Reflections of a Wine Merchant: On a Lifetime in the Vineyards and Cellars of France and Italy by Neal I. Rosenthal

From the Publisher

A leading importer of limited-production wines of character and quality takes us on an intimate tour through family-owned vineyards in France and Italy and reflects upon the last three decades of controversy, hype, and change in the world of wine

In the late 1970s, Neal I. Rosenthal set out to learn everything he could about wine. Today, he is one of the most successful importers of traditionally made wines produced by small family-owned estates in France and Italy. Rosenthal has immersed himself in the culture of Old World wine production, working closely with his growers for two and sometimes three generations. He is one of the leading exponents of the concept of “terroir”—the notion that a particular vineyard site imparts distinct qualities of bouquet, flavor, and color to a wine. In Reflections of a Wine Merchant, Rosenthal brings us into the cellars, vineyards, and homes of these vignerons, and his delightful stories about his encounters, relationships, and explorations—and what he has learned along the way—give us an unequaled perspective on winemaking tradition and what threatens it today.

Rosenthal was featured in the documentary film Mondovino and is one of the more outspoken figures against globalization, homogenization, and the “critic-ization” of the wine business. He was also a major subject in Lawrence Osborne's The Accidental Connoisseur. His is an important voice in defense of the individual and the artisanal, and their contribution to our quality of life.

The New York Times - Bryan Miller

Rosenthal…has resisted composing a 250-page jeremiad on industry trends. Instead, his book is a warm, personal, eloquent celebration of the people and places where tradition still survives. The perception of a traveling wine buyer as a gentleman in a fine blazer, notepad in pocket, enjoying a semi-vacation of congenial sipping, is punctured by the reality of fast-paced barrel tastings (often starting right after breakfast) in cold, dank cellars. And, unlike many wine-professional journals, Rosenthal's book is mercifully uncluttered with industry argot.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley

It is quite a good book—well written, informative, agreeably opinionated—but it is about a world that precious few of us are in position to enter…Rosenthal clearly has a gift for friendship, and his accounts of his dealings with growers and their families can be touching as well as informative. Being a wine merchant is harder than most people imagine, and he does a good job of describing its quotidian details. Most of all, though, this book is the testament of someone who, through a combination of talent, determination and good luck, has been able to spend his working life doing exactly what he wants to do, and doing it well. That is a blessing not often bestowed, and Rosenthal's gratitude for it is evident on every page.

Publishers Weekly

The 2008 vintage qualities remain undetermined, but with this title by New York City wine importer Rosenthal, the still-young year yields one of the outstanding wine books of recent memory. From long experience, the author writes that wine should be first understood as an expression of soil through fermented grape juice and begins his memoir of a tradesman's life with a short manifesto on that expressive quality called terroir. Then, Rosenthal takes us on an autobiography of his life as a wine merchant, starting with the opening of his Manhattan shop in 1978, from early misadventures and small-scale successes to the ferreting of significant discoveries far off the paths habitually beaten through France and Italy in particular. His and his wife, Kerry, had a knack for finding the hitherto unknown, and he narrates these discoveries with physical and social details that bring moments to vivid, sensory life. The period he chronicles was one of enormous developments in wine, from California through globalization, and he writes intelligently of the problems that came with progress. Yet neither the trade nor this title is romantic: Rosenthal makes clear the hard, often unpleasant work of winemaking and its trade and the setbacks that are part of the process. Through his business, he has had and been responsible for countless wine-related experiences of exceptional quality; he has now provided a literary one. B&w photos. (May)

Kirkus Reviews

A purveyor of fine wines offers his thoughts on the correct way to get the best reds and whites from Europe's cellars to New York's sellers. Rosenthal demands exclusivity, no filtration and full fidelity-and he indicts those who fail to meet these requirements. Like a realtor, he declares that the most important consideration is location: Terroir, where the grape lives, is of the essence when it comes to concupiscible vintages. Having no interest in wines of the New World, the author has always concentrated on the small family vignerons of Italy and France. He recounts pleasant meetings leading to palate-delighting discoveries with the local cognoscenti, growers, rascals and rogues in the fellowship of the vine. Tastings engender lavish descriptions. Forget simple "nose" or "legs"; his wares merit greater eloquence. Rosenthal depicts one vintage that, when properly mature, is "of stunning complexity with aromas that recall summer's most pungent and sweet flowers and herbs, accompanied by notes reminiscent of well-worn saddle leather and animal fur; the flavors are of licorice and burnt cherry and chocolate and tobacco [with] the almost tangible feel of a light coating of mineral-infused dust." What serious oenophile can resist such evocative and romantic appellations: Chambave Rouge from the Valle d'Aosta, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Riserva, Hattenheimer Nussbrunnen Trockenbeerenauslese? Connoisseurs of a particularly highfalutin bent will no doubt savor this celebration of the vintner's art; the hoi polloi may prefer Sergio Esposito's more accessible expressions of enthusiasm in Passion on the Vine (2008). Exudes the supercilious attitude of a high-end sommelier who deigns to dispensesuperior wine wisdom.

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Product Details

• ISBN: 0374248567
  
• ISBN-13: 9780374248567
• Format: Hardcover, 272pp
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Pub. Date: April 2008
• Sales Rank: 22,920

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents