An interesting interview w/ Alice Fiering on Natural Wines:
SweetAlice
In which she seems to come to her senses.
I’ve always dismissed her writings on Natural Wines as being unabashedly dogmatic and her love for some that were totally flawed & undrinkable. In this article, she admits to having become bored by the subject of wine writing. But she rejects the idea that natural wines must be flawed to be acceptable. She even…gasp… rejects the idea of mousey (souris) wines being acceptable. All the points she makes in the article make ultimate sense.
Rats… it means I no longer can ridicule Sweet Alice
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Damn, I’ve only got 7 minutes. Oh well.
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There’s a bit of shutting the barn door once you have let the horses out already going on here. This is a beast you have, to no small extent, helped create.
I attended a tasting/book signing of hers (don’t ask) years ago and 5 of the 6 wines being poured were reprehensibly flawed. There was so much mouse I was afraid we were going to have exterminators show up. Presumably she was aware of the wines being poured. So…
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Back then, natural wines was a religion for Alice. Sounds like she has now become an Episcopalian.
Tom
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Your 22 minutes are greatly appreciated.
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Embrace your inner Berserker. You can ridicule her forever for any perceived past indiscretion.
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Believers & Bluffers
Was there for a while actually. Far longer than you would think. Fascinating to listen to the conversation about the wines going on in the bar.
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Not ridiculing. Just pointing out stances taken past and apparent opinions now that are different. I don’t have a beef with AF.
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Did I forget the sarcasm emoji?
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You can get your ab workout in while reading it though!
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Great post.
In another horse reference, I’ve always found that when a winemaker introduces themselves as a “natural winemaker”, I live in fear of what might be in the glass. Cart before the horse thing. I have had a zero percent success rate with the self-professed “natural winemaker”.
I’m glad she came around. I got into a heated discussion with her some 10+ years ago about natural wine, mostly knocking the notion that it was a flawed category since there was no true standard of what makes a wine natural (other than most people agreeing to what it means), and that there was no regulation, so what was stopping someone from cheating? Years later she was cordial and friendly to me when re-introduced to her, and we had a great discussion.
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There are plenty of winemakers who make good natural wines. Elisabetta Foradori stands out amongst them. Lots of them in Calif who make outstanding ones. You don’t have to dig very deep to find them, Ian.
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Seems like I did!!! Doh!
No coffee yet. 
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I don’t think my post was clear.
Foradori never introduced herself as a “natural winemaker” to me.
What I’m talking about is the guy (or gal) or who said “Hi, My name is so and so, and I’m a natural winemaker”
Everything I tasted after was either offensive or wildly overpriced.
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Right, someone who holds themselves out as natural first and foremost.
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Exactly! If the wines are good, they will speak for themselves, tell me later how you made them.
P.S. I’ll have you wordsmith my confusing posts in the future 
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Yup, Ian… Elisabetta does not introduce herself as a natural winemaker. There are many folks, including her, that make wine by natural principles (however they choose to define them), but don’t call themselves as natural.
Tom