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Wine writing is a solitary endeavor often occurring in the lurid glow of a computer screen. New ideas and fresh experiences are essential to banish ever-lurking myopia and self-absorption. Traveling to wine regions, trying novel wine and food pairings, reading recently released wine books, tasting wines blind with a group, and interviewing winemakers can, taken together, sharpen the focus on wine's glorious pleasures.

Recently, however, I had the good fortune to experience another source of inspiration at the inaugural Symposium for Professional Wine Writers. Sixty scribes gathered from around the country and South America to exchange ideas and discuss improving the craft of wine and food writing generally.

The conference became a reality thanks to the tenacity and vision of veteran wine and food writer and magazine editor Antonia Allegra, who hatched the idea more than 10 years ago. She realized her dream with the support of the Napa Valley Vintner's Association and the Meadowood Resort Napa Valley, where the gathering took place.

"Americans are amazingly intimidated by wine," observed John Ash, noted wine enthusiast and author of the excellent cookbooks "From Earth to the Table: John Ash's Wine Country Cuisine" (Dutton, $33.95) and "John Ash: Cooking One-on-One Lessons from a Master Teacher" (Clarkson Potter, $37.50). He pointed out that about 12 percent of the population accounts for nearly 90 percent of wine sales.

Ash encourages a focus on quality in both food and wine. With characteristic optimism and light humor, he asked, "If you have good food and good wine, how bad can it get?"

The wine need not be expensive and showy, he said. Ash recalled enjoying inexpensive, but tasty, California reds from jugs in the late 1960s to complement California chefs' new dishes based on the delights of using fresh products and ingredients. Likewise, he advocates simple food preparations with quality ingredients.

Veteran wine writer Frank Prial of The New York Times echoed Ash's unfussy approach to wine. He noted wryly that wine writers will have done their jobs well when they put themselves out of business. Well-educated consumers should have enough confidence and knowledge to make their own wine choices. But since there are plenty of interested parties who still maintain perceptions of wine as being complicated and intimidating, he said, "wine writers should challenge the myth that wine is difficult to learn about."

For example, Prial mentioned the current debate over screwtop closures on wine bottles. Many traditionalists fixate on the nuances and minutiae of wine, such as the ritual of cork extraction. According to Prial, they are often not really interested in how the wine actually tastes. "For those of us who really like to open the bottle and get at the wine to taste it, the convenience of screwcaps makes perfect sense," he said

Rather than focusing on such debates, Prial instead urged the practice of "compelling writing that makes people want to read about wine." Since true wine writing should provide more than simple buying tips, he predicted the demise of the current fad for numerical ratings of wine in favor of well-written stories about the true characters in the wine industry.

Examples of true characters, Prial says, include Fred Franzia, owner of the Bronco Company, which offers Forest Glen and Napa Ridge wines, among others, and Mordecai "Max" Sands, founder of a family-owned wine and spirits distribution business that has grown into the current multibillion-dollar juggernaut of Constellation Brands.

When a wine writer is fortunate enough to meet such a person, Prial succinctly advised, "Keep your mouth shut, listen, and write down what they have to say."

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