Today’s column celebrates two anniversaries: 20 years of Chateau Feely and 30 years of the Gourmand Awards. What connects these two events? Wine books, of course, and the stories they tell us about wine and about life.
Grape Expectations: 20 Years of Chateau Feely
This is the 20th anniversary of Chateau Feely, a small organic and biodynamic winery in South West France. Caro Feely writes that
“We bought our vineyard in South West France in 2005 following our dream to create great wines on fine terroir. Now, with the wisdom of many years of winegrowing we celebrate not a misty dream but years of hard work and the inspiration of working with nature and nurturing this farm back to the full health and flavour of a living biodynamic soil. In our risky endeavour we have felt a lot: sometimes fear, sometimes pain but mostly great joy and fulfillment.”
I haven’t visited Chateau Feely, but like many people, I have shared the Feely family’s journey through Caro’s four Vineyard Series books, starting with Grape Expectations, and progressing through Saving Our Skins, Vineyard Confessions, and Cultivating Change. When Grape Expectations first appeared I wrote that
Caro Feely is an economist and a dreamer and so there was bound to be a bit of cognitive dissonance when she and her husband Sean and their two daughters pulled up stakes in Dublin and moved to Saussignac to grow grapes, make wine, and live the dream instead of just dreaming it.
Cognitive dissonance? Yes, that’s the stress that you feel when you try to believe two contradictory things at the same time and there cannot be two thoughts that are much more in contradiction than the idea of taking over a dilapidated house and run down vineyard and cellar and making great wine and the notion that you will be able to pay the bills and support a family in the process.
I’m not quite sure if Feely’s 2012 book Grape Expectations was written as a creative outlet, a cheap form of therapy or to generate an additional revenue stream, but it is a delightful book that I recommend to all my friends. Feely tells her family’s story and the book could be placed on a shelf along with Under the Tuscan Sun or A Year in Provence because of its ability to give all of us a peek at expat daily life in a suitably romantic setting,
But while there’s enough romance in Feely’s book to make it attractive to someone looking for an escape, it is the reality of her situation that appeals most to me. Besides telling a good story about her family’s experiences, she also teaches us a great deal about the arts and craft of winegrowing and the economics of the wine business, with its peculiar challenges and opportunities.
Grape Expectations is one of my favorite wine books because it weaves all the natural, technical, social, business, and personal elements of wine into a compelling (and true!) story. The four volumes of Feely’s Vineyard Series provide a rare opportunity to experience the hardships and triumphs of winegrowing from the relative comfort of your armchair. Highly recommended.
Edouard Cointreau founded the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 1995. Over the last 30 years they have expanded in several dimensions snf now seek to honor the best food, wine, and drinks books, printed or digital, as well as food television.
It is truly a global celebration. More than 221 countries have been represented, which is more than the United Nations (193 member states) and the same as FIFA, the world soccer governing body (221 member associations).
Edouard writes, “We reward now all food and drinks content, in print or digital, paid or free, private or public, trade publishers or self published, big or small, with an equal chance for everyone.”
The 30th anniversary celebration takes place from June 18-22, 2025, at the historic Palace of Marques de Pombal in Oeiras, Portugal. It should be quite a party!
Gourmand is inspired by the Olympics. Wine and food books are organized by nation of origin and earn the equivalents of bronze, silver, and gold awards. Edouard reports that “For the past 30 years, we have rewarded the best drinks books. Wine books 59%, spirits 24% beer 6%, coffee 5%, tea 3%, others 3%. English 37%, French 22%, Spanish 12%, others 29%.” There has been a gradual decline in wine books over the years, he notes, as interest in other beverages has increased.
The decrease in wine books is notable in the U.S. and U.K., but interest is stronger in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil. It is an interesting coincidence that an excellent Portuguese translation of one of my books was recently published in Brazil and that my colleagues Cynthia Howson and Pierre Ly recently published a Spanish translation of their book about adventures on the wine trail in China.
Edouard breaks down the awards by the numbers:
- We have over 220 countries and regions participating every year since 2019. Founded 30 years ago, in 1995, it took us 12 years to reach 100 participating countries, 20 years to reach 200. Our number of countries and regions is slightly higher than the Olympics, because everyone eats, and not everyone can afford to have a sports team. The maximum number is around 250. There are 193 countries in the United Nations.
- We now have a balance of origins for participating books between continents. North America plus Western Europe are equal to Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America. By languages, participating books are in English 41%, French 12%, Spanish 12%, other languages 36%.
- Traditional trade publishers have decreased to 70%, with independently published rising to 20% and corporations a surprising 10%.
- Internet now has quality food and drink books available free for downloads. They are screened by the Gourmand Awards for the best since 2016. They have their own separate parallel categories in the Gourmand Awards.
- Today the top free publications are published 66% by public institutions, 19% by NGOs, and 15% by private interests.
- United Nations and other big international organizations such as FAO, WFP, UNESCO, EU, CIRAD, OIV, have many food or drink publications, while local, or regional governments issue a large quantity of single titles more difficult to find.
- For 20 years, women authors of food books have been stable over 60%,with men authors under 40%. It is the opposite for drink books, with men authors slowly decreasing at 75%, women rising at 25%.
- For drinks books, on our lists, wine books are decreasing, now at 59%. All other drink books are up, with alcohol spirits books at 24%, beer at 6%, coffee at 5%, tea at 3%, others at 3%.
- Food and drink culture is becoming global. It is not polarized. It is a gigantic puzzle where each piece is important and has its part.
Congratulations to this year’s winners. And thanks to Edouard Cointreau for three decades of hard work promoting wine books and supporting publishers and authors (like me).