Author Event: Finding Meaning in Wine: A US Blend by Michael Sinowitz

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The book examines controversies in American wine culture and how those controversies intersect with and illuminate current academic and cultural debates about the environment and about interpretation.

“With a specific focus on the United States of America, the methods that we use to discuss literature and other art are applied to wine-making and wine culture,” Sinowitz explains. The book explores the debates about how to evaluate wine and the problems inherent in numerical scoring as well as evaluative tasting notes, whether winemakers can be artists, the discourse in wine culture involving natural wine and biodynamic farming, as well as how people judge what makes a wine great. These interpretative commitments illuminate an underlying metaphysics and allegiance to a culture of reason or feeling. The discussions engage with a broad range of writers and thinkers, such as Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Louis Menand, Michael Pollan, Greg Garrard, John Guillory, Amitov Ghosh, Pierre Bourdieu, and Barbara Herrnstein-Smith. The book draws upon not only a number of texts produced by wine critics, wine writers, literary critics and theorists but also extensive interviews with multiple California winemakers, such as Tegan Passalaqua, Matthew Rorick, Hardy Wallace, Rajat Parr, Nathan Roberts and Duncan Meyers. These interviews contribute to a unique reflection on wine and meaning. “This book will be of great interest to readers looking to learn more about wine from cultural, literary, and philosophical perspectives,” Sinowitz adds.

Michael Sinowitz is a Professor in the Department of English at DePauw University in Indiana. His previous publications include (2014) and essays on Graham Greene, Angela Carter, Thomas Berger, and Elmore Leonard.

He has researched this book over the last 7 years, and spoken with many wine world luminaries, including Rajat Parr (Sandhi, Domaine de La Cote, Phelan Farms), Celia Welch (Corra, Scarecrow, Lindstrom, Keever), Steve Matthiasson (Matthiasson, Ashes and Diamonds), Ted Lemon (Littorai), Justin Smith (Saxum), Cathy Corison (Corison), Morgan Twain-Peterson (Bedrock), John Kongsgaard (Kongsgaard), Michael Browne (formerly Kosta Browne, now Chev and Cirq), Elizabeth Vianna (Chimney Rock), Josh Widaman (formerly Lewis Cellars, now Pine Ridge), Gideon Beinstock (Clos Saron), Hank Beckmeyer (LaClarine Farm), Abe Schoener (Scholium), Tegan Passalaqua (Turley, Sandlands), Hardy Wallace (formerly Dirty and Rowdy, now Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah!), Jared Brandt (Donkey and Goat), Chris Brockaway (Broc Cellars), Duncan Meyers and Nathan Roberts (Arnot-Roberts), Matthew Rorick (Forlorn Hope), Martha Stouman (eponymous), Dan Petroski (formerly Larkmead, now Massican). In addition, his research included interviewing Joshua Greene of Wine & Spirits Magazine, as well as participating in a blind tasting panel at the magazine’s offices.

Michael Sinowitz first discovered a passion for wine while attending graduate school in Miami, studying literary theory and Modernist literature, with breaks spent hanging out at a local wine shop, hoping for free samples and wine knowledge. That interest has bloomed into a lifelong love, developed in many ways by frequent travel to California wine country, one of his favorite places. He lives with his wife, son, two cats, and lots of bottles of wine in Greencastle, Indiana.

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