Posted
by Paul Howard
on Jun 29, 2008
in Reviews
The Mâconnais is perhaps the birthplace of the Chardonnay grape. These low rolling hills are underpinned with Jurassic Limestone and support a wide range of mixed agriculture as well as vines. You’ll see woods, cherry orchards and soft fruit, market gardens, goats and the ubiquitous white Charolais cattle chewing quietly in river meadows.
The vineyards grow Gamay and Pinot Noir for reds, but today Chardonnay is predominant. Sadly the Mâconnais has long been the least ambitious part of Burgundy, dominated by the huge co-ops founded in the 1920’s making over-cropped and frequently ordinary wines. As a result, the image of Mâconnais is poor, with perhaps only the higher quality appellations based around the twin escarpments of Vergisson and Solutré (such as Pouilly-Fuissé) having a better reputation.
However, thanks to luminaries like Jean Thévenet, the best producers of the Mâconnais are now making wines to rival the great whites of the Cote de Beaune farther north. But this is a quiet revolution and there is still great value to be found.
At this individual producer level the Mâconnais is now one of the most exciting places in Burgundy, achieving the classic potential of Chardonnay on Limestone with stunning terroir-driven wines. There are illustrious Cote d’Or estates like Lafon and Leflaive seeking new horizons in this area where land prices are much cheaper. Others have settled in the region, like Olivier Merlin from Charolais or Jean-Marie Guffens from Belgium. Some are ambitious locals not content to make ordinary wines or sell grapes to the co-op’s, like the Bret Brothers, Saumaize-Michelin or Guillemot-Michel. Most are organic and many go further and are Biodynamic.
There is a group of sixteen winegrowers called ‘les Artisans Vignerons de Bourgogne du Sud’. Here’s their manifesto: “Now, with the standardisation of taste, the worldwide standardisation of Chardonnay, the systematic destruction of the soil in intensive and mindless agricultural practices, we are raising a timid voice to defend our liberty to be different, to offer a real diversity of wines faithful to their terroir. We hope that others will join us in this struggle.”
All owe a huge debt to Jean Thévenet, Chardonnay’s master, magician and maverick. Naturally, he is a member.
Situated in the village of Quintaine, just north of Mâcon on the west bank of the mighty river Saône, the Thévenet operation comprises three domaines that all run along the same lines:
Domaine de la Bongran. This flagship 9 ha estate in Quintaine has Thévenet family records dating back to 1439. It was originally known as bon gran, meaning good (wood) grain – as there were barrel makers (tonneliers) in the family ancestry.
Domaine de Roally. This micro-estate of just 3.5 ha is run by Jean’s son, Gautier. It was acquired from Henri Goyard when he retired in 2000, a winegrower that shared a similar outlook to Thévenet, so his traditions are being maintained here.
Domaine Emilian Gillet. This Domaine is named after Jean Thevenet’s great-great grandfather and is rented by Jean and Gauthier. There are 2 ha in Clessé to the south and a further 3.5 ha in Viré, to the north of Quintaine.
Jean Thévenet is in his early 60’s, an impish man that exudes good humour. His hands are calloused from years of tending vines and his mind sharp and wise. He has been involved on the estate since commencing work with his father back in 1961, but he made his first vintage in 1972.
We arrive at the Domaine same time as a local furniture repairer and are immediately treated to example that illustrates Thévenet’s patience and attention to detail. After a warm greeting for all of us, Thévenet retrieves a battered and clearly well-loved wooden chair from his office. The chair is handled lovingly and over the next 30 minutes the chair is earnestly discussed with the local man and the work required explained, revised and finally agreed upon in minute detail. Expressing himself satisfied, Thévenet returns to us with a big grin, “now it’s time for my wines, but first, the vines.” I’m left wondering. If an old chair gets this amount attention, what about his wines?
The Bongran vineyard contains shallow marl-like soils formed from limestone. These soils found at the bottom of the slopes of the low Quintaine hills are perfect for Chardonnay because they are derived from Oxfordian and Superior Bathonian Limestones (also good rock for building and sculpture). Further up the slopes the underlying rock changes to Inferior Bathonian, and here there are no vines. Jean describes those soils as “best for goats”.
There is mechanisation in the vineyards, for example, ploughing and weeding, but all the key operations including the harvest are by hand. Herbicides and pesticides have never been used on this land. Organic methods are used throughout, but not Biodynamics, which is “too new age for me.” No treatments are used apart from bouillie bordelaise against fungal diseases. The 55 year old vines are trained with a single cane in the traditional Taille a queue du Mâconnais.
Total belief in natural winemaking means that Thévenet works with nature and what the year brings. He is inspired by and passionate about the traditions passed down through his long family history. For example his father wrote and lectured on the subject of the harvests at Clessé in the Nineteenth Century, which he knows off by heart.
Thévenet looks for ripeness in the grapes and will often leave harvesting for as long as possible deep into the autumn, but is most concerned with equilibrium. “I never chaptalise and I want to preserve sufficient acidity to give an impression of freshness – but balance is all”.
Low yields, that mantra of quality winemaking, is a given here. “I like 10-12 small bunches per vine, small grapes with a high skin/juice ratio.” Yields are 30-35 hl/ha for the dry wines. The norm in these parts would still be more like 80-90 hl/ha!
Thévenet makes three different Chardonnay cuvées at Domaine Bongran, each one at a different level of grape ripeness:
Cuvée Tradition is in the traditional dry yet rich white burgundy style
Cuvée Levroutée is again dry but includes an element of botrytis and a hint of residual sugar
Cuvée Botrytisée, a sweet wine made from ultra-ripe grapes with a high incidence of botrytis affected fruit.
He delights in making wines from grapes affected by Noble Rot (Botrytis Cinerea) if and when this occurs, and indeed he encourages it by picking as late as possible and far later than is usual. This is very rare in Burgundy but the villages of Quintaine, Viré and Clessé run parallel to the river Saône and the mists that rise from the river in autumn provide the conditions for Botrytis to flourish, though its incidence varies considerably from year to year.
Because sweet Botrytised Chardonnay is almost entirely confined to Bongran (and just one or two others like Guillemot-Michel) those wines have troubled the INAO authorities for years as there simply is no Appellation that accommodates the style. The wines are therefore labelled with the humble description Mâcon-Villages and for years the authorities have dithered and made rulings against them based on the fact that the wines are not typical of the region. If there was a Vin de Pays here no doubt that would be applied.
Cynics might say that INAO prefer to embrace the norm of the distinctly ordinary. It is still possible that the Viré-Clessé appellation (itself now 10 years old) will be granted – but no one knows when. Thévenet is diplomatic, though his tongue is partially in his cheek and his eyes twinkle when he says; “it may seem very bureaucratic but the authorities are right to consider this matter most carefully, if this style is to be allowed we must ensure the highest standards”. He also is complimentary about the head of INAO, René Renou, “He owns a property in Bonnezeau (in the Loire) so I’m sure he understands sweet wines and Botrytis”. Thévenet knows about sweet botrytised wines too, and was Chairman of Sapros (the Botrytis wine club), featuring 13 notable estates from the Loire, Alsace and Sauternes.
The winery is relatively new, built in 1989. It is a winner of design awards but still employs some very traditional techniques. He shows us an ancient basket press kept in an outside courtyard. ”Modern pneumatic presses are ok, but for me you can’t beat the traditional press as used in Champagne”. It gives the best juice although, as with many of Thevenet’s techniques, using it is painstakingly slow.
After the juice has settled naturally, it is fermented at low temperatures that require very long and slow ferments. Fermentations can last between 6 months and 2 years! Only naturally occurring wild yeasts are used, found on the grapes or in the winery, and the vessels employed are either stainless steel Inox or ancient oak tuns that impart no oak flavours.
The wines are never released until Thévenet believes they are ready. Given the long fermentation and maturation times before bottling, the latest vintages available from Bongran, Gillet or Roally are likely to be several years older than from compatriots. The following wines were tasted with Jean Thévenet over a couple of hours. Indicative cellar-door prices shown.
Domaine de Roally, Viré-Clessé 2005. 13.5%
Very rich dry white wine, elegance and exotic, fruits densely textured. Not high acidity but “sufficient for balance”. Ready now, delicious drinking over the next five or so years. Bright, fresh style and lots of minerals. Mini-Bongran, great value.
Domaine Emilian Gillet, Viré-Clessé 2003. 13.5%
Tauter and more focused, a leaner and fresher white wine with more acidity. Given that this is from the super-hot 2003 vintage where plenty of other winemakers produced wines with low acidity, flabby alcohol and burnt flavours, the style and success of this wine is amazing. Thévenet explains, “the 2003 harvest on August 22nd was the earliest since 1822. I don’t perform leaf plucking or green harvest in the summer, I’m happy with my low yields and don’t need the grapes in full sun for good ripening, the leaves shade them. Look at a beach on a hot day, the clever sunbathers are shaded by their parasols. They enjoy the sun and they tan but they don’t burn. The leaves are my natural parasols”.
Domaine de la Bongran, Cuvée Tradition EJ Thévenet. Viré-Clessé, 2003 14%
Bongran’s dry wine, dedicated to his father Emile. An absolute classic, winemaking this clever means you can disregard any qualms about the qualities and charms of this vintage. Thévenet adds, “yes, low acidity can be found in inferior wines from this vintage and perhaps some winemakers thought about adding acid, (which is illegal). There’s plenty of good natural acidity in my grapes and in this wine”. Delicious minerality, big and broad and creamy, again that impression of acidity without tartness or sharpness, perfectly balanced with alcohol. Grapefruit, peach and pineapple flavours, very long and satisfying. Hints of orange peel – tiniest bit of botrytis? This will develop further over the next five years and will easily last another ten.
Domaine de la Bongran, Cuvée Levroutée, Mâcon-Villages 1999. 14%
The first wine that clearly show botrytis flavours, but vinified to dryness rather than left sweet. “Tres Mur” says Jean. Yes, very soft and subtle, a dry white with just a small percentage of noble rot that adds complexity and a unique character. “We made a special selection in the vines during the harvest”, he says. There are botrytis tones of orange peel and honey, exotic tropical fruit like pineapple and kiwi and finally some delicious hazelnut brought on by bottle age. The palate also has a wonderful flavour hard to pin down. “Truffles in butter”, says Jean, nailing it instantly. Just a hint of residual sugar, a stunning and unusual wine with perhaps another 10 or 15 years ahead, made in only small quantities.
Domaine de la Bongran, Cuvée Botrytisée, Mâcon-Villages 2001, 13.5%
The ultimate Bongran wine and a fine way to finish. 2001 was a year when a larger part of the harvest was affected by noble rot. This “Grand poirriture” allowed Thévenet to produce this deliciously dense sweet wine. All the botrytis hallmarks are here; voluptuous intensity and a complex array of flavours including that Truffle flavour that lasts minutes. Evolves and opens up in the glass over 30 minutes. Medium sweet, it is perfectly balanced by the acidity. Then Thévenet asks, “Ok then so how many grams of residual sugar?” There’s such weightless balance with the acidity it’s hard to tell. “Eighty”. With minute quantities made, it’s not cheap. But if there is a Montrachet of the Mâconnais, this it.
Conclusions
Chardonnay isn’t known for its affinity with botrytis, and certainly not in Burgundy! The more usual French suspects are Chenin Blanc in the Loire or Sémillon from Bordeaux. Someone needs to rewrite those textbooks. Think you know Chardonnay? Think again. Those wanting to experience the excitement of the Mâconnais should start here.
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Posted
by Adam Morganstern
on Jun 23, 2008
in Features
Charles Finny, owner of Kawarau Estate in New Zealand, was visiting New York this week and we got the chance to spend some time with him at Candle 79 Restaurant. Also joining us were Leigh Fredrickson and Steven Frenkel of Organic Vintages, who are distributors of organic and biodynamic wines in the tri-state area.
I first met Charles, and his wife Wendy, during a trip to New Zealand two years ago. I was roaming the south island with no set schedule and they were gracious enough to have me over on Christmas Day to taste wines and see the vineyards. Outside of their vineyard, both are active in the political arena. Charles is the CEO of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce and Wendy serves on the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Over some great Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noirs from Kawarau Estate, Charles filled us in on the latest news. Kawarau has grown from producing 2000 cases a year to 5000, and is likely to double again soon. Part of his trip is to open new markets for his wine in New York, Atlanta and Texas. One of the problems of selling his wine in the United States is he needs two different government agencies to sign off on each label; each which can take up to six months. Another argument for a global standard for organic certification.
There is also a new organization of organic wine growers of New Zealand, of which James Milton, of Milton Vineyards, is President and Charles is Vice President. Charles said there was already an informal organization in place, where organic wine makers could go to each other for help and advice. When the Green Party received some influence from the latest elections, they formed an official group to take advantage of research funds for organic winemaking. There are 16 fully certified organic wine members, and another 16 wineries who are in transition.
Visit Kawarau Estate online at www.kawarauestate.co.nz.
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Posted
by Jonathan Russo
on Jun 23, 2008
in Features
Summer has arrived on our island in the Mid-Atlantic. All at once it is warm enough for houseguests, sailing and white wine. I wanted to try some whites from organic wine pioneer importer Paul Chartrand. Fortunately, I had a built-in tasting panel, as my longtime friend Erica Cantley was visiting (with her new husband Tom). Erica has been in the restaurant and wine trade as a maitre d’ with Daniel Boulud, a wine tour guide in Italy with bicycle tours of Tuscany and Umbria, a food writer in New York, and now as a restaurant consultant in Philadelphia. Years ago we went on a food and wine walk with her in the Umbrian hill town of Spoleto, and the chorus of shopkeepers who called out her name con gusto “L’Erica” still rings in my ears.
Our other guest taster was OWJ writer Meryl Rosofsky. This was a celebration for Meryl as she just finished her Masters in Food Studies from NYU and can now concentrate on writing full time. Meryl presented a paper in New Orleans about the role of food in the recovery efforts after Katrina. Like Erica, she has led wine tours by bicycle in Italy and her fluency in both French and Italian allows her to interact with the world’s great wine personages in their lingua franca.
The last taster was my wife Deborah, who has a very critical palette. She tends not to romanticize food and wine and cuts to the true chase of tastes and flavors as she experiences them.
Our first toast to an organic, ethical and healthy summer was a Prosecco, Perlage Riva Moretta. This is a single vineyard Prosecco from the Nardi family of Valdobbiadene, a DOC area in the Veneto region of Italy. The family has been growing grapes since before 1900 but they went fully organic in the early 1980’s. We tasted a bottle of the 2007 release. It retails for around $17.
Publisher: This is creamy and smooth Prosecco. The mouth feel of the wine is more like a still wine with ultra fine carbonation rather than a bubbles-first Prosecco. The fruit came through with notes of apple and lemon, the latter taste giving it a very refreshing quality. Lots of minerals adds to the smooth finish. Well chilled this would drink very well with a soft cheese or crudite as a summer aperitif or after dinner treat.
Meryl: Toasty, pleasing aroma. Not a lot of initial bubbles and low effervescence. A little sweet, well balanced however with enough acidity to complement food. Nice overall, but not my favorite Valdobbiadene Prosecco.
Erica: Well balanced and dry, almost chalky. Good acid and creamy bubbles but they die fast. Notes of grapefruit. Would drink well with misto fritto on a summer night.
Deborah: A bit overly creamy initially, a bit sweet with minimal bubbles. Would go well as an after dinner drink where its sweetness would be an asset.
Next into the glass was a 2006 Viognier from the Provencial village of Bonnieux in the Luberon region of Vaucluse, on the northern edge of Provence. Built on the ruins of a Roman Villa, Chateau La Canorgue practices organic and biodynamic farming. Syrah, Mourvedre and Carignan are the red grapes grown on the estate and Viognier and Chardonnay are the whites. All the Viognier are hand picked, fermented, and aged “sur lie” on the yeasts. We drank this white with our salad course. Retails for around $17.
Publisher: Very fruity and clean, crisp flavor of ripe peach. A hard smooth finish. Leaves lots of the fruit on the tongue. Plenty of acid keeps it fresh and interesting. A great summer wine to go with salads or seafood.
Meryl: Super clean and elegant. A delicious wine. Would pair beautifully with fish and seafood. Stands up to food without overpowering it. Just lovely.
Erica: Medium bodied and well balanced, good acid notes of candied citron and gentle herbs.
Deborah: Delicious, and full bodied. Easy to drink. Understated and refrains from making bold statements, would go well with a wide variety of foods
The last pour was a popular favorite for a summer white, a 2007 Pinot Grigio from the Veneto. This one of course from organically grown grapes. Estate bottled by Perlage in Soligo, Italy. Retails for around $14. We drank this with a seafood pasta in a tomato herb sauce.
Publisher: True Terroir, not your boring mass-produced Pinot Grigio. Good mineralization and complex fruit make this very tasty and refreshing. Little aftertaste or lingering deep flavors.
Meryl: Light and lovely, crisp and refreshing. Food friendly. Not a ton of flavors but a little more character than your typical Pinot Grigio. Good acidity.
Erica: Lemony acid with a slightly nutty aftertaste. Easy to enjoy with light food.
Deborah: High mineral content with interesting flavors, more fun than most Pinot Grigios. Complemented our seafood pasta nicely.
So it went, a summer night of drinking the delicious handiwork of dedicated organic and biodynamic growers, vintners, importers and retailers. A sustainable thank you to all involved.
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Posted
by Adam Morganstern
on Jun 16, 2008
in Letters
I was president of the California Certified Organic Farmers for 7 years, the oldest and largest certifying body, and helped formulate the original USDA rules for organic. I wasn’t a proponent of the USDA taking over organic standards. As an organic farmer from the 70s, we never had a lot of cooperation from the government. Later, we had to go along with the consensus. And when we were making the wine rule, we had to look at it from the whole perspective, not just wine.
As president of the CCOF, I ran a survey to see who bought organic food. It was mostly women, who were well educated with a good income. They were happy to pay an additional 30%, but if they were paying it, it had better be organic. So if you were lenient on this rule then anyone who was making any food could say “I just want to add this one preservative.” After all, organic bread doesn’t last as long. But I would be outraged; as an organic consumer, not just as a farmer.
So the same standard had to be applied to wine. You can’t have anything synthetic and call it organic.
There was no “Made with Organic Grapes” exception in the original law. Sulfur dioxide was outlawed in any form. Then, a hush-hush agreement between California and Kentucky senators created this category. It was piggybacked onto a bill about senior prescriptions.
As it turns out, I think that’s a fair label, and I’m extremely pleased with both categories. I’m not an anti-sulfite person. I make wines without them because in my mission statement we just wanted to be 100% organic. I wish I could put “100% organic” on my label, but I can’t because I use a strain of yeasts from France, and they are not certified. In fact, there are no certified organic yeasts.
Some people are confused by the 95% rule with organic products. It only applies when you can’t find a certified organic source of a natural ingredient you need. For example, you want to make a granola bar with saffron, but no one is growing organic saffron. It does not mean you can use 5% synthetic ingredients. If you can source it, then you have to buy it. You also have to show documentation when you cannot source it.
Organic wine gets a bad wrap; some of the early organic wines weren’t that good. I say there isn’t a person out there who can say every conventional wine they’ve ever had is great. At one time the largest winery, Gallo, had the reputation of making the worst wine. 1 out of every 3 bottles sold was a cheap bottle of Gallo.
When I first tried to make wines without sulfites, I went to UC Davis and others for advice. 99% of the response was “why are you trying to buck the system, you dirty hippy?” The 1% that was sympathetic said they didn’t know how to help me. So I admit, my first wines weren’t perfect. I had to wait a whole year to learn. It wasn’t like beer, where I could make another batch in two weeks. So we stuck with it and learned.
Women used to say they got major headaches from wine. I said “try mine.” That’s what kept us afloat. Now things are different. I’m working with a lab and making something without a preservative. I’m proud of my wines. I did it myself without anyone helping me.
It’s a process of weeding out different mistakes. All my tanks are temperature controlled now. I just won two awards in international competitions. We’re getting there. We’re making a $13 bottle of wine that’s damn good and organic. I respect people who have the “Made with Organic Grapes” label; sometimes I feel we don’t get the respect back. The work we did to set it up and say there is such a thing as an organic wine.
Any wine with sulfites over 10 parts per million naturally still cannot be labeled organic. There was a reason they used 10 parts per million. Under that you don’t have to put a warning. If a warning label has to be put on, then it is not appropriate for organic production. We try to keep our wines at 0 parts per million. People forget the molecular structure of the added sulfite is different. It’s bonded. That’s what might cause people to have allergies.
We have these two laws; and unfortunately, unless the wine is an organic with a USDA label you cant legally call it an organic wine. So have respect for the rule and the terminology. I’ve heard every excuse in the book. “I’m organic. I only use herbicide.” You have players coming in with big money and they can lobby for different things. Fortunately, the organic consumer is like me. They are educated and watching out.
This letter from Phil LaRocca is a response to the letters posted in An Organic Debate – Part I.
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Posted
by Adam Morganstern
on Jun 16, 2008
in Letters
The use of sulfites in organic winemaking brings out very strong opinions on both sides of the issue, and the Organic Wine Journal now finds itself in the middle of this debate. We’d like to present the following letters for our readers to hear two different opinions on this subject.
Organic Vintners recently starting offering “Organic Wine Journal” selections to our readers; a chance to sample different collections at a discounted price. When we wrote about this, Paolo Bonetti, President of Organic Vinters, asked that we refer to these wines as “certified organic,” which we did.
This drew the following response from Phaedra LaRocca Morrill, of LaRocca Vineyards.
I would like to bring to your attention the difference between Made with Organic Grapes and “Certified Organic Wines” as mentioned in the section about Organic Vintners. According to the USDA National Organic Program Standards, to say that it is an ORGANIC WINE you cannot have added sulfites. And I am confident in the fact that 99% of all Organic Vintners wines are imports and domestic wines that have added sulfites. Hence, it is misinforming the public that their wines are indeed organic. It is best to use the terms “Made with Organic Grapes” or Organically farmed.
LaRocca Vineyards is truly an organic winery, from vine-to-bottle. We not only have the vineyard certified organic, but the winery is organic and we do not use sulfites. Hence, we are able and do use the USDA organic seal on the front label. There is only a handful of organic wineries and we are one of them.
It confuses people when they read articles and want a true organic wine, but then find out there are chemical additives like sulfites. Don’t want to be annoying, I just feel that for those that truly support, and are all organic, it is not accurate terminology.
Cheers,
Phaedra LaRocca Morrill
We forwarded that letter to Paolo Bonetti, and received this response:
This is a can of worms and I will do my best to give you my clear information and please remember this is my interpretation of the law, and my opinion on how the word “organic” is used. I agree and I disagree with the statements made by Phaedra. Here’s what I think, and I am always open to discussion.
Wine labels are controlled by the Tax and Trade Bureau and all wine labels for US sales must have an approved COLA (Certificate of Label Approval.) Any label making an organic claim must also show legitimate documentation of its organic legitimacy through a USDA accredited certifier. The TTB and USDA have an agreement that wine labels making organic claims can be processed by the TTB without going to the USDA as well. The size of the word organic is controlled and its size must be 50% of the height of the brand name. As Phaedra points out, if the wine has no added sulfites (AKA, sulfur dioxide, SO2), the organic claim can be “organic wine” and the green USDA Organic seal may be used. If the wine contains added sulfites and the final count of sulfites is less than 100 parts per million (ppm), organic claim may be labeled as “made with organic grapes” and the USDA seal may NOT be used.
KEY WORD ABOVE: ADDED–important to know is that some yeasts used in winemaking produce “naturally occurring” sulfites in the fermentation process and therefore some “organic wine” may have naturally occurring sulfites to the tune of 20ppm, so now that wine is 99.998% organic grapes and .002% sulfites.
Lets do some quick math by dividing 100 parts per million by 10 several times over: 100 ppm is equal to 10 parts per 100,000 which = 1 part per 10,000 = .1 parts per 1,000 = .01 parts per 100. Therefore, “wine made with organic grapes” cannot have more than .01% sulfites which means it is AT LEAST 99.99% organic grapes.
Wait! There’s more: ” . . . it would be hard to maintain the notion that wine is an ethereal elixir if, before uncorking, consumers read that their Pinot Noir or Syrah contained Mega Purple (a brand of concentrated wine color), oak chips or such additives as oak gall nuts, grape juice concentrate, tartaric acid, citric acid, dissolved oxygen, copper and water. The mention of bentonite, ammonium phosphate and the wide variety of active enzymes used to make some wines would end the romance. “–What’s Really in That Wine, Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2007, by Corie Brown, attached. So how much of that 99.99% or 99.998% is organic grapes?
Legally speaking, what one can say on a label, Phaedra is correct. And Phaedra is also correct that all our wines are sulfite-added wines. Most of our wine labels say “made with organic grapes” and some say “made with biodynamic grapes” which is also regulated with proper documentation.
What retailers choose to do is not under the jurisdiction of the USDA, and unfortunately many organic wine sections have intruders on us legitimate people: Lolonis Lady Bug Red (USA) and Conosur Pinot Noir (Chile) are this year’s biggest intruders. They make absurd but TTB-allowable claims like “no lady bugs were harmed” and “ecologically farmed grapes” which are not regulated by the TTB or the USDA. These products are the real culprits in the denigration of the word organic and whether they do it intentionally or not does not matter to me. Those wines are taking up my certified organic farmer’s and La Rocca’s shelf space! I am not accusing these winemakers of making any false representations, but somewhere along the supply chain between farmer and retailer (distributor, importer, retailer, broker, sales rep, and then some) these “sustainable” wines become organic.
When speaking or writing I call my wines “organic”, organic wines”, and “wines made with organic grapes” interchangeably but more commonly use the word certified in order to distinguish myself from the growing number of illegitimate green wines like the abovementioned. So I may say “certified organic”, “certified organic wines”, and “wines made with 100% certified organic grapes,” and its really up to you as a retailer to call them as you wish. My imports and La Rocca wines are virtually 100% organic. We both have the documentation that proves that the vines, the vinification process, and the whole facility are certified organic, from vine to bottle. If this were not the case we could not have the great privilege to use the word organic on our labels.
Now I will quote the USDA’s National Organic Program rules from http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_07/7cfr205_07.html.
Through my exhaustive reading of the entire National Organic Program regulations, I summarize the facts:
➢ Wine is singled out in a “product composition” statement requiring 100% organic ingredients as follows in CFR, Title 7, Subpart D, § 205.301 (f), (5) and (7):
➢ (f) All products labeled as “100 percent organic” or “organic” and all ingredients identified as “organic” in the ingredient statement of any product:
o (5) must not contain sulfites, nitrates, or nitrites added during the production or handling process, except, that, wine containing added sulfites may be labeled “made with organic grapes”;
o (7) must not include organic and nonorganic forms of the same ingredient.
Phaedra claims that there chemical additives like sulfites; true. Scientifically speaking, alcohol, Potassium L-Bitartrate (in the form of C4H5O6K), acids such as H2SO4, C2H4O2, C4H6O6, sodium chloride (AKA salt or NaCl), and Potassium Sulfate K2SO4 are just a few of the many chemicals found in a basic chemical analysis of most wines. These are naturally occurring as is SO2.
My one point of disagreement and I defend all certified organic wine producers world-wide: I strongly disagree with Phaedra’s claim that “There is only a handful of organic wineries and we are one of them.” All my growers and hundreds of others practice certified organic farming and crush in a certified organic facility, from vine to bottle and there is simply no way to dispute this reality.
Conclusion. There is an ingredient difference of 80ppm which sets the two categories apart according to government regs and this does not make any farmer more or less organic as long as they are legitimately certified, like La Rocca and all our farmers. Retailers such as Whole Foods have wine sections they call “eco-farmed,” “eco-friendly,” “sustainable,” and few use the word organic. The Organic Wine Journal does not make wine labels and I think it is up to you to make a decision about what words you use.
In any case I support the Organic Wine Journal’s efforts which have so far been true and accurate. And I support all certified organic farmers who also use permissible USDA NOP ‘chemicals’ such as SO2 and bentonite clay (this is what makes our wines vegan.)
PS-Sulfites have been used in winemaking since 1400′s and NSA wines are predominantly a US phenomenon.
The debate doesn’t end here. Read Part II; where Phil LaRocca weighs in on the subject.
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