The Feiring Line: Recent Episodes
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I recently pulled out my old book and started to read at random and thought I’d share some of it. Many of you reading might not know that my first book was published in 2008 before we really ever talked about natural wine, when the wine world was still new and not talked about but very much feared. Here’s my unedited reading of the beginning of Chapter 2. It goes on to visit U.C. Davis where I wasn’t exactly welcomed, got into a few nasty tussles about native yeast and irrigation. So, this incident was in 2006, Big Joe was the late and certainly great, Joe Dressner. And thus, and thus.. it goes. what i learned at UC Davis and below, continues to the point that I am about to meet Roger Boulton.
What was it like to dust off my passport? It was brilliant! From the moment I hit Delta and ran for my ritual martini I was off and flying. My mood lifted. I sprinted like a kid down the runway to the gate. And then I landed in Milan. Took a train to Parma where my travel buddy and barkeep of Tabarro, Diego Sorba picked me up. In an hour we were at his wife’s 94-year-old grandmother’s yard and Sunday lunch for 18 or so. Cinghiale and polenta for them. Polenta and leaves of lettuce for me. Reinforced and sustained, I saw some raw talent and gave his daughter and her best friend their first Morris dance class. Brilliant girls. Me and my two sweethearts. That night I jetlagged outside of Tabarro while Diego played host, putting me in the vicinity of some of his regulars. There was one fiery Romanian, one energetic heart doctor, an eccentric doctor-turned-antique peddler, and an enthusiastic x-ray technician on the eve of starting sommelier training. Soon we were at one table, drinking. Lots. Knowing anchovies cure jetlag, Diego served me some from Cantabria along with an assortment of Brittany butter. Those salty anchovies […]
The Rhône dinner at Vinegar Hill House was delicious (thank you Jean Adamson) and fantastic. At least we thought so. Did you? It’s always a good sign when you have to kick people out for the evening. (Not my idea but legalities prevailed.) The room glowed at the Rhône dinner at Vinegar Hill House. The winner of a casual survey for best bottle of the night was the 2017 Dard & Ribo St. Jo. Blanc. Roussanne. If you have turned your nose up on the whites from the North, specifically from D&R, reconsider that please. These are stars. VHH has urged us to make these dinners a regular feature, so Fitch and I are working on something super fun for, dare I say, September. A couple of PSAs for this week. Lower East Side Wine Shop Alert! For skin contact wine lovers, Doreen Winkler has opened up her tiny but sweet Orange Glou. As the name implies, the focus is exclusively on orange wines and it’s within a quick jaunt of Skin Contact and Ten Bells. 264 Broome Street (at Allen St.) on the Lower East Side. Hours are Wednesday to Sunday 1 pm to 9 pm. Real Wine LitIf […]
I spent May Day in Vermont, catching up on the wines that I had tasted pre-bottling from the 2020 vintage and finishing my visits. I rented a car in Hudson. They were out of the economy models and presented me with a huge SUV as a free upgrade—a Land Rover Sport. “I’m not getting into that,” I said. But I did and test drove it to Warren Street where I was compelled to drop some money at the new shop, Grapefruit Wines. It’s a great addition to Hudson. Homey and filled with great bottles. Back in the leather seats of the SUV, I tentatively figured out (mostly) the technology, and by the time I hit Lake George, I had to admit, I loved riding around in the literal seat of luxury. And on a more practical note, it did handle the sloppiness of mud season very safely. My trip’s focus was on tasting, meeting and foraging but still there were a few fun tips I picked up to pass on to you. Creemees, the local term for soft-serve, are trending. But like the fabulous Sonoma-based Straus, the best ones in Vermont rely on top notch ingredients. To that point, Burlington’s Little Gordo is on […]
Perhaps you’ve heard, there’s been, yet again, devastating early frosts throughout France and in other parts of Europe, such as Northern Italy. This was very early on in the vintage, at the beginning of the plants leafing out. Some are reporting anywhere between 100% and 30% loss in places like the Loire, Auvergne, Northern Rhône, Jura, and Burgundy. Those who pruned late, which delays the spring growth, got lucky. The true damage won’t be known until May. Is it possible that the plant just sprouts new leaves? Yes, but will the vine flower? That’s another question. Fingers crossed that nature’s instinctual repair comes through so the 2021 vintage is not as devastated as it appears to be at this moment. Have you been getting out a little more? I have. Last night I met up with a friend at the newly reopened Ten Bells. Yassine has been busy fixing the place up and it looks fantastic. The floors are clean (!), the cruddy bathrooms are spruced up, the back room is enlivened by a Rousseau mural, banquettes are coming, the backyard has a plant wall. I sat near that green wall and shared a pichet of the 2019 Dufaitre Prémices. This was a humble, unpretentious and satisfying wine. I was […]
Today is the very remarkable Becky Wasserman Hones’ birthday. Being stuck here instead of over there in France where I should be, she is fiercely on my mind. Our connection was one of meeting the myth that became beloved family. Becky, with her musical voice and deep wisdom, mirth and view. So today, I dug into the archives to remember an idea that never came to pass but it was a quiet and sublime afternoon. And tonight, I’m thinking about endive mornay, and dammit, I’m going to try to channel Mr. Hone’s skill and make something grand. Back in 2011, the photographer Clay McLachlan and I were contemplating a book project. To mull over the possibilities he traveled down from Paris to meet me at Becky and Russell’s place in Bouilland. Don’t know Becky Wasserman? Having landed in Burgundy in the early 70’s, she took the alternative route (you’ll have to wait for the film version) and eventually started Le Serbet (Becky Wasserman Selections)– the first prominent women on the business side of wine. A tiny bundle of energy, she nurtured almost every nascent pinot noir grower in the U.S., including David Lett & Eyrie Vineyards and Josh Jensen & Calera. She was the American connection to Burgundy, they […]
Several years back I went to visit a majestic place in Cahors, Chateau Lagrezette, and had, well, a very significant ghost sighting that still raises the hair on my arms. This ran in Wine & Spirits magazine, October 2008. * The imposing Château Lagrezette castle, straight out of Sleeping Beauty central casting, is a little medieval, a little Renaissance, and really, not much rock ’n roll, except for its owner, the charismatic Alain Dominque Perrin, whom I had come to profile. It was June and the famed Cahors strawberries were out, as well as the last mushrooms of spring. I ate both greedily. I was to sleep in the moulin, a house recreated on top of a burned-down old watermill, just steps away from the castle. Sometime after the blackest part of the night, I woke up with a dog-like sense of danger. The small hairs stood up on my nape, and being fairly hairless by nature, I felt their effort. Something smelled off in that paradise, surrounded by vines and woods that commingled the fresh smell of grape blossom and ferns. Something smelled rotted and dank. Five years later I can still summon the smell, feel the white coverlet […]