Wine Pirates!

photo credit: Kevin, L’Amour de Paris

I got to be a wine pirate for a day!

Rich Rocca of wpawinepirate (https://wpawinepirate.com/) interviewed me for his blog this week and asked me about launching Francey Not Fancy, what we do at FNF, and my favorite wines & regions. His warm, kind, welcoming energy makes the wine world a better place.

Here’s our conversation:

Rich: Tell us about yourself and your wine journey. 

Alison: I’m a journalist who used to enjoy wine after work, now wine is my work. 

I grew up in a family of wine drinkers, who enjoyed mostly reds and mostly Napa Cabernets. My uncle introduced our family to Silver Oak when it wasn’t nearly as popular or expensive as it is today. That was probably our first favorite fine wine.

When I graduated from college in 2001, I moved to Paris, where I met my dear friend, Georges Nony, whose family owned a château in Bordeaux, Château Caronne Ste Gemme (they sold it to Bernard Magrez in 2022). Georges taught me so much about French wines and fine wines, even though I was too young to truly appreciate it at first.

For the next few decades, wine was a hobby for me. I enjoyed keeping a small collection in a few wine refrigerators in our apartment and then our home.

My interest and collection grew pretty steadily, and for my 42nd birthday, my husband gave me a wine cellar (we converted the trash and recycling room in our basement)!

As my love of wine grew, my passion for the news was starting to fade. Two decades of hard work and Covid-19 did me in, and I decided it was time to make a change. I quit TV news and went back to school, got wine certificates from Cornell and Le Cordon Bleu, and got my Level 3 Sommelier Certification from the National Wine School. Now wine is my day job.

Rich: How did your philosophy about wine lead to you starting your wine consulting business Francey Not Fancy?

Alison: I spent 20 years in journalism before getting into wine, and while they seem like really different businesses, they have a lot in common. I was a reporter, covering mostly business, in both print (The Wall Street Journal, The Hartford Courant) and on TV (CNBC, KDKA, FoxCT, Fox 5 NY, NBC News) and one of the things that always bothered me about the business world was how exclusive it could feel. I would constantly hear from people that they didn’t understand business, finance, or taxes because it was all too complicated. Business isn’t necessarily complicated if someone is willing to explain it to you in basic terms. There just aren’t enough people doing that.

The wine world is very similar. People think you need to know a lot about wine to talk about wine or that you need to spend a lot on wine for it to be good wine. Neither of those things is true. But here’s the problem: the more people learn about wine, the less they’re able to talk about it like a regular person. Wine critics describe wines with words the average person would never use. They often give really high ratings to wines most people can’t afford and they often don’t even review the wines that most people have access to. A regular person doesn’t want to hear about mouthfeel and the flavor of mirabelles. They want to know what might taste good with that meatloaf they’re making on a Friday night or the BBQ they’re having next Sunday afternoon. (I’d go with a Syrah from the Northern Rhône in France in both situations, by the way.)

I got into news and wines for the same reason: to make them more accessible. I like connecting with people and finding common ground. Wine just happens to be a much more fun ground to connect on.

So at Francey Not Fancy we talk about wines without being snobby or taking ourselves too seriously. I call it a “welcoming wine consultancy” because I want everyone to feel welcome to pull up a glass at our table and talk about wine, whatever your level of knowledge. I hope we can help people learn more about wines, discover wines they love, and figure out how to buy and order wines they love to drink.

I love wine at all different price points. My favorite Pinot Noir that we drink nonstop in my house is Au Bon Climat’s Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir, and you can get it online for $21. Sure, it’s nice to splurge on special bottles, but you don’t need to spend a fortune to drink something delicious.”

Rich: Your business Francey Not Fancy takes a unique approach to wine consulting, can you give us an idea of what services you offer your customers?

Alison: For starters, we have a website with a ton of great write-ups on wine. They’re all free, so check out the site: franceynotfancy.com and learn some more about grapes and wines you might want to try. We also send out a free newsletter every Wednesday that takes less than a minute to read and will teach you something new about wine every week. You can sign up for that on the website too. And we have a ton of great wine content on our Instagram: @franceynotfancy. So please give that a follow.”

As for our client services, we offer wine classes and tastings (both in-person- in the NYC area- and on Zoom).

We consult people to help them find wines they like, whether that’s a case for a special occasion or several cases to start their own collection or to fill out their wine cellar.

We do corporate events for groups of all sizes, whether that’s a wine tasting, a wine education class, or wine training for a professional sales team that needs to know more about wine to entertain clients.

We can also help with travel itineraries and wine visits, particularly in France!

Rich: What are some of your favorite wine regions, grape varieties, and winemaking styles?

Alison: If the name Francey Not Fancy didn’t already give it away, I’m a big French wine fan. My mom’s side of the family is French and the wines and regions there are top of my list.

My grandfather was from Corsica, so let’s start there. Corsican wines are tough to find in the US; I will drink any Corsican wine I can find stateside, red or white. The whites have this fabulous salty quality from the sea, and the reds have this dry earthiness from the mountains. You can really taste the flavor of the island in your glass.

I’m also a huge Champagne drinker. I prefer Champagne-method or traditional-method sparkling wine (which means the second fermentation happens in the bottle not in a big vat), so I absolutely love bubbly from Champagne, especially Chardonnay-dominant blends or blanc de blancs (100% Chardonnay Champagne). If we’re venturing outside of France, I like Franciacorta sparkling wines from Italy and Cava from Spain—both are traditional-method sparkling wines.

For reds, I love Syrah from the Northern Rhône in France, especially the region of Saint-Joseph. They’re fabulous and more affordable than Côte-Rôtie or Hermitage.

I’ve also recently gotten into red wines from Sancerre, which are made from Pinot Noir. Most people think of Sancerre as the home of Sauvignon Blanc, but they are making some fantastic reds there that can rival Burgundies but at much better prices.

For white wines, I love love love Saint Aubin. It’s in Burgundy and is home to beautiful Chardonnays that are rich, but also precise. I love those contrasting qualities and that you can find better bargains here than in neighboring Meursault or Puligny-Montrachet.

And if we’re talking rosé, it absolutely has to be French, preferably from Provence. 

I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.