The Alan Kropf Interview: Drinking and Publishing
“It’s time to take fine beverage culture into the mainstream, and if we pull it off, things will get crazy…Pages and pages of numerical ratings bore the hell out of me and the rest of the world,”
Recent data about print magazines isn’t encouraging. 110 new magazines launched in the first quarter of 2009 while 95 folded. This may not seem like a statistic to look at and conclude that getting into the publishing world is the right thing to do at the moment. But the truth is, in spite of that reality, print publications are simply not going away anytime soon. For new magazine’s launched since 2008, the three categories that top the list are health/fitness, home/furnishings, and family, with eight new titles in each category. Recent launches include Best You, Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade, Purpose Driven Connection and also Alan Kropf’s fine beverage baby, Mutineer.
Drinking, while pleasurable and easy to do, isn’t all that simple to write about. Drinking, it seems, must be written about in polite and politically correct terms. It’s very sensitive to sum up a good wine or a new absinthe with an anecdote about how much fun the buzz was or what may have happened during and after it was enjoyed, no debauched details that might amuse us. Therefore the 89 points and cliched great nose must serve as sufficient, dutiful reference. This might be to be what motivated Kropf to want to publish something that intentionally strayed from those set rules, something purposeful and directly relevant to how we view our own drinking experience.
Mutineer Magazine is as fine a publication as any being published today. It is slick and smart and as a fine beverage magazine, it is totally original.
It is a magazine that is reflecting on and addressing directly the drinking sensibility. And at its heart is a publisher who apparently likes the drinking experience, very much. The millennial consumer, for whom it is intended, is seemingly embracing it. Mutineer went into national distribution not long ago and can be picked up at all U.S. Barnes and Nobles and Borders stores. Even greater expansion is forthcoming
We asked Kropf to talk about Mutineer, his challenges as a new publisher and, of course, his preferred subject…drinking.
What do you enjoy most about drinking?
I enjoy drinking like I enjoy music. Drinking provides a liquid soundtrack to whatever it is I’m doing, whether it’s a sports drink while I run, red wine with a steak-fueled meal, Champagne with beautiful women, or absinthe while sitting around a bonfire in the woods, the beverage in my hand is always a part of the experience. I also like how fine beverage is as simple or complex as you want it to be, with a whole world to explore for those who decide to explore it, which is what Mutineer Magazine is all about.
What possessed you to want to publish yet another print magazine?
I was possessed with the vision of Mutineer Magazine while working as the sommelier at the Beverly Hills Hotel, which is one of the most exclusive properties on the planet. During my time as a sommelier, I found that millennials are drawn to the world of fine beverage if given a point of entry to the culture. I’d frequently conduct tastings with my friends and their friends, and found that when I gave them the opportunity to explore new beverages, they’d become instant converts to fine beverage culture. There is nothing wrong with vodka or industrial beer, but if you drink a Cosmo or light beer every time, it’s the same as eating a hamburger for every meal, or dating a single girl for your entire life. Get out there and try new things! While the print magazine is our flagship product, we also produce a daily blog and Mutineer events to make fine beverage as accessible as possible.
Does drinking deserve to be a salacious topic and why must it always be written about so politely?
Drinking deserves to be treated like any other topic, be it sports, music, film, or politics. If you want to banter about tannins and other wine snobbery, have fun, but I prefer a sexed up, bombastic approach that is rooted in inspiration and…wait for it…FUN.. Like sex, when drinking wine or anything else starts to feel like tedious work, SOMETHING ISN’T RIGHT!
Who in history is your favorite drinker?
Hunter S. Thompson. Definitely. The guy drank Wild Turkey with breakfast, and captured the fine beverage experience with ruthless honesty and reckless beauty. For example, here is a passage from one of Thompson’s ESPN.com columns talking about Sean Penn, “He had been drinking a vile-smelling liqueur called Fernet-Branca for two days and nights, falling asleep frequently in the middle of conversations and fouling his pants when he got excited-but I sensed a sly duplicity in him, like a teenage girl acting drunker than she really is, so I gave him plenty of room.” - The Man Who Loved Sport Too Much, November 12, 2001
What do you want most from a beverage magazine?
If I had to choose one thing, it would be inspiration. Pages and pages of numerical ratings bore the hell out of me and the rest of the world, and unfortunately make up a big part of what fine beverage journalism is right now. Fine beverage is reduced to a commodity rather than the inspired, artistic creation it is. Try rating sex using a 100-point scale and see where it gets you….
How have other beverage magazines failed their readers?
Every fine beverage magazine is different. I’m a fan of several for specific reasons, but I see the opportunity for a fine beverage magazine that is the equivalent of what Rolling Stone is to music and GQ is to fashion. It’s time to take fine beverage culture into the mainstream, and if we pull it off, things will get crazy…
What do you want people to take away from a drinking/beverage magazine like Mutineer?
That fine beverages are meant to be enjoyed and explored much like music, film, and any other kind of art. Don’t be the person that eats a hamburger for every meal for the rest of your life. Be adventurous, or rather, be mutinous.
