own changing taste and evolution with wine. It did and it's a terrific book. As a native Californian, when I started drinking wine in the late 60s it was California Cabs and I loved them. However, over time I eventually grew tired of buttery chards, and jammy reds. When I started to explore French and Italian wines it was confusing and a disappointment at first. But then the subtlety finally got to me and they began tasting elegant and unique. It wasn't long until the overly fruity and oaky wines were hard to drink. Furthermore, I slowly began to realize that the 1-100 point scale for wine that I once used religiously became an almost inverse guide--- if Parker or Wine Spectator, or Wine Advocate gave something a 90 plus rating, I would worry that it was way too fruity. Kermit Lynch's terrific book--Adventures on the Wine Route, really opened my eyes--or taste buds--and helped in a historical context to more understand what fine, soulful wine is all about. Alice Feiring's book takes it a step further and nails it for the wine world of today! This is a wonderful, funny, and insightful work. Her many different points of contact in the wine world reveal just how the current disincentive for authentic wine has occurred--everywhere in the world. Her personal references humanize the story making it more fun to read than the typical wine book. Within the fascinating stories, are remarkable, if not startling specifics of what to avoid and what to seek out in trying to find the unique, quality wines that are honest expressions of the area and not artificially doped-up and homogenized to a single commercial taste. All this is extremely important to anyone who really wants to improve their understanding and find truly good wine--old or new world. Fortunately, they do exist in both and his books points you in the right direction. But perhaps most importantly, Feiring is a competent and courageous voice helping to get the world of wine back on track. Bravo and carry on!

A fine blend of wine culture and travelogue

Wine journalist Alice Feiring had a long affection for complicated wines - and was horrified when she discovered all kinds of wines were beginning to taste alike. Her search for originality in the wine world led her on a journey through ancient vineyards of France, Spain and more as she searched out old-fashioned wines and artisan winemaking over corporate production techniques. "The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization" is a fine blend of wine culture and travelogue, perfect for any library strong on wine appreciation.

Alice is the Real Deal (and so is Neal Rosenthal)

Forget about the title and get over Bow-Tie Man, the Owl Man, etc. Alice Feiring (pronounced Fire-ing) has a right to air her personal stuff. After all this is her book. And as to complaints that the second part of the title is silly and designed to help sell books. So what? Somebody had to have the cojones to take on Robert Parker, whose, IMHO, 'silly' reviews have helped wipe out the demand for many truly authentic wines and have promoted the facile, manipulated wines of the new rich and enriched any number of his favored status importers and formulaic consultants--who are not wine tailors, they are knock-off artists. Alice is the real deal and so is Neal Rosenthal, who Confessions of a Wine Merchant comes on the heels of Alice's book, echoing themes about the authenicity and sense of place in truly great wines and railing against the tragic (for real wine lovers) imposition of industry homogeneousness and wine manipulation over the real thing. Both these books are deep--not frivolous, as some people would like to paint Alice Feiring's book--complex and filled with nuances that everyone who really cares about great wine should know and appreciate. Neither book is jammed with appreciation for overripe fruit, residual sugar, palate numbing alcohol levels and, Thank God, neither comes in a horrid new oak binding (barrels where supposed to be aging vessels, not gross flavoring agents that override grape varieties, terroir, etc.). My prediction is that these two books are going to have an enormous impact on young (and not so young) sommeliers, wine directors and wine buyers (especially non-retail types, who don't use Parker scores to flog wines), because they both espouse the greatness and distinctiveness of terroir-driven, authentic, artisan wines that have a sense of place. Since these are not mass market Parkerista wines, I think this philosophy will not have an immediate effect on the Parker consumer, but it will have on restaurant wine lists run by younger sommeliers, who believe it or not have been fed up with tasting Parkerista wines for quite some time. They will seek terroir-driven wines to lend distinction to their lists and push these wines as those which help set their wine lists and restaurants apart. Restaurant goers will discover these wines and begin to look for retail stores that carry them. It will not be long before the already choppy anti-Parkerista waters build into a very big wave, which, pardon me, copycat American wine journalists will soon see as a bandwagon to jump on, at least those who still have a palate left after tasting all the overripe, sweet, over-oaked, alcoholic junk that they have been barraged with over the past decade or so. And with greening and organic movements growing stronger in response to environmental changes, more and more conscientous wine drinkers will begin to question the manipulation of wines. Alice Feiring: ". . . At stake is the soul of wine. This is giant corporation vs. in

delightful and insightful for connoisseurs and novices alike

Feiring's is one of the rare wine books that has equal appeal to both the oenophile and the weekend wine taster. 'Wine geeks' will feel vindicated by her manifesto that cries out against 'spoofalted' (unnecessarily manipulated) wine and praises the renegade wine makers who've turned to Biodynamic farming, or simply heeded the wine making wisdom of their great grandfathers. The less wine-savvy can still take delight in the love stories that mellow this tannic polemic. Feiring writes great characters as well as great wine reviews - for those of us who want to get to know the people behind our wine, Feiring satisfies with anecdotes of wine critics, wine scientists, and most of all the wine makers themselves. Highly recommended.

Love and Controversy in The Winery

I have been collecting, drinking and learning about wine since the late 60s. Recently was browsing books to see if there was anything new as far as pairing wine with some of the newer and more exotic cuisines. That I did not find but in browsing stumbled upon "The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization" by Alice Feiring. I had never heard of Alice but the title caught my eye because Robert Parker, who popularized the 100-point wine rating scale, is such a powerful figure in today's wine world. It also probably did not hurt that she is a self-described Jewish, Russian, redhead, wine geek with a finely tuned palate or that her jacket picture radiates a combination of intelligence, mystery, insight and determination. Once started I could not put the book down and read it during one cloudy Saturday afternoon. Since brevity is not the norm for wine books was pleasantly surprised at how much I learned. In a lively 268 pages she takes us behind the scenes for an insiders view of wine making, wines, techniques, producers and some of the controversies raging within the wine world. Intertwined with all the information is a lively and engaging story that makes it easy to digest the mountain of information. Feiring, an accomplished storyteller, combines her personal odyssey in the world of wine with serious and relevant issues that confront today's wine world.