The blurb to Alice Feiring’s wonderful new book, THE BATTLE FOR WINE AND LOVE, will tell you that she “is a James Beard Foundation Award-winning journalist whose blog, In Vino Veritas, was named one of the seven best by Food & Wine.”

The blurb also mentions that she was a wine and travel columnist for Time, and that she now writes for the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and Gourmet, among many others.

All of which I believe is absolutely true. She is a wonderful writer.

However, the blurb doesn’t mention that Feiring is witty, irreverent, provocative and very, very passionate about her wine.

She was also gracious enough to supply her cheeky Canadian publicist (who shall remain nameless) with an impromptu wine recommendation for an unexpected dinner party last night. And who wouldn’t be charmed by that? 

In THE BATTLE FOR WINE AND LOVE, Alice reveals just what goes in to an average bottle of wine (sawdust and oak chips anyone?) to score points with influential wine critics such as Robert Parker, and takes readers on a journey to find the self-confessed ‘Last of the Mohicans’: rebel winemakers who are making old-fashioned wines with new individuality and flair.

Alice lives in Manhattan, and we chatted over email.

What was the inspiration for THE BATTLE OF WINE AND LOVE?
I was so frustrated that getting a good glass of wine was so difficult. I was really frustrated that wines I loved were getting “modernized.” I felt like---there is another nail in that coffin. But the moment of inspiration was when I was coming back from Spain with Skinny, (chapter four) I was telling her how upset I was about Spanish wines at the tasting portion of Madrid Fusion and she said, that was it. I had to write this book. After she fell asleep listening to opera, I spent the next hour or two crying over another kind of lost love. When I landed at JFK I knit the two themes together.

What exactly is ‘Parkerization’?
(And if you could also explain the wonderful term “spoofulated” that would be great!)
I’m viewing Parkerization as the reduction of wines to suit one ‘mass’ palate. It is different than spoofulated. Quite. Spoof wines are tricked up with chemistry and process to look like the real thing, but it’s not.

How are the kinds of wine that Robert Parker rates highly different from the kinds of wine you prefer?
Of course there’s so overlap. For example, he and I both like Chave and Clape from the N. Rhone and Domaine Romanee Conti from Burgundy. But the wines that seem to get his highest accolades are massive with an overemphasis on fruit and wood.

What is it exactly that you look for in wine?
Kind of like love, when you see it you know it? But I do look for a sense of life and expression as well as good winemaking!  Excellent wine comes in all weights as well as price points.

You often talk of a ‘sense of place’. Why is this important to wine?
Without it wine would be another beverage, a soft drink, something you could flick a switch and come out of a faucet. The place gives the wine the difference; the technology gives wine a sameness.

Why are terms like ‘natural’, ‘traditional’, ‘authentic’ so difficult with regard to wine production?
Because they are meaningless. There are no definitions. But I’m not sure there should be. There should be all sorts of wines, but one thing that I know, wines made as was made before technology should be taught as an alternative and not feared.

What’s the problem with using new technology in the wine-making process? Isn’t it introducing more consistency and reducing the risk of wine becoming vinegar?
If you view consistency as an ideal, there is nothing the matter with it. If you view wine as being a different being every year, and the best the winemaker can do, it is a problem. Every year I look forward to the winemakers I adore to see what they did. There is excitement. With controlling technology that is diminished.

Do you think there needs to be more transparency in the wine industry?
And yes, less marketing and more information, please!

Should wine makers include lists of ingredients and additives on their labels like food?
I recently got some samples from Oregon, Cooper Mountain that had ingredients, organic Grapes and So2.  Because so few wineries can actually say that, I think it’s a great idea.

Researching the book, did you visit any vineyards or detect any trends that make you optimistic about the future? 
Absolutely! There are plenty of them out there. True, mostly in France where there is a strong back to natural movement, but it is actually starting grassroots on this side of the Atlantic as well.

Read Part Two Tomorrow!