Wine, Writing, and Gender Politics: Q&A with Alice Feiring

For about the past two years I have been working on a personal endeavor called the Women’s Wisdom Project, a series of 100 different portraits of inspiring women. I recently interviewed Alice Feiring, and wanted to share it with the Comestible community.

Writer and journalist Alice Feiring stands for what she believes in.

Her focus is wine, interested in the stories of the art and craft that goes into making the drink that we have been consuming for centuries, and in turn, advocating for a better wine world, not just for the consumer, but producers and the land. She runs the natural wine newsletter The Feiring Line and is the author of several books. Her latest is Natural Wine for the People: What It Is, Where to Find It, How to Love It, an excellent resource for anyone diving into the natural wine world.

An early supporter of the natural wine movement, she’s not afraid to criticize it either. “But any successful movement, whether in politics or viniculture, is vulnerable to corruption. Just as it is reaching peak fame, the previously innocent world of natural wine is coming under threat by opportunists and big business. Natural wine isn’t dead, but something has been lost,” she recently wrote in The New York Times.

Whether you drink wine or not, Feiring stands an excellent example of what it means to take a stand for something as a woman, and the consequences that can ensue. In challenging conventional wine norms, she has faced criticism and scrutiny. In reading opposition to her work, it’s clear to see that satire can quickly turn into misogyny. As she points out in this Q&A, “Men speaking out against the mainstream are often heroes, women are seen as troublemakers or voices to silence. No matter what I say, it seems it’s controversial doesn’t it?”

Thank you to Alice for taking a little time to answer a few Women’s Wisdom Project Q&A questions.

What does wisdom mean to you?

A perfect balance of good judgement, proper boundaries, compassion and a sense of humor.

Is there an influential woman in your life who passed along a piece of wisdom to you? Who and what?

I’ve always been such a loner and longed for a mentor. I came close to it once, Beverly Russell. Beverly hired me to work at Interiors Magazine a million years ago but she was unceremoniously stabbed in the back and was let go, subsequently I was as well. On our last breakfast together she gave me two pieces of advice, “It’s not how good you are but who you know, and then how good you are helps you stay. The other warning was that if you’re good, someone will always want to knock you off and take your place.

What drew you to the world of wine? What has kept you in it?

At first the taste. Then its connection to place. Then the people. Then the issue of natural wine and its place in the world. Then the land, the vines and nature. Finally, it is the way it all complexly comes together in a perfect symbol of humanity.

What is the Alice Feiring definition of natural wine?

Start with organic viticulture and then nothing added or taken away, except maybe a bit of So2.

You are considered a controversial figure by some. Why do you think that your writing and work draws such controversy? Do you think that you would draw such controversy if you were not a woman?

Now, that’s a great question. Men speaking out against the mainstream are often heroes, women are seen as troublemakers or voices to silence. No matter what I say, it seems it’s controversial doesn’t it? So why? I have often said things that the industry didn’t want to hear. Without a doubt, women are held to different standards.

You’re known as a wine writer, but from reading other interviews with you, it’s clearly the written word and the craft of writing that you’re drawn to. What about writing feels so powerful to you?

Writers and other artists give voice to what others cannot or will not articulate. When I disparage what I do as self-indulgent, I try to remember that there is a greater purpose other than I just love disappearing into a piece and losing myself. It’s the best drug.

What wisdom would you share with your younger self?

I’d get tutoring for my dyslexia—but I’m not sure that would have been wisdom, though it would have been life changing. Okay, here’s one; I’d have made sure to become fluent in French.

This papercut and profile are a part of the Women’s Wisdom Project by Anna Brones, a project focused on showcasing the wisdom of inspiring, insightful women by making 100 papercut portraits.