Interesting article in today’s SFChron by JonBonne on his take on Calif wine: BonneOnCalifWine
It’s a rather blatant promotion of his new book coming out, which I ordered months ago and am eagerly awaiting its arrival on my doorstep.
Some other wine writers have a great disdain for Jon’s writings and feel he’s too far into the weird varietals/low alcohol/InPursuit of Balance/AFWE movement. Jon would rather drink a skin-contact RibollaGialla than a ScreamingEagleCab. I can sympathize with that. But I do hope some of these other writers will read his book w/ an open mind before lambasting him.
What I find interesting is that he seems to endorse the Pinots of Loring/Aubert/KostaBrowne…which is outside the box that some
writers seem to categorize Jon.
Tom
I will give it a look, for sure, but I’m mildly skeptical. The publication of the article is the epitome of self-congratulatory propaganda. Also, I have long had a sneaking suspicion that he is using his pulpit as a California-based wine writer to serve as a double-agent for the Francophile IPOB orthodoxy. Then again, I could be wrong. As I said, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and give it a read!
I, too, was most surprised when at the end of the second excerpt Jon lauded Loring and KB … after spending so much time following people like David Hirsch and Ted Lemon.
I have wine from all four in my cellar and must say, I don’t find many similarities between the first two and the last two. Over time, I’ve come to eschew the first two and collect the last two.
Yeah, this hardly seems like a ringing endorsement.
Labels like Loring, Aubert, and that ultimate example of irrational exuberance, Kosta Browne, favored among Pinot novices, quickly attracted partisans for their brash wines.
Obviously this is just one excerpt from the larger work, but I find it odd to hear Jon saying he adored a “different sort of West Coast wine industry, one that worked at a small scale, often in warehouses…” and then backhand Kosta-Browne as the ultimate example of irrational exuberance (a very carefully chosen Greenspan phrase to represent the excesses of the dot.com period).
Dan and Michael worked on a small scale, in warehouses, saving up their tips to make wine. Other than not liking the style of the wines, they should be the type of winery Jon would “adore.”
The excerpt is dreadfully written (and incompetently edited), which is enough to keep me from buying the book. It is impossible to figure out what Bonne believes or what points he wants to make from his self-aggrandizing blathering, and while the larger book could always be good, I suppose, what he has chosen to go public with promises top-of-the-head, seat-of-the-pants gassing rather than a thoughtful, well-researched, perhaps even definitive book on California wine. This would not be the first time that a columnist struck out with a full-length book, of course. Anybody read Asimov’s book? Or any of the books written by Jay McInerney or Lettie Teague?
I think it’s unfortunate that this excerpt is being used as an example (or not) of Jon’s experience with CA wines. Like him or not, he’s been in an enviable position over the past 15 or so years to experience the changes that have occurred in CA wine, especially in Northern California. He has actively taken part in the winemaking process himself, has moderated numerous panels at various wine events, has interviewed countless winemakers, somms, etc. His ‘winemakers to watch’ columns have always been interesting and eye-opening, and his Top 100 lists have always been thought provoking IMHO.
Is this the ‘end all’ book on CA wines? Of course not - that book really should not be written yet because our industry continues to go through ‘twists and turns’ and who knows what the next couple of decades will bring, especially with the wildly unpredictable harvests that we now seem to get each year.
He certainly has a ‘lean’ towards producers and varieties ‘on the edge’ - or at least they were on the edge when he wrote about them originally. There are some who dislike him for this, and as a reviewer for a major publication that has not only regional but national exposure, I can understand that (kinda like some of the ‘major’ reviewers out there that get panned for their likes and dislikes’).
I’ve always found his writing style enjoyable and therefore am confident the book as a whole will be a good read . . .
Just another viewpoint this morning.
Cheers!
And the ‘quip’ about KB? Seen through a reviewers eyes TODAY, and not looking back, one could make that statement. But knowing how the label was started, as Adam so eloquently points out, makes the statement seem ‘irrational’ in and of itself.
I was well acquainted with their circumstances in the early years.
They worked their butts off to get to where they are.
A true American success story!
Jay McInerney’s books are just compilations of his articles and I generally found them interesting and well written. I havnt bough the most recent one though so maybe that one is different.
I agree it wasn’t well edited but I thought it was written just fine. The only thing I didn’t like about the article is that Bonne seems to be making a moral judgment regarding bigger wines. While I generally don’t go for the exuberant style I don’t think people who make it or like it are less sophisticated, I just think its a different style and a valid one. I will style buy the book though and hope it does well because I think it would be nice if the pendulum swung back a little bit and there was more of a balance between the different styles.
Berry, quite apart from Bonne, I think that you make a good point, which is that a really well-done book on California wine will not be able to afford to simply take sides in the ongoing fruit bomb war. Good war correspondents will need to report the goals and accomplishments of both warring factions and everything in between, and will need to express some cogent thoughts on how the war may progress and when, if ever, it will be over. Who makes unoaked Chardonnay? Is any of it any good? Is it an important part of the future, or just an aberrational reaction to what came before? Maybe not the best example, but that sort of thing…
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