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

by Alice Feiring

"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, she goes in search of authentic barolo, the last old-style rioja, and the tastiest new terroir-driven champagnes. She reveals just what goes into the average bottle—the reverse osmosis, the yeasts and enzymes, the sawdust and oak chips—and why she doesn’t find much to drink in California. And she introduces rebel winemakers who are embracing old-fashioned techniques and making wines with individuality and soul. No matter what your palate, travel the wine world with Feiring and you’ll have to ask What do i really want in my glass?

Genres: Wine, Nonfiction, Food and Wine, Memoir, Travel, Booze, Food

271 pages, Hardcover

First published May 19, 2008

Reviews

[Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really struggled to rate this book, because even though Alice Feiring infuriated me at times, and I found myself completely at odds with many of her statements,I found myself utterly taken in by the book and plowed through it in a very short amount of time. It should also be stated that I agreed with many of her statements too. Like Alice, I find the ubiquitous use of practices that overly alter the "natural" state of wine distasteful, and I find the idea of tailoring wine to appease the palate of a few influential wine critics' palates abhorrent. However - at times I like big bold and in your face flavors, and at times I like rich oak, while at other times I like the subtlety that Feiring appreciates. Furthermore, Feiring champions biodynamic growing, which in my mind, is bunk. I support growers really caring for their vineyards and bonding with them on a level that few of us can imagine, but howling at the moon and burying a horn full of manure will not make wine better. As a scientist, I do not appreciate her occasional anti-science commentary. Also - without mincing words, Alice Feiring, is at times a hypocrite. She berates Parker for not allowing for other points of view and wine preferences and for saying, "What I like is good and all the rest is junk," but she consistently says the exact same thing, belittling wines that do not conform to her philosophy of "what wine should be." However, I must say the even though she is occasionally a hypocrite, she is an endearing one, and I would love to learn from her and taste at any event she might host.

Any wine-lover would benefit from reading this book, even if they do not agree with the author, and the gems of mind-blowing wine experiences that pepper the book make it a rewarding read.

[Matthew Hickerson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read it to gain a gleaning understanding of the wine industry, but know that the author comes off just as hypocritical as the critic she is lambasting. I lean more towards the wine she espouses and I believe they're exactly the way she describes them, but she digresses from the influence of Parker on the wine making styles of producers who she derides, (predominantly California wine), that these wines are not real or true wines because of how much they've been tampered with. I'm pretty sure the definition of wine is fermented grape juice, and the "tampered" wine is still fermented grape juice.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that intervening as minimally as possible in the fermentation and production of wine can definitely show more of a true reflection of the grape and the land, but if the wine maker and the consumer are wanting a new flavor profile by manipulating the wine, go for it.

Enjoy what you enjoy, take no shame in the drinks you drink, and if you decide to read this, take her very strong opinion with a grain of salt, and know that it's an entirely new world of wine she's going over that hearkens back to a simpler way of making wine.

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

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. We need more voices like Feiring--proponent of honest wine making. Many people think that writers like her favor wine that tastes like dirt and sticks, but that is far from the truth. She should be spoke with in the same vein we discuss people like Alice Waters, and those who are proponents of the family farm, sustainable agriculture, and home-cooked food. Bravo, Alice.

[Nilay Gandhi · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Nick Milinazzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This is my journey into the wine world's version of David and Goliath. At stake is the soul of wine. This is giant corporation vs. independent winemaker. This is international and homogeneous vs. local and artisanal. This is the world that courts [Robert] Parker vs. those who heed their own calling. If the "new technology" made a better wine, I'd say great. But for the most part, wine is being reduced to the common denominator, and this is sacrilegious."

Alice Feiring is a wine writer and blogger whose love of natural, low-intervention wines is in stark contrast to that of (arguably) the most famous wine critic/writer: Robert Parker Jr. Parker's preferences are so well-known and influential, that many winemakers purposefully try to create a product that will garner a high score -- thus leading to more recognition and higher prices. To compound the problem, there are countless new ways (micro-oxygenation, tannin addition, modified yeasts) that winemakers can manipulate their wine to taste a certain way, instead of allowing nature and the fruit to do the work itself. Much of what Feiring has to say I am in full agreement with -- but it's the WAY she says it that occasionally find problematic. I do find that many wines that are organic or biodynamic tend to taste better than the alternatives, and I still don't love most of what comes out of California (or Australia). But Feiring makes it seem like if a winery doesn't follow the natural path, then they are going to produce an inferior product, which I disagree with. But her cajoling gets so extreme at times she starts come across as narrow-minded as Parker. Newer technology can still produce good wine without stripping it of its terroir or unique characteristics. The further into the book one gets, when she explores different regions and speaks with various winemakers, she becomes calmer and allows the people and environments bolster her mood (and writing). In short, I agree with most of what she had to say, but it's the way she says it that can sometimes turn people off. Still, a worthwhile book for those really into wine.
3.5 stars

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book received a James Beard Foundation Award for good reason. It beautifully and humorously illuminates what has gone wrong in the world of wine since the Robert Parker (spit, spit) darkened our doorstep. Feiring's book continues along the lines started by Lawrence Osborne, in his equally superb Accidental Connoisseur https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... in exploring the international style of wine to old world styles with a focus on the natural, artisan and local.

And so, I recommend reading Feiring along with Osborne.

I also recommend reading with McCoy's biography on Robert Parker. The McCoy biography is sympathetic and will keep you from hating Parker too much. It didn't keep me from hating Parker too much, but it might help you. Feiring's books are all a celebration of artisan and the local. She is wonderful on terroir and the problems with the American wine industry.

As an aside, there is a movie that was disappeared
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hPax...
And the author is impossible to track down. A possible murder mystery that Feiring could unravel if she has the stomach for it.

I made this syllabus in case anyone ever wants to teach a class on the evils of Robert Parker--there are many book suggestions as well.
https://www.borges-library.com/2020/0...
Her book For the Love of Wine is beautiful! She is fabulous and witty and a person I would love to hear read in real life. She is one of my heroes.

[Mel]

I wanted to hate this book, starting with the title, which is as pretentious as the author. But I didn't hate it. AF is a pretty gifted writer, with a talent for a good yarn, but she misuses her talent in a storm of self-aggrandisement and arrogance. Plus, for all her supposed worldliness, she writes "expatriot" instead of "expatriate," which immediately shelves her as far as I'm concerned. And her foreign-language skills are clearly bereft for someone who does so much globe-trotting.
I'm no big fan of Parker or his wines, nor am I a wine expert, though I do live in France and have a taste for some minor regional wines. But to quote extensively and disdainfully from many of Parker's wine reviews and then come out and say that she tasted a wine that "had notes of pencil shavings" is of course the utmost hypocrisy. And to refer often to "encounters" with French and Italian men and to crow about how tiny you are and to give your paramours and friends puerile appellations like Owl Man and Honey-Sugar - sorry, it reeks of self-importance and at least a touch of idiocy.
I stopped reading about 50 pages before the end. I just couldn't stand her anymore.

[Thakurani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: 2.5 / 5 stars. Good for wine noobs.

This is technically the first book I have ever (EVER) read about wine. And my very limited knowledge prior to this came from drinking mainly and a couple of tastings.

In fairness, the book an eye opener to what seems to be a hot topic in the wine world: modernist vs traditional; New World wines vs Old School.

In that sense, I did enjoy the book because I learned something new and now, when I taste wine now there's an additional element for me to consider.

Also, I discovered the book about two months before a trip to Italy and I influenced my decision to make a stop in the Piedmont region.

However, I do tend to agree with a lot of the reviews on here; while the author has a valid point, she makes her point both inflexibly and also somewhat arrogantly. Not to mention, redundantly.

About 3/4th of the way through, I found myself rolling my eyes at the same point being made again and AGAIN.

[Liz Messinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this!! I love a passionate woman and I love good wine and good food!! She is a bit like Anthony Bourdain and Fran Lebowitz rolled into one (not to generalize). My favorite passage (talking about Burgundian trends in 1996):
“Destemming reminds me of the strange habit of peeling an apple or carrot, not eating the skin of a potato or cutting the bloom off of a Camembert. It reminds me of those who don’t enjoy the smells of sex, and those who have to keep hand sanitizers in their pocket”
I tried to drink along with this book but instead I now have several more expensive wines on the wishlist. Can’t wait to read more of her work!

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alice Feiring takes the reader through a tutorial of the wine industry and how commercial practices have evolved, in some ways homogenizing wines and taking the terroir out of the grape. While I agreed with some of her analyses, I think technologies can be used in ways to guide and define the process without going to the extremes described in the book that overprocess and in essence adulterate wines. I appreciate her real love of wine and I do feel that everyone has their own preferences and should not be overly swayed by critics.

[Magda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written from a writing standpoint, tho its dogmatism is rather off putting, and this coming from someone who holds the same principles as the author about wine : that it should be connected to its place of growth, and a reflexion of the purity of the earth, and that there should be minimal intervention and that agricultural practices should respect the earth & environment. Bref.

[Roger P]

A good book. I agree with her conclusion: Robert Parker’s wine rating system and wine critiques have created a wine market that tries to please his palate. Wines that used to have a unique taste become more uniform. She gets a tad repetitive with this mantra however, which keeps the book from being as readable as I would have liked

[Bob Stern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good wine stories and info here.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lovely book made me once again fall in love with the Natural Wine Movement. I sorely miss you guys ! Alice Feiring is a true Bastard of Wine !

[Chöw Josefin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una especie de diario de viajes que arranca muy bien y luego cuesta mantener la tensión, como si se desinflara. La información sobre los vinos, regiones, formas y enólogos es muy interesante.

[Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Feiring's stance on natural wine and lack of industrial, homogenized flavor profiles, but I often find her overly sharp, prickly, and egocentric - with the exception of her one on Georgia.

[Andreu Escrivà · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discrepant en molts assumptes sobre vi i amb la llunyania vital que em separa de l'autora, aquest llibre -ben escrit, de lectura àgil- m'ha guanyat per complet.

[Dorritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really entertaining read, even if Alice is a bit cocky at times. I don’t always agree with her takes, but I absolutely blew through it. Felt appropriate to be reading it while I was in France.

[Naiara Manzanos Urcelay · Rating 1 out of 5]

De verdad que libro tan terrible.
Imposible leer más de 5 páginas sin pensar que era una tortura.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Pooh, Harry, you don’t even know what your religion was, and is and will be until the day of your expensive funeral. One’s religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is—Success.” – “The Twelve Pound Look” by J. M. Barrie

Following the adage of writing what you know, Ms. Feiring’s book is a passionate ode to good wine. By that, she means wine made by individuals not machines, lodged in dusty, dirty cellars not sterile, depressingly clean places that look like a scientist’s lab, allowed to ferment naturally according to the dictates of the soil, weather, the local florae and faunae, not fiddled with using yeasts and reverse osmosis to look and taste like every other wine out there.

At times the book has the tones of a true fanatic, one who clings madly to a subject, hobby, god or noted ideal. So strong is this desire that she simply can’t bring herself to love any man who doesn’t share her passion. Such an attitude, along with her incessant prattling about her subject, would be off putting to any reader who isn’t an oenophile like herself. At times I found myself vastly irritated by her obvious superiority, the way non-wine lovers will be irked by watching some person sniff at a cork just pulled from a bottle.

But her knowledge doesn’t prevent her from wanting to learn more. Her disdainful attitude is saved by an unwavering curiosity, a true devotion to wine and her fierceness to see that the remaining genuine vineries out there that aren’t spoiled by what she calls Parkerization, a 100-point system imposed by Robert Parker, Jr., a man who professes to know wine intimately but whom she feels is crippled by a clay palate.

She does her best to be fair to him and to wine itself. Ms. Feiring knows the true test of a wine isn’t the recommendation from a so-called expert or the illustrious name attached to it or even the fancy label on the bottle. What matters are smell, color and taste and her book shows her relentless pursuit around the famous vineyards of the world and foreign restaurants in order to find wine that has remained unblemished by current practices that she thinks are unsavory and occasionally downright illegal.

Reluctantly, I was won over to her vision. She writes so well and so fervently about her topic that I couldn’t help but be pulled in by it. I don’t drink wine and at my late age I really can’t cultivate a taste for it. But this memoir roused a faint echo of her craving, the mark of a really talented writer.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 who trounce through the world meeting interesting characters and enjoying fabulous wine-related experiences.

In addition for being really entertaining, this book inspired me to get out there and jump start my own palate. Being in the wine industry, I've recently gotten into a rut with drinking mainly only stuff that I work with, but this book really renewed my vigor to revisit some old favorites and familiarize myself with regions that I've kinda forgotten about.

This book is definitely a must-read for anyone in the wine industry, and I think that wine enthusiasts will really enjoy it too.

[Edward Bartone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I'll give the book 2 stars only because it was an "easy" read - problem was she, in my view, has completely missed mark on her premise that "no human intervention should be allowed in wine-making - I don't care if your life fortune depends on turning out sell-able liquid, you should cater to my whim of letting it ferment and hoping for the best". Then go on to casually talk about how many areas of Champain "douse" wines with sugar to continue fermentation in bottle - and that's ok. What about terroir? I marked about 20 pages of silly comments for this review, but its really not worth it. Yes, I like big wines, nicely balanced oak and toast, ok up to 50 ppm of SO2, and by the way, stop touting "micro-oxygenation" from barrels as "tampering with wine". Really? Barrels have been used for wine storage forever, and it's been shown in study after study that "micro-oxygenation" really isn't even a word, let alone scientifically plausible. I'd suggest she do some research before her next book.

BUT sometimes the stories were funny! Maybe humor is more her Genre....

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 point wine scale that is used to sell wines.

This homogenisation of wines is what Alice Feiring is fighting. I must confess, I know next to nothing about wine and use the point system to buy wines. I would be interested in trying wines with "terroir".

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 good and/or has a high rating.

Her message was that it's crazy for an entire indusrty to create a product to please the palate of one man, however, she muddies that up with her snooty value judgements. She should have stopped halfway. What an arrogant snob.

[A.C. Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 be honest."

As a former wine industry member, this book took me down a short memory lane - wineries I've been to (with thick black mold growing on the cellar walls), wines I've loved, my first taste of La Tache, and various characters both disguised (not to me!) and obvious. I really enjoyed this.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and lots of fascinating info about the wine biz, and how the big vintners turn out billions of gallons of slop for tasteless consumers like me. Made me much more suspicious about Parker ratings and why I like the wines I do. Made me sad that wineries all over the world are changing their hundreds-of-year traditions to cater to tastes of a single group of tasters - much like Walmart changed the expectations of shoppers. And not for the better. Monocultures are always dangerous, in farms, in prairies, in stores, and in wineries.

I wish I could taste some of the wines Feiring did, just to see if I could tell the difference between the good ones, an ok bottle and the three-buck-Chuck. I looked up one and it was over $200. Forget it. I'll stick with the $10 price point.

[Ali Amidi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although Alice knows a lot about wine, this book is written in an arrogant and tiresome style. The personal love stories that have been included give the book a kind of "sex and the city" feel to it, which is really not charming. Her wine taste, which basically is the same as all other hipster sommeliers in the wine world, opt for pure, lean, high acid wines. Maybe I read this book a couple of years too late because all her points and critiques of high alcohol wines are rather boring and predictive. If this book were a wine, it would be a California cab holding 14.5% without a trace of acidity. Flabby.

[Joslyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 alive.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 added to the content.