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August 5 2010
Good Grape / Ed. Note: Riesling is everybody’s Charlie Brown, a lovable loser possessed of abundant charm and talent waiting to be tapped if only the marketplace, the proverbial Lucy pulling the ball away before the would-be successful kick, would see what the rest of us know …
… Apparently, what the rest of us know isn’t what the New York Times knows, as evidenced by Frank Bruni’s profile on restaurateur Paul Grieco who has moved the by-the-glass menu at his two Terroir wine bars to Riesling-only this summer, supporting the notion that Riesling is an ugly duckling that requires iconoclasm.
Grieco’s persona is something of a derivative mash-up of Terry Theise and Randall Grahm, co-opting Theise’s apostolic work for Riesling and ladling in some of Grahm’s quirk as marketing shtick. I guess it works as unique if you’re not wine culture literate. I prefer to get my milk straight from the cow, however.
That said, as I write this, I’m drinking an ’07 Leitz Spatlese from the Rheingau, a Terry Theise selection – a wine that is vital and pure of spirit. I’m listening to Natalie Merchant’s Kind and Generous on repeat, a simple ode that is what it says it is, kind of like a good Riesling.
With the permission of the publisher, the below is an excerpt from Terry Theise’s new book, Reading between the Wines. Excerpted from chapter 6, Of Places and Grapes, Theise riffs on Riesling:
My favorite grapes are those so woven into where they grow that grape and place are no longer extricable, like when you pull one thread and whole sweater unravels. But when pressed to consider grape alone, there’s no question in my mind at all which is the greatest grape, of either color: Riesling.
If there’s any problem with Riesling, it’s that it will spoil you for anything else. Hans Altmann of the Jamek estate in the Wachau once said, “There are times when I think that any sip of wine that isn’t Riesling is wasted.” Riesling is so digitally precise, so finely articulate, so pixilated and pointillist in detail that other wines seem almost mute by comparison.
And if you grow Riesling where it belongs, its wines come out of the ground already perfect. They are inimical to the diddlings of hot shot “winemakers” eager to strut their cellar chops. Riesling resists the face-lift depilation tummy-tuck breast implant school of vinification. Riesling does more than just imply terroir: it subsumes its own identity as fruit into the greater meaning of soil, land, and place. Riesling knows soil more intimately than any other grape, perhaps because it ripens so late in the fall and is thus on the vine longer than other varieties, and because it trives in poor soils with deep bedrock strata into which it can sink its probing roots. Riesling is beloved of all who grow it for being so cooperative—the furthest thing from a diva. It survives all but the most brutal frost, is hearty in its resistance to disease, and yields well without sacrificing flavor—perhaps because it ripens late in the fall when everything is taut and crisp and golden. Riesling wines are the afterglow of the contented world.
Riesling will thrive in any idiom. Its dry wines can be superbly focused and expressive, its almost-dry wines can be even longer and more elegant in flavor, its going-on-sweet wines are the apotheosis of fruit and mineral flavor, and its truly sweet wines are uniquely piquant.
It is also food’s best friend. If, from this day forward, you swore to drink nothing but Riesling and eat only the things that went with it, your diet would hardly change, unless it consists of rare unsauced red meat and eggplant Parmesan. You would also discover the wine you’d been seeking for any number of dishes you’d thought were too “difficult” for wine. Riesling wine may be the most complex in the world, but it’s never boastful; it is a team player, there to make food taste better. Riesling isn’t shy or demure, it is modest and tactful, but if you pay attention to it—which it never insists you do—you’ll discover how deep these still waters run. Ironic, isn’t it? The grape with the most to say is the very one that speaks in a moderate voice.
August 3 2010
If Kerouac’s On the Road had a ménage a trois with Palahniuk’s Fight Club and Thoreau’s Walden, resulting in a love child, it might approximate Terry Theise’s book, Reading between the Wines.
And, while this may be the very first book review you will read regarding Theise’s new book from UC Press, it will not be the last. As I speak, they’re likely inscribing the James Beard Foundation book award for 2011, just ahead of the adulation and commendations for a book that’s an instant classic and rightful companion to what is now a holy trinity of modern wine books.
Joining Lawrence Osbourne’s The Accidental Connoisseur and Matt Kramer’s Making Sense of Wine on the thoughtful wine enthusiasts bookshelf, Theise has written a book that is so wholly singular to his point of view, yet so persuasive that he may yet convert thousands to the wonders of small, artisanal wines from around the world, joining the insider cadre that have followed his German, Austrian and grower Champagne import selections and annual catalog-cum-stream of consciousness manifesto.
To be sure, Theise isn’t the first to espouse a conviction about the value of Old World wines that are authentic, terroir-based and in possession of a bent toward the transcendental, he’s just the first in the last decade to write with enough clarity and generosity of spirit to potentially turn New World agnostics into Old World disciples, connecting with a new generation of wine enthusiasts for whom the lifestyle mavens and old media dogs are as relatable as a narc at a biker rally.
While reading the slim volume, losing myself in the theatre of my mind, I imagine Theise sitting across the table from me in the dining room of an old row house in a hardscrabble town, maybe Cleveland, Pittsburgh, or Upstate NY, somewhere suitably unfashionable, explaining to me his philosophy on wine—and by proxy—life. The education is just getting started when Theise says, at the end of the introduction, just pages into the book, “Confected wines are not designed for human beings; they are designed for ‘consumers.’ Which do you want to be?” At this point, he has removed my defenses, punched me in the gut and put his arm around me whispering reassuringly that I am not that big of an asshole, there is still time to see the light; there is hope.
What follows in Reading between the Wines is as thoughtful of a rumination on small wine and the beauty of being human, in all of our fragility, that you are ever likely to find in a wine book.
A few dozen pages later, nearly seduced in the narrative, soaking in a painters eye for detail and a lyricists pen for the unexpressed connective fiber in humanity, Theise says, “We were suburban folk, and a certain existential disconnect was a defining parameter of our experience.” Theise later notes, “If you’re sinking into ennui as yet another corporate type presses his marketing strategies on you, as yet another former dermatologist or veterinarian lords his milk-and-honey lifestyle over you and you wonder what any of it has to do with wine, with why you first fell in love with wine – I have places to show you.”
And, he does.
Theise shepherds us down a meandering path of enlightenment that encompasses a practical and metaphysical take on understanding our palates, a highly subjective take on the world of wine including a set of principles for what matters in vino, an assault against the dumbing down of wine, a parenthetical reference that lasts nearly 30 pages, a vivisection of sacred cows like points scoring, a carving of his Mount Rushmore of wine varietals and a discrete tour of his portfolio of wine via anecdotes.
It’s not a perfect book, no. But, then, that’s the point. Life isn’t perfect. Wine isn’t perfect. The best that we can do is create something that respects the land, engenders respect in the bottle and acts as a vehicle for a higher understanding. Wine, in all of its glory, is an attempt to bottle nature’s attempt at perfection as captured by man and his foibles. Ultimately, the result in book form is as wine luminary Karen MacNeil says, “…the single best book I’ve ever read on why wine matters.”
Indeed.
August 2 2010
At some point in every wine lover’s journey, there comes a time when having a historical perspective becomes important – not only from the perspective of, “Old World” versus “New World” wine, but also the important context of understanding chronology of events within the wine world.
The dual truisms of, “To understand the future, know the past” and “The more things change, the more they stay the same” are definitely apropos to the corner of the world that we enthusiastically call home.
To be fully indoctrinated in wine, to own your participation by understanding and driving your awareness instead of riding shotgun on the journey, requires knowing the long and the short version of the story – what happened long ago, and what happened within the scope of recent generations.
For example, aside from the 1855 Bordeaux classification, perhaps no more important historical event affects our current wine culture than Prohibition and the creation of the three-tier system. Therefore, any modern day opinion has to be tinged with the hue of understanding of the events that have led to today’s politicized climate.
Likewise, within the realm of mainstream wine media and the democratized participation of the online wine scene, there can be no more important bridging of the generational divide than an appreciation for what has occurred in the past.
Every generation wants to feel respected and ennobled and the easiest path to do so is for the younger generation to understand, if nothing else, near term history – what is always referred to on an evolving basis as the, “modern era” – usually the last 30 years.
I find the schism occurs (in most any generational situation) when a younger crop of earnest would-be world-beaters comes along thinking they invented the stuff, when, in fact, the story has been the same for decades. Sure, the names and the places change, but the stories remain the same. As Shakespeare noted, there are only seven types of stories.
Alternatively, by analogy, it is like being a music fan and not giving props to the Beatles or the Sex Pistols, the forebears for today’s pop rock and punk.
Thomas Pellechia, a frequent contributor to this site, has acted as the igniter of this historical reverence epiphany for me. Thomas is something of a mentor. He frequently pushes my thought process, calls my bluff and acts in a near consultant-like capacity via comments on this site and private emails, taking an intelligent man’s approach to the grape.
Thomas is also the author of several books, one of which is: Wine: The 8,000 Year-Old Story of the Wine Trade – a book that, not so coincidentally, shows that the wine trade is materially the same over the millennia.
Thomas knows that which he speaks …
Many argue that such reverence to history, searching for legacy cues in the world of wine, is positively antediluvian, and an inhibitor of progress – the past acts as an albatross for the future, they say. I am not one of those people, though.
I have recently taken to picking up my own wine education with a step back into the 70s, at the nascent beginning of the wine culture explosion that occurred in the 80s, a period of time when the East Coast’s Eurocentric bias was slowly, but surely being balanced with California wines moving from the West in sensibility and sales.
Certainly, there are a number of books available on various aspects of wine history, but what is often overlooked are magazine archives, particularly for “modern era” insight, the stuff that engenders the new guard to mainstream media wine professionals by demonstrating an understanding of the origin of contemporary wine trends deeper than a Google search.
Case in point, a review of a Time magazine article on Gallo from 1972 could be written EXACTLY the same today (must read article). Change the dates and it stands up as valid some 37 years later, with some foreshadowing regarding Gallo’s ongoing place in the wine world.
The deeper I get into wine, the more I view my participation as a part of a long legacy of people who have gone before me – people who have a rich knowledge and a legacy to respect. Just as I mentioned, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Yet, I’m also realizing that, “The more I know, the more I realize I don’t know anything.”
Here are some good magazine archives for your own research purposes:
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