About The Feiring Line Newsletter — and All About Alice
Was I the one to break the news about natural wine back around 2000. Very possibly. Back then, there were a handful of natural wine bars in Paris and Tokyo but it was very much a secret society that didn’t even call it natural wine. Good farming was assumed and “nothing added, nothing taken away” was all the definition you needed – in fact that definition was mine. And it was also controversial, so controversial that even though I was picking up awards for my writing about on the topic, many glossies thought I was too hot to handle so there was nothing else for me to do but start writing books and start this newsletter.
In the middle of the 2013 storm, Hurricane Sandy, I launched The Feiring Line. I figured if I was on the wine writing firing line, I might as well own it – so I named it after myself (and get people to pronounce my name properly at the same time.)
Over ten years later, there are other voices covering this beat, but with six books to my name, I remain perhaps the most authoritative. Now natural wine is everywhere, natural wine importers are multiplying and there’s an abundance to choose from – and that makes natural difficult to navigate. So unless you’re out there tasting as much as I am, you need a helping hand.
For me, natural wine isn’t a trend, it’s not a quick trip to fame and fortune in the wine world or a bandwagon to jump on. It is a return to sanity. I believe deeply that these wines are a direct expression of nature and humanity and want to share them – and shed light on the people making them.
Why Should You Subscribe?
Because it’s completely independent journalism? Meaning no paid press trips (if one slips through there will be full disclosure.) Because you’ll come away a little bit smarter and informed about the kinds of wines you like to drink and the people making them? Because even all these years later, I’m still sniffing under the rocks and at the cutting edge of who the new players are?
More practically, paid subscribers ($87 per year, or $9 per month) will get plenty of profiles, wine reviews, where I’m drinking and eating, and the most popular feature from my original web site, the Field Note missives from my travels and observations on the essential issues in the wine world, natural and beyond. Weekly you will get either wine recommendations, profiles , articles or letters.
In addition there’s a free-for-all feature where I’ll dissect a wine list, or a page of one, and give you my picks. It’s awfully fun and I hope you join in with your own picks.
All About Alice (the long version)
They’ve called me controversial and feisty but whatever. The fact is I do find myself leading the international debate on wine made naturally. I found my métier in 2001 when I wrote an award-winning article for the New York Times, “For Better or Worse, Winemakers Go High Tech.” Through researching the topic I uncovered a world of flavor- and aroma-changing additives. “Fraud,” I cried, “Give me my wine back!” And then I went to work.
I have helped to define “natural,” uncovered the abuses of ubiquitous terms like “organic” and provoked readers to share my concerns and passions. Approaching wine from the ground up, I try to work much like an anthropologist to respect and preserve wines traditions From the vines of the Canary Islands to the ancient qvevris of Georgia, to the champions of hybrid grapes, I am attracted to simple, effective century-old practices, even as they translate to modernity.
A pioneer in the blogosphere, I wrote my first post in 2004. In 2008, I wrote my first book, The Battle for Wine and Love: Or How I Saved the World From Parkerization. I actually may have, don’t you think?
I followed that up with Naked Wine in 2011, a narrative romp through the history and the personalities of vin naturel. It’s about… you guessed it, natural wine. You need to read it. Then in 2016 came my immersion into Georgian wine with For the Love of Wine; my odyssey through the world’s most ancient wine culture. In 2017 the subsoils of the vineyard got elevated in The Dirty Wine Guide, written with the help of Ms. Pascaline Lepeltier, in the running for Best Sommelier in the World (literally.) My sweetly illustrated Natural Wine for the People was published in 2019. And in 2022, my most recent book debuted, To Fall in Love Drink This, a wine writer’s memoir. And of course I am at times a hired hand for corporate tastings and classes and speaking worldwide on a range of topics from how climate change is effecting the wine world to the best and the brightest in Burgundy.
Beyond wine? I live in New York City, used to dance Morris regularly, play fiddle badly, and I famously have a tub in the kitchen (the joys of living in an old tenement building.)
There’s more but google me. It will tell you far more about me than I or you want to know.
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