Paul James White

I was born in a post- prohibition Des Moines where alcohol was only sold from state owned stores. To celebrate my 18th birthday, I sauntered up to the Iowa State Liquor store and bought my first ‘legal’ bottle of wine, a Bordeaux white. It had a herd of cows on its label and, although as sour as it was lean, it made me feel very sophisticated. It also brought a smile to my face and started a lifelong love-hate affair with Sauvignon Blanc.

Born a year and a mile away from Bill Bryson, like other curious Iowans, I left to explore the world outside.

Oregon was the next stop, arriving smack dab in the middle of its revolutionary Pinot Noir Pioneer period. All that orientated me toward cool climate, high acid wines. Although I adopted Oregon’s typical ‘don’t Californicate us’ attitude to wine, nevertheless, I drank a lot of trendy Californian varietals, including Mondavi’s ground breaking Fume Blancs, Cabs and Chardonnays. The 1970s were a heady time when American wines came of age.

Moving to the United Kingdom in the 1980s, my attention turned toward a more serious study of the European 'Classics'. I lucked out, landing a doctorate slot at Oxford, and an even luckier slot captaining the University’s Blind Wine Tasting Team for several years. Learning to taste for terroir, climate and grape types from the inside out of a glass, I quickly rrealised there was no better place on earth to study wine than Oxford’s daily trade tastings, 36 college cellars and the Tasting Team. I must admit my DPhil took a couple more years to complete than it should have.

I liked the Brits because they drank wine from everywhere and were able to tell you why, in detail. Equally important, I started judging IWC around 87-88 (yearly up to 2005) and learned so much judging alongside ‘old school’ merchants and MWs. It was around then that the newest wave of New World ‘Sunshine in a Glass’ wines appeared from Down Under. Aussies first in 1986, quickly followed by mind blowing Kiwi Sauvignon. And then I judged a revelatory Rippon Pinot Noir 1991 at IWC.

Doctorate in hand, having done America and European wine, I relocated to New Zealand in 1993 chasing Central Otago Pinot Noir’s potential, also intent on checking out the whole Australasian wine scene. I was pretty much the first Yank on the ground there, managing to visit most regions repeatedly. I wrote columns for NZ’s two main newspapers and Australia’s leading wine mag. It was a fun time sharing in the discovery of what Kiwis were capable of creating. Early Oregon, all over again.

In the 2000s I shifted back toward a European focus, writing articles for World of Fine Wine, Italy’s Slow Food/Slow Wine, Portugal’s Essencia do Vinhos and other publications. Slow food was especially influential. These protest movements changed EU viticulture policy away from industrial subsidies towards small producers and tightened up organic rules that replaced proposed, heavily greenwashed, guidelines.

Since then I’ve mainly focused on little guy, underdogs, endangered grapes and wine cultures, and under known regions and producers. Talha culture is straight out of Terra Madre’s focus on reversing cultural extinction.

I realize I’ve been long winded here, but hope it illustrates the unusual path I’ve taken chasing wine around the world and the important influences that have shaped my views.

TALHA TALES is my first adventure in writing a full book. I'm proud to say it has been shortlisted for 2 book awards:

Fortnum and Mason Food and Book awards 2024 and the Gourmand Awards 2024.

Professional wine writers' reviews of Talha Tales include the following:

LM Archer in Circle of Wine Writer’s The Circular magazine:

'Talha Tales tells a quixotic tale of Portuguese wine technology lost and found. It’s also a story of one wine region’s cultural resurrection, set in the dusty, remote reaches of Alentejo….

Ultimately, Paul James White’s Talha Tales speaks less about quixotic tilting at windmills, and more about harnessing the power of a wine region – one pot at a time.'

Sarah Ahmed in World of Fine Wine magazine:

'The Doctor (of Doctor Who) is a time traveler with an insatiable appetite for adventure, as is Dr Paul James White, albeit one bound to the earth, especially fired earth... White makes no bones about the fact that he has included “lots of speculation” where he has not (yet) found supporting evidence for theories, whether his own or those of third parties (and it is clear enough where this is the case). In a topic that (in no small part thanks to White) is only recently receiving the light of day, conjecture is not only understandable but a helpful means of exploring unresolved questions for writers and winemakers alike. White hopes it will spur others on to find the definitive answers.'

Neal D. Hulkower in Oregon Wine Press:

'The reascendance of Alentejo’s ancient vinification process stands as one of the most exciting underreported events in the wine world during the past decade. As White frequently traveled to the area during its renaissance, he could chronicle the changes as they unfolded. His authoritative, yet eminently readable love story to Portugal’s clay fermentation vessel illuminates an exciting and unfamiliar wine region that should interest every adventurous wine lover eager to explore something different.'

Steven Slatcher on Winenous:

'Even as someone who was not a former historian, I think it was the background with “esoteric geeky wine and cultural stuff” I enjoyed most. I loved to hear the story of how the tradition of making wine in talha was saved from the brink of extinction, and is now starting to thrive again – I feel happier and more at home in a world where there is a place for maintaining historical traditions and diversity… but there is plenty more to get your teeth into. Paul’s enthusiasm and informal style carried me along through the story, and there is much I’d like to return to when I have more time.'

Bjarne Mouridsen’s review (translated from Danish):

'The book is divided into three main parts. First, a careful account of Talha wine both historically and in terms of production. We also hear about the culture behind it, about the production of the clay pots themselves and the finishing inside with so-called Pés. Here there is good knowledge to be gained in general about the use of amphora in wine production and specifically about talha wine in Alentejo…The second part of the book is a guide to producers of Talha wine in Alentejo – both the smaller and more craft-based ones and the region's big producers…Finally, the last part of the book, written by Jennifer Leigh Mortimer, has more of a tourist guide feel, with sections on the region's history, food culture, and somewhat typical recipes such as the bread soup Acorda and Porco Altentejana with pork and clams.'