Organic Wine and Food Matching

Meinklang grower/winemaker Angela Michlits The first time I read about Austria’s Grüner Veltliner, it meant nothing to me as a white wine grape.   I did, however, think it might make a good name for German punk rock group; banging out something like I Will Survive in German, two beats behind a messed-up ska, but in half the time it might take Robert Plant to clear his throat. Of course, that was around 1980.  It would be another ten years before I tasted my first Grüner Veltliner, and I think another ten before I could successfully convince my restaurant staffs that it was worth suggesting. Ah, but time the avenger , to quote Chrissie Hynde, and today a restaurant ain’t got that swing unless it’s serving at least one good Grüner by the glass. Why? Because as we wine lovers get that thang called sophistication we realize that wines with a real edge (and few wines are as crazy tart and expressive as Austrian Grüner) are a lot more interesting than soft, fluffy, predictable w...

  By most accounts, certified organic foods now make up about 5% of supermarket sales, and are an $18 billion industry. But why drink organic wines? Like consumers, wine growers have been moving towards organic farming for over a decade for health and environmental concerns, and because it makes sense to farm sustainably for the benefit of future generations and vineyard productivity.  Notwithstanding the somewhat misguided, prevalent consumer view that organic as well as biodynamic wines represent “fringe” elements of the wine production industry, the number of organic producers around the world continues to grow.  Why? For the same reasons why all-time classics like Domaine Tempier in Bandol, Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace, Beaucastel in the Rhône, Mas de Daumas Gassac in the Languedoc, and Domaine del la Romanée-Conti in Burgundy have long followed these practices: because it produces better wine in both the short term and the long.  So if anything, producers such ...

Alois Lageder's biodynamically farmed Alto Adige vineyards Biodynamically grown wine, according to Italy’s Alois Lageder, yields “the purest possible expression of terroir .” And speaking like a true terroirist , he contends that the future of wine “can’t be seen to lie in still more technology,” but must “rely on a true sensibility to the laws of nature.” For many years, among most Italian winemakers, Lageder was known for the restrained, finely chiseled qualities of his wines. For instance, whereas most of Italy’s Pinot Grigios are very soft, easy, fruity wines, Lageder’s are always lean, linear, minerally and unrepentantly sharp. Like comparing a well matured, female, long distance Alpine bicyclist with a softer skinned teenage girl with baby fat and allergy to work and manners. Both are perfectly fine, of course; just one more serious than the other. Clemens and Alois Lageder It is this combination of constraint and pent-up terroir that one definitely tastes in the 2...

The lavender fields at  Ceàgo Vinegarden Despite what that fellow Miles might have said about it, there is still a very good reason why you should drink ultra-premium California Merlot, which is the same reason why some of the state’s most prestigious winemakers – like Bruce Neyers and Selene’s Mia Klein – still specialize in the grape: It makes wine that can enthrall the senses the way Keira Knightley eats up a camera. Resistance is futile. Here’s another reason: The 2006 Ceàgo Camp Masut Merlot (about $25) is biodynamically grown, on top of being totally delicious; its classic red berry/black cherry Merlot aromas enhanced by pretty, floral, violet-like perfumes; and on the palate, round fleshy, finely polished textures punctuated by the luscious berry flavors and buoyed by soft yet sturdy tannins.  Textbook. Ceàgo, as it was, was founded by Jim Fetzer, former president of the same Fetzer Vineyards that was among the pioneers of organic grape growing in California...

Petite Sirah. Here on this historic day, I’m thinking about… John Wayne.   How true was John Wayne? He not only played plain spoken, hard drinkin’ sunuvaguns, by all reports he was one. Quoted in the late ‘60s, “I drink for comradeship, and when I drink for comradeship I don’t bother to count.” Heck, here’s a guy who was diagnosed with lung cancer in ’64, had his entire left lung secretly removed, then commenced to working, chewing tobacco and smoking cigars until a stomach cancer finally took him down in ’79. No matter what you think of his politics, that was some true grit . Giants of a sort: John Parducci and the Duke. So what’s up with this 2005 Parducci True Grit Mendocino Old Vine Petite Sirah (about $25), made by owners Mendocino Wine Company – a partnership headed up by Tom Thornhill and former Fetzer winemaker Paul Dolan that is also committed to sustainable grape growing, 100% green power (from solar and wind sources) and earth-friendly pac...

  There is a memorable story in Cervantes’ Don Quixote , told by the faithful Sancho Panza, of the great wine judges in his lineage; particularly, two on his father’s side who were once challenged to identify a wine from a barrel.  The first one brought the wine to the tip of his tongue, and declared the flavor of iron. The second one just needed to pass it under his nose before declaring a stronger flavor of cordovan leather. The owner of the wine protested, however, saying his wine was perfectly clean, with no trace of iron or leather.  Days later, though, after the wine was sold and the barrel emptied, cellarers found a small iron key at the bottom of the barrel, hanging by a thong of leather. The story of these men from La Mancha took place at the start of the 1600s, during the same period of time Cervantes wrote his epic tale. Sometimes we forget how old the fine arts – like literature, wine judging, and great winemaking – really are. There are written records fro...

Owner/grower Marilena Barbera One of winemaker Randall Grahm’s favorite ways of referring to the under-appreciated wine grapes of the world is as ugly ducklings . Or, if you prefer a word of the day:  heterodoxical – unorthodox to the point of making a point. In respect to wines: appreciation of lesser known grapes that challenge the orthodoxy of the current hierarchy (re Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay as the “king” and “queen” of wines respectively, with well knowns like Pinot noir, Merlot and Riesling heading up the rest of the aristocracy). Italy’s deeply pigmented, black skinned Nero d’Avola is one of those grapes. Despite being the most widely planted red wine grape in its native Sicily, there was a time, in the 1980s, when Nero d’Avola seemed headed towards demise. Some Sicilians seemed more interested in transplanting to non-native Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.   But thank goodness for the rising tide of heterodoxy, as during the p...