Interview with Kerin O'Keefe

I found this interesting, a discussion of both Barolo/Barbaresco and Brunello books: http://tinyurl.com/qg92los

Interesting!

I look forward to the discussion about her appearance.

I’m sure Kerin understands that boys will be boys. [smileyvault-ban.gif]

I enjoyed the piece. Especially liked her list of more affordable Barolo/Barbarescos, many of which have been mentioned on the board:
“D Vajra, Principiano, Guido Porro, Sordo and Batasiolo all make outstanding Barolos that retail for around $40. In Barbaresco, Adriano Marco & Vittorio, Cantina di Nebbiolo and De Forville make great wines that retail between $28 to $35.”

I’ve enjoyed Vajra and De Forville, and have some 2010 Porro stashed away.

Good that she seems to recognize G. D. Vajra. Especially after omitting them from her book.

She did have some good forum overlap on her list!

Have to admit that I’m not a fan. As Oliver knows, we had a previous discussion on the Barolo book in another thread that got somewhat heated (as threads here sometimes do [wow.gif] ).

But in the interests of “fair & balanced” reporting, I did actually purchase the book to give it a look-see. I guess on the positive side one could say that there is currently a dearth of decent books on Piemonte, so she helps to fill that void. And it is nice that she gives some lesser known and/or “new” (at least in terms of new to the U.S. export market) producers some exposure, so for folks that might be looking to try “under the radar” producers, I guess there is also some value here. And I’d also say that in the overall scheme of things, she is fairly balanced/evenhanded. For example, while she indicates right up front that she favors traditionally made wines, I think she had a pretty nice write-up on Scavino, so she’s open-minded enough to appreciate a modernist style.

But at least from my perspective, if you already have a serious interest in the area and actively collect Barolo & Barbaresco, to me it’s hard to build the case that anything she writes about is somehow revelatory or genuinely new information, and without rehashing the prior thread, I found some of her producer commentary/ratings comical. Without naming the producer, I can literally recall thinking “you have got to be kidding me” regarding one particular write-up, and this wasn’t a situation where we might have a normal disagreement on, for example, the age old argument of modernists versus traditionalists.

I’m surprised to see anyone describing recent vintages of Batasiolo Barolo as “outstanding.”

If you want to be both entertained and edified, i would refer you to our own Bill Klapp’s review of Ms. O’Keefe’s book on Amazon.

Judging by the fact that the book has been re-printed twice, I doubt she minds much.

So the fact that a lot of people are buying a mediocre book about one of the greatest wine regions on the earth is OK with you? Good to know. Do you also apply that same logic to wines?

Yes, that one gave me a [shock.gif] moment. A very commercial operation these days, most often seen in airport duty free shops. What I’ve tasted has put me off sampling further.

There are some very good value wines in the region, including the likes of Ca’ Nova in Barbaresco itself, along with the regular gems dug up by Birger/James on the UK wine pages forum.

regards
Ian

Your premise is wrong, Gary. I don’t want to re-hash the previous argument. The book’s far from mediocre, and although I don’t agree with everything she says I am very glad she published it. I love the Langhe, I am glad that the region is emerging from its brief detour into international territory (mostly), and I’m glad she is there to write about it.

I think you know enough about Italian wine to read my selection and decide for yourself what ‘logic’ I use to pick producers.

Why are you always so sour, Gary?

If there was another recently published book on B/B that was being skipped over in favor of this one, you might have a point. Given that’s it’s the only one out there, I don’t understand your complaint.

Would I prefer to have thirty years experience in the area/wines so that the book would seem to lack, as Bob Hughes puts it, “revelatory or genuinely new information” ?

Sure. But I don’t, as many others do not. So I’m certainly glad to have it as a resource.

If pointing out that a book has major flaws makes me “sour” to you, fine I will accept the title. Sorry I cared enough to point out the truth.

And I do think as an intro to the area, it’s not bad. So if folks who have previously only purchased say, Bordeaux or California wines, are using it as their opening foray to Piemonte, then I think it works.

I was personally hoping for a little more, but I’m not the target audience here, so no big deal. I would put this in the same category as Nicolas Belfrage’s book on the Fine Wines of Tuscany - good if you know very little about the subject matter, but lacking if you are an enthusiast.

The Barolo book was better than her Brunello book.

Byron

Worth pointing out that the interview is by Evan Dawson who posts here occasionally.

I can only assume that people who do not think this is a good book because it doesn’t get every producer right according to their opinion, or because it is aimed a much broader audience than those of us who’ve been drinking Nebbiolo for 30 years, have never even thought seriously about what it takes to write a book like this or to sell it. It is an excellent book, plain and simple. No one would write a book on Nebbiolo for just Bob and me. I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to learn about the wines of Barolo and Barbaresco.

A brilliant professor at Berkeley, Elwyn Berlekamp, once wrote an advanced textbook on a topic about which he was one of the world’s leading experts (Algebraic Coding Theory). In the introduction, he said that for each error or typo found by a reader, he would send a dollar to the first one to find it. He almost went broke sending out dollars. No one writes a perfect book.

I would say that even at this point in my life, Ian d’Agata was able to write a book on Italian wines that I find consistently interesting, and that I read and frequently say “I didn’t know that”.

Now it’s quite possible that Ian’s book isn’t selling at all because folks that just want a “summary” approach to an area aren’t going to buy something that encyclopedic, so maybe it’s not perfect, but it works for me.

As I said earlier, I think Kerin’s book is fine if you don’t know anything about the area.

FWIW, as Ken points out, I did get a kick out of the fact that Evan Dawson did the interview. I don’t know Evan, but I did say “hey, I think he posts on WB” :wink: