"Wine Writer" Frank Schoonmaker Hand Signed FDC Dated 1958 For Sale

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

---

"Wine Writer" Frank Schoonmaker Hand Signed FDC Dated 1958:
$139.99

Up for sale "Wine Writer" Frank Schoonmaker Hand Signed First Day Cover Dated 1958. 

ES-4251E

Frank Musselman Schoonmaker (August

20, 1905 – January 11, 1976) was an American travel guide writer, wine writer and wine merchant. He was born in Spearfish, South Dakota,

and attended two years at Princeton University,

after which he dropped out of in 1925 to live and travel in Europe. He wrote

two travel guides, Through Europe on Two Dollars a Day and Come

with me to France, and, with the approaching end of Prohibition in the United

States, researched and wrote a series of articles for The New Yorker. While involved in this latter project

he met Raymond

Baudoin, the editor of the La Revue du vin de France,

who took him under his wing and taught him about wine, touring the

various wine regions of France. Schoonmaker

also collaborated in the wine trade with Alexis Lichine, another wine writer, and the pair was

considered the two most influential wine writers in the US for several decades. In

January 1976, Frank Schoonmaker died at his home at 50 East 72nd Street in New

York City. Schoonmaker's importance was both as a writer, the author of

the Complete Wine Book (1934) and later the classic Frank

Schoonmaker's Encyclopedia of Wine, and as a wine importer, who found

American markets especially for small scale growers in Burgundy such as Domaine Ponsot in Morey St Denis and Together with Baudoin, Schoonmaker played a seminal

role in creating a market for wines bottled by the grower/winemaker rather than

by a negotiant' – a merchant/shipper. He started "Frank

Schoonmaker Selections" in 1936 in New York City. In 1972 The 'Frank

Schoonmaker Selections' company was purchased by a division of the Souverain wine conglomerate. It was owned by Pillsbury of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In

1974 the Souverain wineries and the Frank Schoonmaker Import wine business were

sold to St. Helena's Freemark Abbey wine group, and was renamed Rutherford

Hill Winery. The same year a group of 179 grape growers bought the Alexander Valley Souverain

facility. It has since become the property of Francis Ford Coppola. The

Frank Schoonmaker Selections division was liquidated in 1975. As a consultant to such Californian

wineries as Wente and Almaden, Schoonmaker introduced the idea of labeling wines

using varietal names (such as Pinot noir, Chardonnay, or Riesling) rather than semi-generic names borrowed from European regions

("Burgundy", "Chablis", "Rhine", etc.). Schoonmaker

claimed that "the more specific the name, the better the

wine". While Schoonmaker was promoting the practice in

California already around 1940, it did not become truly widespread until the

late 1960s and early 1970s. Robert Mondavi was one of the first to label the majority

of his wines by varietal names and was tireless in promoting the practice. This

has become the standard in New World wine and some European producers are adopting

the practice because of consumer demand.

"Wine Writer" Frank Schoonmaker Signed FDC Dated 1958

$139.99

"Varietal Wine Labeling" Alexis Lichine Signed FDC Dated 1952

$69.99

Wine writer Malcolm Gluck - Vintage Photograph 2030160

$13.90

Wine writer Bengt Frithiofsson together with Be... - Vintage Photograph 1087575

$13.90

Hugh Johnson wine writer. - Vintage Photograph 988093

$13.90

Hugh Johnson, wine writer - Vintage Photograph 988094

$13.90