Organic Wine and Food Matching

  Tres Sabores in Napa Valley's Rutherford AVA. I spent more time with Julie Johnson at her CCOF certified Tres Sabores than any other single winemaker during a recent three week swing through the West Coast this past spring. Why? Admittedly, because I can drink her wines all day or night, everyday. Also, because everything she does, as a grower and winemaker, just seems to make sense.  My vinous sensibility is simpático with Tres Sabores. Johnson farms a 32 year-old vineyard in the heart of the Napa Valley’s famed Rutherford AVA ; originally planted to Zinfandel (making killer reds), but to which she added two acres of Cabernet Sauvignon (yielding no more than a couple hundred cases a year) after first acquiring the property in 1987.  Julie Johnson. Vinolust. As a former partner at Frog’s Leap, her instincts were, and still are, organic, but for all the right reasons: this vineyard is also her home, her refuge, her sustenance, and an extension of herself – every...

Pinot gris, a.k.a., Pinot grigio In Italy the Pinot gris grape is called Pinot Grigio, and there it yields delightfully fresh, easy drinking dry white wines, in boatloads of quantity. As catchy, ubiquitous, or maybe annoying, as ABBA. In France’s Alsace region, the grape is called Pinot Gris (yes, it’s a gris or “gray” mutation of the Pinot Noir grape), and there it is turned into fuller, softer, and considerably more viscous, minerally and aromatic white wines than that of Italy. Often as deep, multi-faceted, and crescendoing as, say, Antonin Dvorák. In Oregon – probably the only other place on earth where the reddish-gray skinned Pinot is grown with import – the resulting white wines are usually as full as that of Alsace, as lively and tart edged as Italy’s, yet with its own, unique indentations on the grape profile. As bright, fresh, full and fragrant as, say, the Lovin’ Spoonful's You and Me and Rain on the Roof .   King Estate. Case in point: the 2007 King Esta...

Rob Sinskey. San Francisco Chronicle. When Biodynamic® guru Alan York began consulting with winegrower/proprietor Rob Sinskey of Robert Sinskey Vineyards (a.k.a. RSV), the first thing he advised was to “get over the voodoo doo-doo” and find the “practical ways to get it done.”  “I was never that heavy into Rudolph Steiner’s spiritual philosophy anyway,” confesses Sinskey, “but what makes sense are the steps that give your vineyard a distinctive personality… if it means planting according to the rhythms of the earth and employing sheep herders to mow the grass, so be it.”  Although Biodynamic® certification didn’t come to RSV until 2007, the original “tipping point” for Sinskey goes back to1990; when he observed one of his Chardonnay blocks in Carneros shutting down and phylloxera strangling the vines. “At that time we were spraying and constantly sterilizing the soil to the point which it had basically become a ‘dead zone,’ showing little sign of life, almost no birds o...

Block House Vineyard, the Pelissa family's source of their Elizabeth ROSE My favorite wine in the world (by France’s Domaine Tempier) happens to be pink; and I’ll tell you why (whether you want to know or not): It has as much of a stony dryness and deep intensity of flavor as any red wine, but is as soft, round and fragrant as any good, chilled white wines. The best of all possible worlds, if you ask me. But if you harbor hang-ups about pink or rosé colored wines, my advice to you is: Get over it.  Because if not, you’re likely to miss out on some of the finest wines in the world. So it was with considerable joy that I was recently turned on another such wine: the 2007 Elizabeth ROSE Pinot Noir Rosé (about $20); vinified 100% from Pinot noir grapes, from a Yountville, Napa Valley vineyard cultivated in 100% certified organic fashion.  You’ve heard of the possibility of life being a bowl of cherries? This rosé makes life a bushel of strawberries, as f...