Yes, Part 4 of my series of outrageous stories about the hipster somms of NYWC (New York Wine City) was just published on the Grape Collective website and the flack has been flying in my direction. Needless to say, some readers were sure before they read a single word – some of them didn’t seem to bother to read a single word! – that they hated what I’d written and they hated me for having written it. Others seem incapable of grasping the idea that I am trying to describe a concrete phenomenon in the smallest number of words (i.e. an article, that is a series of them, not a damn fat book) and through the use of satire to make this seriously entertaining to read. You see, I really do want you to read it and make up your own minds if, as I hope, I have come rather close to describing the true situation in NYWC. Part 4 tries to analyze how the wine city functions as an ecosystem which competing organisms cohabit; a food web! I gratefully acknowledge the inspiration of Jonathan Swift and William Hogarth (18th century Britain), along with that of Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolf (late 20th century America). As we Brits say, the truth will out, and if I’ve done my job well, then I have been its medium. As with the publication of Parts 1-3, I am in Berlin, and it is a weird experience to be on the other side of the Big Pond to where the action is. So be it!
Here is the link to the Grape Collective story:
Would that be the American author Tom Wolfe, or some other gonzo journalist?
You shouldn’t give such hostages to fortune.