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Kerin O'Keefe

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Kerin O'Keefe
BornBoston
OccupationWine Critic and Author

Kerin O'Keefe is an American wine critic and author. In April 2013 she was named Italian Editor for Wine Enthusiast.[1] From 2002 to 2013 she wrote regularly on Italian wine for Decanter. Her numerous articles have also appeared in The World of Fine Wine and more recently in Wine-Searcher. She was also Contributing Editor for The Wine News magazine from 2003 to 2009.

Her first book was published in Italian by Luigi Veronelli in 2004: Franco Biondi Santi. Il gentleman del Brunello. She authored the English edition of the book in 2005, Franco Biondi Santi. The Gentleman of Brunello, a recipient of a Gourmand Wine Books Award. She also won the Premio Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino in 2008 for her cover article Brunello de-con-structed in the Oct-Nov 2007 issue of The Wine News. Her latest book, Brunello di Montalcino - Understanding and Appreciating One of Italy's Greatest Wines (University of California Press, 2012), was shortlisted for the André Simon Award.[2]

Career

Kerin O’Keefe holds a degree in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and also studied English and American literature for a year at the University of East Anglia.[3] O'Keefe moved to Italy in 1991, got married in 1992 to an Italian and became fascinated by the country's unique wines. To further her wine knowledge she studied with the Associazione Italiana Sommelier and earned her Sommelier's Certificate in 1996. Fluent in Italian, she soon immersed herself in the pursuit of discovering Italy's greatest wines by frequently traveling around the country to meet the winemakers and walk their vineyards. O'Keefe has a keen interest in fine Italian wine made from autochthonous grape varieties.[3]

She has been described as "an author who not only knows her subject in great detail, but one who is opinionated and tells her story in an engaging fashion",[4] "the best English-language writer and critic on Brunello",[5] "a critical voice who writes about Brunello with the affection and focus ordinarily reserved for the likes of Burgundy",[6] "undoubtedly the English-speaking world's most passionate advocate of the wines of Montalcino".[7]

Brunello di Montalcino (2012) was called "one of the rare wine books that is truly important",[8] "authorative",[9] "fascinating, well-written",[10] "a delight",[5] "forthright, trenchant, spirited, anything but bland",[11] "excellent",[12] "exhaustively researched",[13] "a little masterpiece",[14] "highly recommended",[4] " very fine and wonderfully opinionated",[15] "a valuable source",[6] "a milestone in our grasp of Brunello",[16] "the reference work on Montalcino",[3] "a page-turner if ever a wine book was one",[7] "like an information colliery",[17] "compelling and page-turning prose".[18]

Contentions

She has been put by Tim Crane in the Clive Coates/Michael Broadbent camp of wine critics, rather than in the Robert M. Parker camp of "loud and fruity descriptions".[9]

Her article Rebels without a cause? The demise of Super-Tuscans[19] has been called "fascinating" by Eric Asimov and spurred a lively debate on the merits of Super-Tuscans.[20]

The Brunellopoli scandal was not a surprise for O'Keefe,[3][21] as she had been questioning Brunellos which were suspiciously dark and without the typical aromas of pure Sangiovese wines for years. O'Keefe wrote in 2003 that many of 1997 Brunellos she had tasted: "were so jammy it was hard to believe they were Brunello",[22] in 2006 that: "illicit blending with other grapes, to make luminous ruby-garnet color unnaturally darker, is staunchly denied on all official fronts"[19] and in 2007 that: "Doubts can only remain in the face of some of the darker, impenetrable Brunellos sometimes seen".[23]

O'Keefe explains in an interview with Ambrosia, "I tasted Brunello wines first time in 1989 during a trip to Tuscany. During that trip, I not only fell in love with my future husband, but also with the wine Brunello di Montalcino. Then in 2004 while researching for the book on Franco Biondi Santi, I realized the greatness of the wines and understood the need to write a book on the wines from a different perspective."[17]

The search for pure expressions of Sangiovese led her to write the Brunello book, as she explained in an interview to JancisRobinson.com: "I did not write a classic wine guide, and never aimed to include every top-scoring estate. Instead, I wanted to write about subzones and I purposely chose the best terroir-driven wines that reflect these zones while omitting Brunellos that merely reflect heavy-handed cellar practices but not their origins, even if the latter have become the darlings of many other critics".[3]

O'Keefe wrote against "the concept behind the American Palate – that a single style can capture the taste buds of an entire nation"[24] and the "crass stereotype of the American palate".[25] She argued instead that "no one can deny the growing interest in the USA, and around the world, in more drinkable and terroir-driven wines".[25]

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ^ "Kerin O'Keefe Named New Italian Editor for Wine Enthusiast Magazine". Wine Business. 22 April 2013.
  2. ^ Robinson, Jancis (14 December 2012). "André Simon shortlist announced". JancisRobinson.com.
  3. ^ a b c d e Speller, Walter (26 March 2013). "Kerin O'Keefe's Montalcino subzones". JancisRobinson.com.
  4. ^ a b Hyland, Tom (28 April 2012). "The Real Story of Brunello di Montalcino". Learn Italian wines.
  5. ^ a b Winkler, Donald (18 April 2012). "Brunello di Montalcino by Kerin O'Keefe". International Wine Review.
  6. ^ a b Levenberg, Keith (Issue 37 2012, p. 38-39). "Brunello's true believer". The World of Fine Wine. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |title= (help)
  7. ^ a b Belfrage, Nicolas (2012). "from back cover". Brunello di Montalcino, University of California Press. {{cite journal}}: External link in |journal= (help)
  8. ^ Dawson, Evan (28 March 2012). "An Honest Look at Brunello". Palate Press.
  9. ^ a b Crane, Tim (1 August 2012). "The Grace Kelly of wine". The Times Literary Supplement.
  10. ^ O'Doherty, Paul (26 December 2012). "2012 wine books - Italy". JancisRobinson.com.
  11. ^ Edwards, Michael (15 December 2012). "And so it should be:". Champagne & Burgundy journalist.
  12. ^ Atkin, Tim (22 March 2013). "Regions could teach each other". Off Licence News.
  13. ^ Vesei, C.P. (February 2013). "O'Keefe, Kerin. Brunello di Montalcino". Choice. Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
  14. ^ Ziliani, Franco (19 December 2012). "a book that every Brunello lover MUST read". Italian wine writer.
  15. ^ Sorensen, Greg (23 December 2012). "Brunello, Now More Than Ever". the (z)infidel.
  16. ^ Maresca, Tom (4 June 2012). "The Best Brunello Book Yet". Tom's Wine Line.
  17. ^ a b Tiwari, Rojita (September 2013). "Book Review - Brunello di Montalcino". Ambrosia. {{cite journal}}: External link in |journal= (help)
  18. ^ Certomà, Chiara (November 2013). "Book Review - Brunello di Montalcino". Journal of Wine Research. {{cite journal}}: External link in |journal= (help)
  19. ^ a b O'Keefe, Kerin (Issue 23 2009, p. 94-99). "Rebels without a cause? The demise of Super-Tuscans" (PDF). The World of Fine Wine. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "KO-wofw" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  20. ^ Asimov, Eric (13 April 2009). "Are Super-Tuscans Still Super?". The New York Times.
  21. ^ Wilson, John (23 May 2013). "Vintage crimes". The Irish Times.
  22. ^ O'Keefe, Kerin, The Wine News (February–March 2003). "Vintage of a Lifetime". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ O'Keefe, Kerin, The Wine News (October–November 2007). "Brunello De-con-struct-ed". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ O'Keefe, Kerin (April 2011). "US love affair with Italy". Decanter.
  25. ^ a b O'Keefe, Kerin (Issue 37 2012, p. 79-83). "Italy and the American Palate: debunking the myth". The World of Fine Wine. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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