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Proust Q&A: Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW
Born in Maine, New England, Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW moved to London after attainting a degree in English literature with dreams of becoming a playwright. While writing plays for small theatres, she took on a part-time job at a wine bar, which she went on to manage. Gaining her WSET diploma in London, she took on an on-trade sales role at Corney & Barrow, moving to Tokyo in 2002 to work as a wine buyer and educator. Becoming a Master of Wine in 2008, Perrotti-Brown now lives in Singapore with her two daughters, where she is editor-in-chief of Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate, reviewing Australian and New Zealand wines for the bimonthly wine journal.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Happiness is state of mind best achieved with friends, family, good food and plenty of good wine.
What is your greatest fear?
I’m loath to consider my greatest fear, but if I must it would be that harm might come to my daughters and that I wouldn’t be able to protect them.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Orgasmic food on rare occasions.
What is your current state of mind?
Challenged and nicely frazzled.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Determination. Then resilience. Then a sense of humor for when those don’t work.
What words or phrases do you most overuse?
I don’t really have a word or a phrase I use a whole lot but I’m trying to kick my habit of sprinkling exclamation marks around text like jimmies on ice cream.
Who or what is the greatest love of your life?
My two daughters, Mia and Scarlett.
When and where were you happiest?
Right here right now.
If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
I’d like to learn how to relax.
Which talent would you most like to have?
To be able to sing, or at least carry a tune. I have always wanted to make my own music.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Giving birth, and then having the guts to do it again.
Where would you most like to live?
Around. I’m kinda hooked on being a transient. Why commit?
What is your most treasured possession?
I don’t treasure possessions, I treasure people.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Optimism.
Who are your favourite writers?
Dostoyevsky, Samuel Beckett, Paul Bowles, Faulkner, Hemingway, Raymond Carver, Haruki Murakami, Paulo Coelho and Ian McEwan.
Who is your hero of fiction?
Ripley in Alien(s).
What is it that you most dislike?
Arrogance.
What is your greatest regret?
When I was 19, I blew my audition to get into the Royal Academy of Music in London by singing Grey Skies are Gonna Clear Up badly.
What is your motto?
Why are we waiting?
Who would be your ideal dinner party guests and what three wines would you serve?
My dinner party would have a literary leaning – I’d invite Oscar Wilde and Truman Capote, with Madonna thrown in for good measure. We would begin with a vintage Champagne that’s still young and frisky, then would move on to a well-aged Barolo and finish with a big, beefy Barossa Shiraz that would see us through till dawn.