Lecture: Frank J. Prial
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When Frank J. Prial asked if anyone in the audience had ever drunk wine out of a box, several people raised their hands and laughed in embarrassment. But Prial, a reporter and wine columnist for The New York Times, did not think there was anything to be embarrassed about. “It’s what’s inside that counts. That’s why I’m so excited to see people drinking wine out of boxes,” he said.
Before a lunchtime crowd of New York University journalism students and faculty, Prial talked about his career and the culture of wine.
When he began writing his wine column, Prial enjoyed drinking wine but did not consider himself a connoisseur. As with any reporter on an unfamiliar beat, he learned most of what he knows on the job, which in this case meant going to wine tastings.
For Prial, though, trying different wines is not what he enjoys most about being a wine writer. “What you’re really interested in is the people,” he said. He prefers to concentrate on the people who make wine as a cultural and social phenomenon, such as the rise of young black wine producers in South Africa.
“There’s enjoyment to be had of a glass of wine without making a fetish of it or paying a lot for it.”
Prial attributes the increasingly popularity of wine in United States to several factors, including a winemaking tradition from immigrants, the availability of box wine and an increased disposable income.
However, Prial sees several obstacles to the full acceptance of wine as a “normal” drink.
He believes the wine industry perpetuates the myth that wine is complicated. “In this country, we’ve been sold wine as something that nobody can understand,” Prial said. He made the comparison that everybody likes music, though not everyone likes Beethoven. “The wine industry makes you think that if you don’t understand the most arcane, the most esoteric part of the wine, that you don’t understand anything. That’s simply not true,” he said.
Prial praised the recent hit movie Sideways as helping to “demystify wine.”
“Bit by bit, I see wine being democratized in this country,” he said. “More of that helps bring wine down to the popular level.” He attempts to do that in his column by avoiding flowery descriptions of the wines. “Your job is to make it palatable to the reader,” Prial said.
He also noted the controversy over the use of screw tops on wine bottles. One of every 12 bottles is spoiled by cork in the wine, a problem he thinks can be easily resolved by replacing corks with screw tops. But some people would miss “the romance of the wine waiter” and the corkscrew. “That’s all nonsense,” Prial said. These people approach wine from the top: They have drunk wine in fine restaurants and “love to be intimidated by sommeliers. [They] don’t want it simplified,” he continued.
Prial views old wine as belonging to a separate world where wine is considered a commodity and thousands of dollars are invested on a single bottle. “But nobody drinks that wine!” Prial exclaimed. He has sampled old wines and found them undrinkable. “When you open them, you see they do not last.”
He acknowledged that there are some basic rules to pairing wine with food, such as white or red wines with certain meats. Prial advises sampling different wines within one’s price range to find a favorite, which he thinks is ultimately a matter of one’s tastes.
Prial envisions a future when not just the sommeliers but also the wine writers who foster the myth of a “rare world of fantastic wines,” as he put it, become unnecessary. This wine lover - who would choose a Beaujolais over a lower-priced burgundy any day - reminded the audience, “There’s enjoyment to be had of a glass of wine without making a fetish of it or paying a lot for it.”