This book is about a lot of people I know and like, written by someone I know and like, and even has a cameo by this guy. So what the hell does that mean? -- You should buy at least 10-15 copies.
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First of all, I love Alice. I have never met anyone with such a knack for simultaneously pissing off both the wine mainstream and the wine counter-culture. She is unyielding. Determined. Steadfast-- And seen by some as even a threat.
You don't always have to agree, but it is hard to not respect her mission and the reasoning behind it.... Wine. Nothing added, nothing removed.
I've bought more copies of Alice's first book The Battle for Wine and Love: Or How I Saved the World From Parkerization than any other book. Inevitably, it ends up as mutliple Xmas / birthday gifts during the year. It isn't my attempt to brainwash and slap on what are sometimes seen as the purple Nike's of the cult of natural wine, but really for people to see another side. It is up to them to be able to determine what they do or don't want, to be able to question, and to ultimately know that there are choices.
If Alice's first book is a battle, this one is more of a multi-threaded journey. A journey in winemaking, a search for the origins of natural wine, and also an optimistic search for hope in CA wine. Which if anyone has followed Alice's history, a search for hope in CA is a long way from her 2008 piece in the LA Times.
Reading this book objectively was impossible- I see my friends faces, hear their voices, see the house I lived in, the cellar I worked in, remember the dinners, the shoes, etc...and perhaps all I can hope is that you do too. If the the very least you get out of Naked Wine is an introduction to some new people, places, and producers-- It will be well worth the read.
Just don't start calling me "Cherub."
