Organic Wine and Food Matching

Today’s highlighted producer – Burgundy’s venerable Domaine Faiveley, founded in 1825 – is not a certified organic or biodynamic grower; but rather, a follower of sustainable la lutte raisonnée (“ the reasoned struggle”).   As with sustainable growers in the U.S., followers of la lutte raisonée may not be bound by systematic checks, but many of them farm just as organically as certified growers, each maintaining this status for their own purposes. In the case of Domaine Faively, according to director (and seventh generation vigneron ), Erwan Faiveley, it is because “when you are born in such a family you realize that you are here for a short period of time, and you realize that you don’t own your own vineyard… actually it is the vineyard that owns you.”   Domaine Faively is also highly unusual in France’s Burgundy region in that they own and farm 80% of their own vineyards (the vast majority of Burgundian producers work primarily, if not exclusively, with contracts with inde...

In Alsace, a part of France full of famous rebels – like André Ostertag, Charles Schléret, and Zind-Humbrecht’s Olivier Humbrecht – Jean-Michel Deiss (right) has played the role of absolute pariah. It’s not so much that he took the organically cultivated vineyards inherited from his grandfather, Marcel Deiss, and turned them into biodynamic farms by 1997. The domaines of Marc Kreydenweiss, Zind-Humbrecht, Ostertag and other top Alsatian vignerons are also farmed biodynamically.  More than anything, what has rubbed colleagues and local authorities the wrong way has been Deiss’ total disregard of the sanctity of singular varietal bottling; for in Alsace, the finest wines have always been bottled by the names of the great grapes of Alsace – namely, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Muscat d’Alsace. Instead, Deiss’ finest wines are bottled simply by the name of Marcel Deiss along with the names of their vineyard sources: such as the grand crus Schoenenbourg ...

Vernaccia di San Gimignano grapes It’s a shame that most visitors to Tuscany, venturing from Florence to the town of Siena, usually miss the pristinely preserved, medieval hilltop town of San Gimignano, a scant 22 miles away. Then again, San Gimignano doesn’t have Brother Moon and Sister Sun as its main attractions; and in fact, its twelfth century church, towers and piazzas hold even more sway than the wine with which the town is associated: Vernaccia di San Gimagnano. Although Vernaccia di San Gimignano is considered one of Italy’s greatest white wines (given Italy’s highest official classification as a DOCG ) – and most certainly, the greatest white wine of Tuscany – it has been all but swept away from the lexicon of American wine drinkers.  Partly because it isn’t called “Chardonnay,” and partly because it is, as a matter of fact, very un-Chard-like: lean as opposed to fat, tart as opposed to soft, unfruity as opposed to having “gobs of fruit,” and certainly neve...

Greg La Follette. Chard, schmard … if you think all California Chardonnays taste like Kendall-Jackson’s, you’re missing out on many of the world’s greatest wines, my friend.  There’s a reason why, for instance, those French judges rated Chateau Montelena’s Chardonnay better than the finest of France way back in 1976, re the in/famous Judgement of Paris (recently part-fictionalized in the film, Bottle Shock ): simply put, the Chardonnay grape excels in Californian terroirs .  California vintners have advanced viticultural and oenological light years since 1976. They’ve gone so far, so fast, in fact, that the best of them today are back to where the grape started: with more authentic clones, more sustainable vineyards in cooler climates, and barrel fermenting as naturally as possible in ways pretty much like what’s been done in France for centuries.  The biodynamically farmed Porter-Bass Vineyard. Winemakers such as Greg La Follette of Tandem Winery are highly regarde...