Lettie Teague – wine editor of Food & Wine – wrote the following in regards to Joyce’s penchant for Swiss wines. His French friends were horrified at his awful taste in wine – but here is Teague weighing in:
I don’t know anyone who drinks Swiss wine. Or talks about Swiss wine. Or buys or sells Swiss wine. Swiss chocolate yes, Watches, of course. But not wine. Swiss wine is expensive and hard to find – its best quality is said to be an agreeable neutrality. So when I read that James Joyce was a big fan of Swiss wine, specifically those made in the Neuchatel region, I was taken aback. What could the author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake have found in such wines? I decided to investigate. So I bought a bottle of good Neuchatel. It was certainly a pleasant enough drink – crisp and clean and completely forgettable. Perhaps that was the secret: A great writer could be too distracted by an equally great wine.
