Rumors are always a bit ugly, because nobody can control them, and this time is no exception. Suddenly there’s such a swarm of them flying around New York Wine City (NYWC) that I feel like I could swat them until the walls were running with bug juice, but it wouldn’t make a darned bit of difference. Somebody just said that somebody had told them (that’s the way you know it’s a rumor) that I’ve written something in my new book – ‘BEST WHITE WINE ON EARTH – The Riesling Story’ – that will get me into very serious trouble, that is the kind of trouble nobody can slither out of. This person, who shall remain nameless in order to spare me yet more trouble, was utterly convinced of that and nothing I could say – wine is a just a beverage and with 1% of global wine production Riesling is hardly the most important beverage on Planet Wine – could sway them one iota. Although they couldn’t tell me what this terrible thing I’d written was, they were nonetheless convinced that doom and destruction were on the march and headed in my direction.
What can I to do? The book’s been printed and is in the warehouse of my publisher Abrams Books of New York (it appears under their imprint Stewart, Tabori & Chang on June 17th) and there is no way they’re going to reprint it – the expense would be considerable – on the basis of what they will rightly deem gossip and hearsay. I feel sure I’ve done nothing wrong, but for some reason I still feel like I’m hanging on the edge of a precipice. Maybe that’s because I’ve been here before, by that I don’t mean in NYWC, rather this situation. Back in 1994-5 my first German language book whipped up a storm of controversy. There was a civil suit seeking enormous damages and the winegrower behind it (no names mentioned) also got a criminal investigation into my work started, although this was dropped almost immediately. That was an ugly moment though.
As I was I’ve been reading and rereading my advance copy of the book trying to figure out which page, paragraph or sentence it is that’s supposed to be dump me in the crapper, another rumor came to my attention. Some people in NYWC are spreading the story that the reason I wrote a book about Riesling is that it’s the only subject I can write about, because I can’t taste other wines in a professional manner. Any regular visitors to this site know that I’m actually interested in everything happening Planet Wine, and taste the greatest possible variety of wines, red white, rose, sweet, dry, oaky, orange and whatever. My belief in the importance of this diversity goes much deeper than my love of Riesling.
There is yet another rumor about BEST WHITE WINE ON EARTH going around, and that is that it’s already available at Kitchen Arts & Letters on Lexington Avenue between 93rd and 94th street here on Manhattan. However, I didn’t have the time to check that out because I’m currently packing my bags to jump on a plane to Germany this afternoon. As usual, I’m not making any promises I can’t keep. That also means that the next posting won’t be online before late Tuesday, or possible even Wednesday. My apologies for that unavoidable gap, but on Monday and Tuesday I’m attending the International Riesling Symposium at Schloss Reinhartshausen in the Rheingau. That will, of course be my next subject.
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