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The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization
"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,ll have to ask yourself: What do i really want in my glass?
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
May 19th 2008
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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I love Feiring--her attitude, her blog, her taste, and her drive. Feiring and I agree on about 99% of things. (Except the fact that pork is heavenly.) Not everyone does, though, and I understand it, but I find that people who love wine as an honestly delicious product without pretension will enjoy her book and her passion. This book is not just a vinous journey or information, not is it a perfectly woven story of wine and love. It reminds me more of a slightly more focused Robert Altman film....more
This is the wine companion to Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma."
Feiring goes into great detail the difference between technologically made wine and naturally made wine. While consumers become more aware of how their food is grown, processed, packaged, and shipped, most are still oblivious to the ways winemakers, especially New Word winemakers, can manipulate to an excessive degree. I like the idea of listing all ingredients on a label. As Feiring states, "just...more
Feiring goes into great detail the difference between technologically made wine and naturally made wine. While consumers become more aware of how their food is grown, processed, packaged, and shipped, most are still oblivious to the ways winemakers, especially New Word winemakers, can manipulate to an excessive degree. I like the idea of listing all ingredients on a label. As Feiring states, "just...more
This started out to be interesting. I enjoyed getting her opinion and hearing about the wines she liked to drink, but abour halfway through she started to get a bit self-righteous and hypocritical. It became more of "the wines I like are so delicious and wonderful" and "what Robert Parker prefers is disgusting and evil." I began to almost hate her because she wrote off those who also like wimes that Parker would prefer as being midless drones who drink what they are told is...more
I was lucky enough to meet Alice at a book signing in San Francisco. I'd been reading about her on various wine blogs, and she has a reputation for being quite a hard-ass, but she definitely did not seem that way in person. Petite, cute, and firey, she was incredibly sweet and really pleasant to chat with.
So I started reading the book almost immediately after the signing. I swear, I almost never (Adventures on the Wine Route being the exception) tire of these books about people wh...more
So I started reading the book almost immediately after the signing. I swear, I almost never (Adventures on the Wine Route being the exception) tire of these books about people wh...more
I picked up this book thinking that it was this woman's thoughts about food in general and including wine, but it turned out to be a book about the standardization/mass marketing of wines and how more unique wines are being lost. It was interesting and I learned things I didn't know about wine. I'm compiling a list of wines to try, out of curiosity. I thought her attempts to metaphorically link her wine journeys with her love life weren't very good.
Interesting account for support of Terroir when considering wine. I agree with her, especially when considering a high-alcohol content wine that is considered "big" by Parker. I rather enjoy the more "milder" wines that allows one to taste the various nuances. One of the problems is that it's much more difficult to locate these types of wines in today's American market rather than the manipulated and overblown ones.
As much as I love wine and reading about wine, this book annoyed me a bit. Yes, I learned a lot about New World wines and how they differ from old wines (mainly French) and how many winemakers have turned to chemically enhancing their wines. But she was so one-sided almost to a point of being close-minded. I wouldn't say I hated it, but her writing style was not my favorite.
Good and recommended read for anyone interested in wine and who's interested in a non-conforming view of the wine world. Good insights into some main players in the wine industry, written with an acerbic sense of humor and with luckly only a touch of the "love" part that the author insists on including as a theme in the book.
I admire where Alice is coming from--I share her spirit about wine--but this book is maniacally arrogant. And the title is completely nonsensical. Her attempt at mimicking Eat, Pray, Love is half-hearted at best and completely inconsistent. Oh, and, spoiler alert... She doesn't save the world.
This book was a quick engaging read about Feiring's trials and tribulations in the worlds of both wine and love. I get the conceit here - that she feels emotionally about both things, in a similar way, and their stories intertwine, but I was a bit bored of her romantic exploits. I was very engaged by her experiences meeting winemakers, working on articles, talking to people in the wine world - and this is where the book shines for me.
A very interesting book that highlights the difference of how wines are made today and in the past. The "Modernization" of the wine making process has given the crafters the ability to create a wines that has tastes that they want and in the process, removing, what the author says, the "terroir" (earth) from the wine.
Because wines can be made to taste, wine makers are creating wines to meet one man's taste, Robert Parker. He is the wine critic who made the 100 poi...more
Because wines can be made to taste, wine makers are creating wines to meet one man's taste, Robert Parker. He is the wine critic who made the 100 poi...more
I learned that if I wasn't snotty about wine before, I definitely will be now. There's a lot of added crap that goes into wine and I would much prefer wine in its purest form.
Natural, authentic wines that express terroir are good.
Darwin Lau
added it
A good travel memoir of a handful of vineyards that the author had visited but otherwise not very informative. Content is too thin for such an audacious title.
entertaining book bringing vineyards, winemakers, and behind-the-business looks into the world of wine, as tasted by the author. i was intrigued by the big biz vs organic+natural, old school, & even biodynamic practices. i just wish it came with a case of sips so you can taste along with her...
oh, and there's not much about love other than in the sense of loving wine. she remains too coy and protective of the relationships she alludes to so those aspects of the story never really come aliv...more
oh, and there's not much about love other than in the sense of loving wine. she remains too coy and protective of the relationships she alludes to so those aspects of the story never really come aliv...more
Alice Feiring discloses good information about wine and methods of wine-making, and I highly recommend reading this book for that reason. Though at the end, I still have no idea how to go about finding the wines made with natural processes that she expounds.
The information about the writer's various loves should have been cut. I found the references to her lovers with nicknames such as "Owl Man" and "Mr. Straight Laced" annoying, and I didn't think it really add...more
The information about the writer's various loves should have been cut. I found the references to her lovers with nicknames such as "Owl Man" and "Mr. Straight Laced" annoying, and I didn't think it really add...more
Very interesting book about how wine-making techniques have changed to favor a flavor profile that will get a high ranking from Robert Parker. Left me eager to track down wines from producers who are using "bio" techniques to return to a less controlled product.
While visiting an Italian winery, we were lectured on the adulteration of wines sold in the USA. Feiring is passionate on the same subject and explains how wines are manipulated in all stages of production by some very unnatural methods. More than my headaches are produced. The wine industry sees nothing amiss but people like the author are searching for wines produced by traditional "natural" methods.
Interesting details about her travels with wine. The title makes it sound like she hates Robert Parker but she didn't really portray that in her novel. I am surprised by her choice for titles. I enjoyed finding out all about the various things that are done to wines to change their taste.
I was initially put off by the love anecdotes – I just wanted the wine. But it doesn't seem, by p. 100, that she is forcing the theme as much as I thought, and I've given in. The book is fun to read. Postscript: She be cool. This book has changed everything.
A very good book for all those who love wines and know a little about how they have been standardized and how this is now turning around. Makes me want to try the non-Parker recommended wines ( yes I looked at his ratings, but have grown up)
I am thoroughly sold on the concept of natural, organic, and biodynamic wines after reading this book. The descriptions of wines are as vivid as the colorful profiles of the winemakers. Very interesting to learn the "dirt" of wine production.
Luckily no genderized 'Adventures on the Wine route', but an astoundingly nuanced and intelligent autobiographical critique on the wineworld's globalist vagaries. Addictive and engaging.
Luckily no Kermit Lynch genderized, but a very nuanced and intelligent autobiographical critique on the wineworld's globalist vagaries. Utterly lovable and addictively engaging.
Love the message of natural wines, a little annoyed by the writing style.
So true so brilliant! Brava Alice!!!!
Lauren Honican
marked it as to-read
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