Your Guide to Organic, Biodynamic and Natural Wine
Evan Spingarn wants to turn America onto Rieslings and this is his gateway drug. But can a young wine still have baby fat? And where’s the best place to go dancing on the Upper West Side if you have a time machine? Find out when Lyle Fass reviews the Gunderloch Jean Baptiste Riesling 2009.
Evan Spingarn is out to change Lyle’s mind about Rosé. Does calling him the George Bernard Shaw of wine reviewers help out? Watch this review of the Bisson Golfo Del Tigullio Ciliegiolo Rosé 2009 and find out.
What is this bottle doing on the Orange Wine list, and why can its perfect food match wind you up in prison? Lyle Fass welcomes Evan Spingarn, of NYC’s Tangled VIne Bar, to the No Spoof Zone to find out.
It’s Alice Feiring’s turn at 32 Days of Natural Wine. Here’s what she has to say:
This all leads me to believe that critics of natural wines are either in willful denial or holding out for set of standards complete with loop holes that will allow spoof to masquerade as real. No matter what the wine genre is called-Spoof, Naked, Live, Naturel, the word can be and will be co-opted. Mark my words, the Gallo Natural line extension will be upon us before the next hyped Bordeaux vintage or Brunello scandal. Mike is clearly in agreement with your sentiments posted on Jancis’ board. He weighed in this way: “The phrase natural wines is irredeemably problematic. The discussion just can’t seem to get beyond this phrase. I think the people using the term “natural wines” need to come up with a much more convincing justification for its use, or they need to find a better, less loaded term to describe the wines.”
Yes, the word ‘natural’ is an easy mark. Look, I don’t love my name either. I think life would have been easier as a Sophie, but I grew into an Alice the way these wines grew into Natural. To paraphrase the late charismatic Teobaldo Cappellano, the more we have fake the more we need real. (Natural = real. There you go. I’ve no problem with the word.) There is no bullet proof name and you know what? The more the controversy rages, the more I resist the very idea of a definition and look for refuge in anarchy.
Organic Wine Journal contributor Lyle Fass just posted his article for 32 Days of Natural Wine:
David taught me, most importantly, something that I think is the core concept of natural wine for me, which is the use of cultured vs. inoculated yeast. Every time we would taste with salespeople, no matter what wine, that was his first question. What’s the yeast situation? Soon it became my first question. The idea that an inoculated yeast could obscure terroir was for me, a profound concept that I had never quite thought about. The more I tasted with David, and figured out which wines were yeasted and which wines were not it really was something. I really noticed a difference. I was in. In deep. David had created a monster. The first bottle I took home on my first day, on David’s recommendation ,was the 2002 Domaine de la Belliviere Hommage a Louis Derre from the Coteaux de Loir. My first Pineau d’Aunis. An auspicious start as I did not like the wine. It was tannic as hell and I could not discern much else. I gave him a hard time the next day, and he told me, in classic David Lillie style, “Oh that wine takes three days to get going, try it tonight.” So I went home that night and, what do you know, this wine, made from some freakazoid grape I never even knew existed two days before was just slaying me. Freshness, purity along with a kind of mutant Pinot Noir flavors ad soaring freakish aromatics. The wine was just unbelievable. I never had anything like it. After that I was hooked. I chatted David up almost ad nauseum, spending half my paycheck each week on his recommendations. I discovered Clos Roche Blanche, Domaine de Peyra (R.I.P), Breton, Foillard, Jean-Paul Brun and many others. It was the definitive part of my wine evolution.
Gewurtztraminers are love it or hate it wines. They can be flamboyant, but which of these wines is more Liberace and which is more Ted Allen? Lyle tastes two vintages of the Binner Gewurtztraminer Cuvée Beatrice.
From the Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard website:
Following 30 years of organic production of English wines under Soil Association organic standards here at Sedlescombe, the process of converting to Demeter accreditation under standards set by the Biodynamic Association was started in Spring 2010.
As we were already operating according to EU 2092/91 regulation, a conversion period is unnecessary and our wine produced from 2010 grapes will be Bio-dynamic certified. This wine will be released in Spring 2011.
On becoming Bio-dynamic, Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard will apply to join the prestigious world-wide groupings of Bio-dynamic Vineyards as a member of “Return to Terroir”. This group, founded by Nicolas Joly, seeks to re-assert the individuality and difference of wines produced in different regions and in different localities and to set itself apart from the faceless blandness and conformity of the products of international wine conglomerates.
Roy & Irma Cook, in association with vineyard manager Inga Keck (see below photo) are now applying the principles of Biodynamic agriculture as laid down by Rudolf Steiner in 1924, on all 22 acres of their organic vineyards.
One of the main differences between organic and bio-dynamic lies in the application of specially composted manures and silica extracts designed to promote microbiological activity in the soil to improve fertility and to enhance light uptake and photosynthesis through the plants leaves.
Organic Wine Journal contributor Amy Atwood just posted her article for 32 Days of Natural Wine:
Okay, so by now I knew a thing or two about selling wine. But over the past few years my personal wine palate had changed. I could no longer stomach the big, oaky wines that so many new world producers were making. I read Alice Feiring’s The Battle For Wine and Love, which has been an eye-opener for many wine lovers seeking more authentic wines. I started seeking out these wines that had been less chemically manipulated, both for the flavors and aromas but also because of a philosophical synergy.
At the same time, I was shopping at farmers markets in Los Angeles. I went out of my way to buy only organic fruit and vegetables. I found that my passion for both drinking and selling wine was re-awakened.
So it made sense to take the plunge and sell only the wines I loved. I sunk my tiny little nest egg into purchasing wines from importers like Savio Soares as well as domestic producers like La Clarine Farm and Donkey & Goat, and representing them in the California market. Virtually all of the wines I sell are ‘hand-sell’ wines from small producers, and yes many of them farm organically and use very minimal intervention in the cellar. I literally put my money where my mouth is. Scary? Hell yes. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
