Organic Wine and Food Matching

Pierre Morey in Meursault. For Pierre Morey, the former (and legendary) winemaker of Domaine Leflaive, and proprietor of his own Domaine Pierre Morey in Burgundy, France, farming his vineyards is a matter of stewardship; turning over property from generation to another at a peak of health and productivity. Hence, since 1997, Domaine Pierre Morey has been certified by Biodyvin, the biodynamic syndicate presiding over farms in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain. Morey is particularly known for his white wines, with family holdings in Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet in Burgundy's  C ô te de Beaune.  You may pay, for instance, about $94 (suggested retail) for a bottle of 2006 Pierre Morey Meursault, but what you get is not a wham-bam wine stuffed with "gobs" of sweet Chardonnay sensations, but rather a wine of uncommonly delicate, refined balance and texture; everything according to a moderately weighted scale to express fresh, honeyed apples, n...

  Gemtree owner/growers Melissa Buttery and Mike Brown. While organic or biodynamic wines coming out of Australia have been far and between, the movement does exist Down Under; and certification agencies such as Australian Certified Organic (ACO ), Demeter in Australia’s Bio-Dynamic Research Institute (BDRI), and National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia (NASAA) have recently stepped up activities, with a number of leading producers (such as Henschke, Burge Family, Elderton, Noon, Wirra Wirra and M. Chapoutier Australia) making the transition to chemical-free, sustainable grape growing as we speak. In the meantime, a perfectly delicious, biodynamically grown Australian red – the 2007 Gemtree Tadpole Shiraz (about $16) – has been popping up in markets across the U.S., and it has all the deep, black, bouncy, lush fruitiness Shiraz lovers look for in their reds; including an intense nose, suggesting raspberry liqueur, boysenberry jam and a veneer of vanillin...

Biodynamically cultivated soil at the estate of Jean-Baptiste Adam Is Riesling the single best wine for food? Not if you’re a carnivore, I suppose. But who eats red meat morning, noon and night? For many of the foods we do love to eat – be it variations of salads in vinaigrettes, wraps, sushi, fish or chicken in salsas, and Asian dishes of all cultures with pronounced sweet, sour, salty and spicy sensations – you have to admit that a typically light, buoyant, refreshingly fruity Riesling does a better job of mixing and matching than, say, most heavy whites like Chardonnay, or heavy reds like Merlot. If you’re thinking that “fruity” also means sweet – stop, stop, stop. There are plenty of Rieslings from around the world that are just as dry, or dryer, than most Chardonnays or Sauvignon Blancs. Yet still with that light, crisp, zesty taste that freshens, rather than bludgeons, the palate. And if, to you, Riesling is just not hip, I have this to say: grow up. Sophisticated p...

  Argentine  Torrontés So let me get this straight... You put de lime in de coconut, you drank ‘em bot’ up... At least that’s what goes on in my mind when I pop a bottle of Argentina’s 2008 Pircas Negras Torrontés (about $10); a luscious white wine made from a grape originally indigenous to Galicia in Spain, but which has evolved as Argentina’s signature, and most popular, white. ¿ Por qué no para ti ? The nice thing about the Pircas Negras is that it starts off amazingly tropical – suggestions of exotic flowers, ripe papaya and, for all the world, avocado and cream – in the nose, and off-dry (just whispers of sweetness) on the palate.   Once past the first sip, slightly lemony, zesty qualities balance out the fruitiness, and the wine finishes pretty much dry, the crisp acidity lightening the easy, tropical sensations. If this weren’t a wine, I’d be tempted to top it with a wedge of pin ea pple, plastic monkey or umbrella. B e s ides being certified or...