We went to an sparsely attended intimate reading last night at our neighborhood wine bar, Lou on Vine, featuring hot-button wine writer Alice Feiring. We read her book about a month back, and, though we don’t always agree with what she says, in the book or elsewhere, we have great respect for both the author’s prose and her point of view. We won’t get into a review of the book here, and maybe we never will (there has certainly been enough back and forth about the tome without us throwing ourselves into the dialogue). Nor will we get into a review of Lou, which continues to grow on us (can’t get enough of the Pig Candy or Hook’s Cheddar) despite our disdain for their frustratingly compact stemware (bitching about it makes us feel a bit wine-snobby, but oh well).

Suffice it to say, Feiring takes a hard line approach to the current state of the wine world, while the approach at domaine547 is admittedly soft line, with a highly inclusive attitude to wine. Yes, we like leaner Loire Valley Cab Francs made with native yeasts. We like us some slightly oxidized Chenin Blanc and Burgundian Pinot Noir. But we also like bolder California wines, such as the Curran Black Oak Syrah, which we’re fairly certain would trigger Alice’s gag reflex (though we bet Alice would be intrigued by the Curran whites). Read more…