DorothyGaiter on JonBonne/Rules Book

A rather interesting, if rambling and unfocused, article by DorothyGaiter in GrapeCollective magazine:
GaiterArticle .

I found it rather interesting in that she implies several wine writers (including LettieTeague and JonBonne) have plagarized some of her writing from their WSJ wine columns. It's a strange/bizarre article from somebody whose writings I usually like. She goes on to pillory wine experts and has little use for Jon's NewRules wine book.
Tom

[Robin Garr]

That is a little ... odd.

Indeed, so unfocused that I had to just start skimming halfway through.
Throw in some light paranoia, some self-importance, and weird inferences, and you've got one strange article.
I actually had liked their column sometimes back in the day.

This is not so much a column as it is an older woman sitting in her rocker on the porch, alternately remembering a series of disparate events, chortling about the good times and ranting about the bad, and telling those damn kids to keep off her lawn.

Sounds as if she is at the stage where if she finds words that wine writers write, then, hey, they must be her words.

This is the most tangential meandering revelation of a woman who doesn't realize what she is revealing of herself. One, she shouldn't have written this. 2. The editor/publisher should have known better than to print it.

That said, I'm not going to buy, or go to the bother of borrowing, anything that purports to tell me the "new rules" of wine. I have no brief against Bonne'---he has been entertaining from time to time and he seems to work hard at learning---but he's just another pontificator. And excuse me? He's against pretense? How pretentious is it to decry the rules, diss the 'old rules' and announce the 'new rules'? Why did he believe this entire book would be worthwhile or in any way enlightening?

Tom, I think she's pretty clear that they are not plagiarizing, which would be an incredibly serious accusation, even against a lifestyle writer, and likely lead to a firing if confirmed. Rather, she's noting that there is very little new under the sun in wine writing (and getting in a dig at Teague). I don't get the sense that this writing is unfocused, more that it references a breadth of time and topics. She's certainly not the only one to be underwhelmed with Bonne's new book. I loved his column, haven't read his books.

[David M. Bueker]

Reads like a person screaming “get off my lawn.”

Oh, if you want pure curmudgeon, try this "blind" review from someone who didn't read the book:
http://www.timatkin.com/articles?1838
Pretty funny, though.

I enjoyed Jon Bonne's column when he wrote for the San Francisco Chron, now we have no wine column plus no cheese column by cheese maven Janet Fletcher. We did have dinner at Janet's home a week or so ago. In her earlier life she was a chef at Chez Panisse so that's always a fine evening. I could eat at her table every night, she never cooks simple things.