“Sod the wine, I want to suck on the writing. This man White is an instinctive writer, bloody rare to find one who actually pulls it off, as in still gets a meaning across with concision. Sharp arbitrage of speed and risk, closest thing I can think of to Cicero’s ‘motus continuum animi.’

Probably takes a drink or two to connect like that: he literally paints his senses on the page.”


DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little, Ludmila’s Broken English, Lights Out In Wonderland ... Winner: Booker prize; Whitbread prize; Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman prize; James Joyce Award from the Literary & Historical Society of University College Dublin)


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12 August 2014

JEREMY PRINGLE WALKS RIGHT ON OUT




Jeremy Pringle, a beloved friend of DRINKSTER and dear friend of many in the wine industry, died at the weekend. His parents, Merryl and Bruce, found him in his bed in his Brisbane flat. Jeremy was a very fine, crisp, accurate wine critic and the gentlest, most honest soul in the business. 

His blog, which never made him a cent, was Wine Will Eat Itself. 

 Jeremy loved the writings of Aeschylus, perhaps unfairly regarded as the father of tragedy. 

Merryl's clinging to the line “And even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

Goodnight good brother. You were a beauty. Sleep deep. 

Chris Carpenter (left) and Jeremy at lunch at the Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard on the 17th July. That was our last one, dammit ... platecam snap by Philip White
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18 comments:

Dudley said...

One of the sharpest intellects, most fragile spirits and dearest friends in my world has left the building. I will miss you deeply Jeremy.

Peace and love,

Dudley

via collins said...

Good god. He was a wonderful, passionate writer, I felt like I knew him. That's so, so damn sad.

via collins said...

That posting last week, "hiatus" resonates so very, very much now. I wish I could have met him, he was always arguing with himself over so many points, most of them regarding honesty and integrity.
He and GW had some great fun mock contretemps over the years, I cannot believe he is gone.
Please tell his family how well regarded he was Whitey, by anonymous wine-lovers all over the joint.

Sanjay Chhabra said...

Shocked to read today of Jeremy's passing. Many social media "conversations" but only met him once last year - with one of our winemakers. He greatly enjoyed the wines and wrote them up beautifully but what he enjoyed even more was his conversation with Laurent Delaunay about philosophy + french philosophers (sadly I had nothing to contribute!). As is often the way in these situations, I nearly emailed him last week as I might be in Brisbane at the end of this month and wanted to catch up. He'll be greatly missed - a voice and attitude that is needed in wine today. Condolences to his family & friends.

2LATE said...

What a disgrace + pity that Jeremy cant see what's happening on the internet tonight. Nobody gave him these cheers until now.

HellieJ said...

Watch out for the survivor's guilt and the scar tissue Phillip. I know how much Jeremy meant to you. Keep your chin up!

Anonymous said...

A tragedy. Also a great loss to the future of wine commentary and intellectual discourse. Condolences to his family and friends.
Ralph K-P

mountainstirrer said...

All I can really add to the conversation are my deep condolences to Jeremy's family and my gratitude for his many words of wisdom during the 18 months I communicated with him via his blog and email. Three people in particular have awakened my forty year infatuation with wine after a bit of a slumber and they are Jeremy, Max and you Philip. Financially the three of you have harmed me greatly by encouraging me to spend more than I should but I now know what I enjoy most in life and foresee a career change in the not too distant future. Cheers Jeremy, wish I'd met you over a glass of something interesting but it's too late now.

Peter Malcolm said...

Very sad news and a great shock. JP was a mentor to me but he didn't know it. I marvelled at his concise, precise, witty and insightful commentary. The amount of post he got through was phenomenal. A great loss to the industry but his legacy will live on. Condolences to his family and friends. Tonight's drink is for you. PM.

DRINKSTER said...

Merryl and Pastor Bruce Pringle are very grateful for the kind words you readers have offered.

There will be a service to honour Jeremy in Brisbane on Friday.

I shall post the details as soon as they come to hand.

Thanks to you all in this bad time.

Paul Starr said...

Mr Coldrey provided some details about the service over on Full Pour:

"A memorial service will be held at 2pm, Friday 15th August at Taringa Baptist Church, 36 Morrow Street, Taringa."

Hard to stop thinking about this. So many exchanges cut short.

Gav said...

I never met him in person, which only adds to my feelings of loss. He was inspiring to me, and will continue to be.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know Jeremy well but he left a lasting impression of one of the new breed of wine thinkers, with a new voice that was honest and pure of intention.

Sanjay said...

A memorial service will be held at 2pm, Friday 15th August at Taringa Baptist Church, 36 Morrow Street, Taringa.

James Hook said...

Jeremy Pringle you were the only critic who would 'get your hands dirty' and attend IPM and sustainability programs meant for those producing grapes.

You never regurgitated a press release.

I respect your attitude and ethos. No lip service given. Vale, you are already missed.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely gutted.

Every once in a while I would jump on the same thread on ‘wine will eat itself’ and discuss Boireann wine with Jeremy and others. I had a Boireann tonight and was just on his blog wondering why I couldn’t post comments.

I am now in shock, I never met Jeremy but his thoughts and attitude were just wonderful.

Condolences to family and friends he will be missed.

Hurley Day MW *****+++ said...

What nobody says is importance of Jeremy considered aginst the bullshit that now sits on top of the nationalwine conversation like a smothering dead roadkill with every fucking wine gettin 97+ points or five stars and every winery in the country being the best in the country and fucking Dan running the show and the shows it fucking sucks you keep it up whiteman or we just go into bisness together and you write them and give evetything 99 or 96 and we'll charge them a thousand bux a pop and drink fucking cider bullshit on seond thoghts we charge em five thou for every point over 90 and drink cognac and fucking RETIRE

DRINKSTER said...

Nice!