As I warned some years ago, “Natural Wine” is having its moments. Everywhere you look journalists, vintners, somms and tavern keepers are extolling the virtues of this undefined product. I’ve made something of a habit of pointing out that these champions of this marketing phrase prefer rhetoric over honesty or precision when they discuss their favorite new phrase/product. And though pointing out the deceit of these Natural Wine Champions has probably no impact whatsoever on the fraud that they perpetuate,…
Early this morning while Henry George and I were enjoying a bottle of milk and a cup of coffee, respectively, we watched a talking head on CNN discuss presidential candidate Donald Trump. The head said this: “Trump is often careless with the truth and makes sweeping statements that have no basis in fact, but he is being bold and people like that.” Henry George heard that, looked at me, furrowed his brow and went back to his bottle. I thought…
As everyone knows, “natural wine” is the same as pornography. You can’t define it, but you know it when you see it. But if you are searching to find the smallest difference between pornography and natural wine, it’s this: Where movies are concerned, no pornography can be a truly great film. However, only “natural” wine can be truly great wine. This according Isabelle Legeron, a leader of the “Natural Wine” movement and author of the coming book, “Natural Wine”, as…
In honor of Jordan Salcito’s Amazing article on Natural Wine. Not long ago I accompanied a good friend to a meeting with their oncologist. It was to be a difficult meeting as the discussion was in advance of my friends first in a series of radiation treatments. What transpired and was revealed at the meeting some have called a miracle. But my friend and I know the truth. Upon examining my friend, the oncologist declared, “Good God, there’s not a…
If anyone within the wine writing establishment has concentrated more on the issue of authenticity in wine, the virtues of terroir, and the benefits of naturalness in wine than the Wine Spectator’s Matt Kramer, then I don’t know who it is. Back in 1992, reading Kramer’s “Making Sense of California Wine”, I first encountered his earnest search for real naturalness in wine when, writing in the preface he declared: “For the first time, it is possible, however tentatively, to start…
