Out to lunch with Dan Keeling
The writer, restaurateur and wine importer on his Noble Rot empire and new book Who’s Afraid of Romanée-Conti?
Dan Keeling has had not one but two dream jobs. With almost 20 years in the music industry, Keeling was one of the country’s top A&R men, responsible for developing Coldplay, Lily Allen, Athlete and many other artists in the hedonistic times of the CD-buying era, when guitars were still tolerated, expenses went unscrutinised and nobody minded the mischief that occurred after the encore. For Keeling though, music was only the start. Rather than retire to the countryside to talk about the olden days – or make cheese like Blur’s bassist Alex James – he quit music in 2013 to start a different kind of wine magazine.
Co-founded with Mark Andrew, a wine buyer he met in a shop across from the Parlophone records office, Noble Rot was everything the traditional wine press was not. This irreverent, approachable kind of publication showed its readers that wine could complement their other cultural interests, rather than be twinned with a kind of fusty red-trousered Pooterism. The name itself refers to a grey fungus cultivated on grapes to create particular wines, which spreads quickly, and tends to make everything it touches sweeter and lovelier.
As well as food, Noble Rot was full of pieces about music, art, literature and film. Contributors included film stars and rappers such as Keira Knightley and Mike D from the Beastie Boys, as well as up-and-coming vignerons. The artwork was always stylish and graphic, more Brooklyn than Bordeaux.
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