good talk

The Globe and Mail is currently running a three part series on Canadian writing and publishing. Written by James Adams, the weekly essays have so far covered the perceived decline in publishers' promotional effort for Canadian books (last Saturday), and (today) the rise of new benefits program for Canada's struggling writers*.

The Adams series is generating some controversy on literary blogs across the country and, predictably, in the comments section at the Globe online. Opinions about Canadian books and Canadian writers are as plentiful as they are varied. Canada is having a good talk with itself about literary culture.

Contributing to this discussion is Marc Coté, publisher of Ontario-based Cormorant Books, who uses the Endpapers column of this weekend's Globe to respond to Adams' first installment. The image problem for Canadian books, Coté argues, is not lack of effort from either writers or publishers. It's Canada's porous cultural border:

Canadian bookstore and library shelves are filled by approximately 80-per-cent foreign-authored and -published books. These are promoted by U.S. television programs and magazines such as 60 Minutes and People, which have, respectively, more viewers in Canada than The Fifth Estate and more readers than Maclean's. Canadian books occupy some 20 per cent of shelf space. Their greatest promotional vehicles are CBC's Canada Reads and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Authors lucky enough to be selected for glory will see their sales climb to an average 10,000 copies for a nomination and 30,000 for a win — numbers an Oprah selection can match in days.

With so much doom and gloom in the news, sometimes its nice to just pick up, and argue about, a good book.



* Disclosure: I was running the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) when we hosted meetings with Susan Swan, the Writers Union and the AFBS to design what has become this valuable new benefits plan.

I'm a finalist! Again!

My Cottage Life magazine article about cottage country wineries -- The Holy Grape -- is a finalist for the National Magazine Awards (Service: Lifestyle).

This will be the third time I sit in the swanky audience wondering if my name will be called (the 2nd time for a CL piece). Here's hoping this one turns out a bit better than the others.

Thanks to the wonderful folks at Cottage Life for submitting the article to the competition. Everyone should go subscribe right now.

versifera, or purple mentality

It's been a while between posts. My apologies. Without the Toro column kicking at me, I've been concentrating on other writing projects, like a book of poems I will soon owe to the good people at the Ontario Arts Council.

There may be wine poems involved in this new collection-- entitled 109 Details and available, if all goes well, next year sometime. In the meantime, go and buy Al Purdy's 1968 collection Wild Grape Wine to witness grape as muse. You'll have to be resourceful to get this book, as it appears to be out of print and I won't sell you my copy. No doubt, most if not all of the collection appears in the Collected Poems, which is still in print.

(photo of Al Purdy, courtesy Harbour Publishing)

For a small taste, a sip as it were, here's a bit from Purdy's The Winemaker’s Beat-Étude:

I am picking wild grapes last year
in a field...

I am satisfied with my own shortcomings letting
myself happen then
I’m surrounded by Cows...


What happens to old Al after the cows surround him while he's picking wild grapes? Go get the book (the poem also appears in Rooms For Rent in the Outer Planets, a later selected edition from Harbour Publishing.

Al Purdy summered for decades on Prince Edward County, in a lovely little town called Ameliasburgh (where he lies buried beneath a book-shaped gravestone). You could say this late great Canadian poet was one of the first serious winemakers in this new wine region.

bye bye TORO

(image courtesy of TORO)

I hardly knew ye.

As you may have heard, TORO magazine announced it is ceasing publication. Ad sales were, apparently, not quite equaling costs, and with free distribution, TORO could count on neither a large subscriber base nor government funding for support.

So, my wine column with TORO will never see the light of day. How sad.

On the other hand, I have a PDF of my first column and will load it here on February 20th, the day it was slated to be distributed. I have to say, it looks beautiful. TORO sure knew how to put a magazine page together. I will also load the text of my second column. And I will continue writing about the fascinating world of wine on this blog, while shopping the column to other publications.

Have a drink for TORO. Until yesterday, every interaction I had with this magazine was very positive and incredibly professional. The editorial staff was top-notch. Canada needs more great magazines, not fewer.

NYC wine

I'm in Manhattan for a week, checking out some wine events and having a vacation. Had a great time last night at something called Unwind With Wine -- a social club/wine tasting run by the fabulous Hanna Lee. Afterwards, my buddy Scotty Watson and I were caught in a snowstorm in Times Square. Spectacular.

happier than that

The Adam Gopnik article I've linked to over there on the right is just one illustration of how the world of wine can be fraught with anxiety and confusion. So too the world of wine writing. There is an implicit choice to be made every time you stick your nose in a glass, a side to be taken. Will I react (and write) as an expert, grading wines on a numerical scale, or will I refuse to quantify my enjoyment of wine and focus instead on the art of the trade.

I've written about politics long enough to know that at some level choosing sides is for suckers; and I don't know enough about wine to make such a choice. So I won't. I will attempt, over and over, to answer one question. What does wine do for me?

Yesterday evening, at the liquor store, I stopped in the tasting room to try a couple of new arrivals I'd seen in the Vintages catalogue. I had my notebook with me, and some numerical grading evaluation sheets I'd downloaded. I took my two glasses, a Poggia al Tufo Rompicollo 2004, and a Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva 2003 off to a side table because tasting in front of a line of other shoppers makes me feel self-conscious.

I'd had one glance, sniff and taste of the Poggia al Tufo and was trying to settle on the early impressions when a young woman approached me. She and her husband/boyfriend had been at the tasting bar, and had tried this wine as well, but couldn't decide on it. What were my impressions of it?

Here we were, fully immersed in a stew of wine anxiety. This woman was not confident enough in her own taste impressions to make a decision on the wine, and I was certainly not confident enough in one quick taste to have anything intelligent to say to her. As well, when she asked her question she was looking down at my evaluation sheet. She was looking not just for someone else's opinion, but for authority. She wanted me to be an expert for her. Finally, her boyfriend had not approached with her. He remained at the bar, and I thought I saw a scowl.

Here's what I said:

"Well, that was the very first taste I had of this new wine, but here is something I noticed. The very first smell of it has a strong lush fruit, like ripe raspberry, which is why the first taste surprised me because that fruit did not come through. Instead it has a much lighter body than I expected and is quite tannic. But I like that."

And then, in the pause while she considered my opinion... "Does that help?"

"Actually," she said, smiling widely, "that was a perfect description of what I tasted as well. Thank you."

So, now go back and reread Gopnick on the power of suggestion in wine tasting.

I was certainly being tested. Did I get it exactly right? Who knows? I was just giving my honest first impression. So what does wine do for me? It gives me a moment when I can impress a woman right in front of her boyfriend, for whatever reason.

And that's enough for now.

Cottage Life article

Here is a copy of the article I wrote for the July/August 2006 issue of Cottage Life. Called The Holy Grape, the article details the efforts of some brave pioneers of Ontario cottage country wine-making.

NOTE: The article is loaded as a PDF file:

The Holy Grape, by John Degen