TONG: A new kind of wine magazine

Launching a magazine in difficult economic times is risky enough. Print publications in general are under pressure from the Internet, making such an exercise even more difficult. Even such venerable titles as Gourmet Magazine (around for 70 years) are closing. So it seems an inauspicious time to launch a new international wine magazine, but that is just what Flemish food and wine critic Filip Verheyden, who previously worked as a chef, food writer and cookbook publisher, has done. TONG, which means “tongue” in Flemish, is targeted at wine lovers and the wine professional.

Verheyden, who lives in Ghent, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that, even though he chose to publish his magazine in English (the international communication method, he notes, for discussing wine), he wanted a name that wasn’t English. The 48-to-56-page quarterly has no advertising, and no fixed list of contributors. Instead, international specialists who are experts on a particular wine-related subject write each issue, which is built around a central theme.

The first issue, published in March, was dedicated to Sauvignon Blanc. Issue number two, which was published in June, was about terroir, the concept that a wine can taste of a place because of site-specific factors such as soil type, drainage, local microclimate and sun exposure. The current issue focuses on how Spanish winemakers are returning to indigenous, locally grown varieties, and a wine making style focused on finesse rather than concentration.

Each issue of the magazine costs €28 and a four-issue, annual subscription is a hefty €100. Verheyden justifies the high cost by saying that TONG is unlike any other wine magazine. He compares it to a reference guide—something that you can keep for years, rather than a magazine that may be tossed immediately after reading.

The only issue of TONG that I’ve had the opportunity to read on my wine-blogging budget–issue number two about terroir, is exactly the kind of reference guide that I will keep on my bookshelves. I particularly found an article by two sociologists based at the University of Burgundy in Dijon—Serge Wolikow and Olivier Jacquet, to be interesting. The two men look at the evolution of the notion of terroir in Burgundy’s famed Côte d’Or vineyards from the 19th century to present times. Contrary to today, when terroir is a sought-after wine characteristic, the notion had a different connotation in previous times: “To speak of a terroir was to speak of a peasant wine—harsh and earthy—a definition that was to stick until the 20th century,” they explain.

TONG magazine reminds me, in its writing and design, of Edward Behr’s periodical about the best food and wine, The Art of Eating. Published since 1986 from remote, northeastern Vermont, this magazine (which also focuses each issue on a single subject) has the same non-glossy, recycled-paper look and sepia-toned, black-and-white images as TONG. At least it did when I picked up the occasional issue while shopping at Trader Joe’s or one of the many other San Francisco Bay-area food stores that I frequented while working in California’s Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. I haven’t seen it recently, but discovered, when I mentioned the resemblance between his magazine and The Art of Eating to Verheyden, that it still exists and even has its own website.

Apart from the design and quality of writing, and that the two magazines don’t accept advertising, I believe that The Art of Eating is easier, if you’ll excuse the bad pun, to digest. Along with its in-depth articles, there are also recipes; letters; wine and restaurant reviews; and addresses for exceptional farmer markets and individual growers and craftsmen, bakers, cheese makers, wineries, olive oil mills, charcutiers, chocolatiers and restaurants.

Any such opinionated, in-depth “foody” or “wine geek” publication is always going to be part pedantry—to cover the intricate details and meticulous dedication involved in producing the highest quality, traditional, natural foods and wine, and part poetry–to lift the writing out of the purely analytical realm. The Art of Eating certainly does this. This is only issue three of TONG magazine, and, admittedly, the only issue that I’ve read was on a subject matter (terroir) that might not have the human dimension that I would like to see in such a publication. Perhaps it is moving towards a more nuanced intellectual-emotional balance, as the current, Spanish wine issue’s free pages, which are accessible on the TONG website, have less of a PhD-paper quality.

Having said that, I really like this magazine for its high-quality writing, its spartan, clean design (the accompanying, well-designed website is also worth a look), and its Edward Behr-like thoughtfulness and serious, outsider attitude.

A Financial Times interview with Behr revealed that The Art of Eating has just 6,000 subscribers who pay $48 for its annual four issues. I have no idea of TONG’s subscription numbers, but in order to justify its higher cost it might need to add pages to give readers more for their money, or it might be forced to embrace a Behr tenacity that was mentioned in that FT interview: “For the next three years or longer, with each issue… we would say: ‘Shall we do one more issue?’” Behr recalled. That kept The Art of Eating going, he said…”

I hope that TONG magazine is tenacious enough to pursue its in-depth look at wine.

Tagged as: Wine