The Gourmands' Way by Justin Spring

Author:Justin Spring
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

ELEVEN

“A Dreamer of Wine”

Alexis Lichine’s business empire expanded rapidly during the mid-1950s, but by 1957, signs of strain were beginning to show everywhere, and his decades-long correspondence with Alfred Knopf demonstrates it. Impressed by the success of Wines of France, Knopf had immediately contracted with Lichine for a far more ambitious project, to be called Alexis Lichine’s Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits. But six years later the book was still far from finished, and Lichine, rather than meeting his contractual obligation, was instead hustling Knopf to help him publish a wine book in French. Lichine had already enlisted the help of Paris-based Jenny Bradley—the same literary agent who had brokered Toklas’s deal for The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book—to find a French publisher for Wines of France. But Bradley was unable to do so, most likely because French privacy and libel laws are exceptionally strict, and as a result, writers such as Lichine who attempt to expose corrupt individuals or businesses face significant legal challenges. In January 1957, Lichine wrote Knopf proposing a new strategy: he wanted to take some of the text of Wines of France and combine it with some of the text of his half-done Encyclopedia, and translate the whole thing into French for immediate publication.1 When Knopf wrote back with a very firm no, Lichine responded:

After six years, no publisher in France has ever been found for Wines of France. After several conversations with Mrs. Bradley, the same might very well be true of the Encyclopedia.… I am not writing these books as an author primarily looking for royalties. If such were the case … the Encyclopedia … is a losing proposition and a luxury that no author or individual could afford, even by writing off the losses to personal satisfaction.

I undertook the Encyclopedia at a great cost in both time and money, both of which I could ill afford … for purely and simply business reasons.… I figured that I would recoup my losses by writing them off to prestige which I would acquire through the publication of this book in various parts of the world.

At the present time in France, I am fighting a battle for my very existence.… This battle has already started in France and my entire future is at stake. As I have increased in stature, a large segment of the wine industry in France has started an organized cabal against me. In Burgundy, billboards bearing my name have been smeared [with excrement]. Once repainted, these billboards were sawed off at the base and [my assistant, Pierre] De Wilde had to make a special trip to Burgundy to put the case in the hands of the gendarmerie. The crooked shippers of Burgundy realizing that I was the first and practically the only one to denounce their methods and procedures, have tried to stifle every effort I have made in order to keep the French public ignorant of their malpractices.

In Bordeaux last summer, the Cruses* formed a purchasing monopoly group mainly directed at me to prevent me from buying from the great châteaux.

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