Pierre Jancou and Olivier Cousin on Natural Wine

Posted by Organic Wine Journal on Feb 3, 2012 in Features

Video from France Bon Appetit:

Thanks to Alice Feiring for finding it.

Bottle Crafters

Posted by Organic Wine Journal on Feb 2, 2012 in Features

Looking for a salsa bowl made out of a Patron bottle? Bottle Crafters is a new site that sells unique glassware made from recycled products. Check them out at bottlecrafters.com.

Organic Beer, Wine & Spirits Expo in Anaheim – Free Registration

Posted by Organic Wine Journal on Feb 1, 2012 in Press Releases

New Expo West 2012 Beer, Wine & Spirits Marketplace

Date: Friday & Saturday, March 9-10, 2012
Time: 1:00–7:00 pm
Place: Marriott Grand Ballroom – Convention Way – Anaheim, CA

Mountain Peoples Wine & Beer Distribution is one of the leading organic wine and beer distributors in the industry. Our goal is to provide our clients with the highest quality and largest selection of organic wines and beers available. Our mission is to promote and champion a more sustainable wine and beer industry through organically produced wines and beers. We carry USDA Organic Wines and Beers, Wines Made with Organically Grown Grapes and Demeter Certified Biodynamic Wines. Our products are distributed and available to a wide variety of consumers via supermarket chains, natural food stores, cooperatives, specialty wine shops and on-premise locations, and we are continually striving to broaden our reach. We currently distribute in California and Oregon.

We are pleased to announce that we will be partnering with New Hope 360 and Natural Products Expo West to bring you the 2012 Beer, Wine & Spirits Marketplace in Anaheim, CA in March. This year’s new format is a two-day event that allows ample time for quality tasting and education. This is a wonderful opportunity for all Retail Buyers, Wholesalers and Distributors to come together to meet the brewmasters and the winemakers, discover new products and place orders on site. Most importantly, there will be show specials and promotional offers available throughout the event.

Several of our wine and beer vendors will be there to speak to the benefits of organic wine and beer as well as pour samples of their products.

• South American Wine Importers
• CalNaturale
• Casa Barranca Winery
• Frey Winery
• Honeyrun Winery
• LaRocca Vineyards
• Natural Merchants
• New Planet Beer
• Chacewater
• Lammsbräu
• Girasole Vineyards

The best part is that admission is free for all retailers with registration completed on or before February 3rd online at: https://www.compusystems.com/servlet/ar?evt_uid=380.

Please call the Mountain Peoples Wine Dist. office for assistance with registration, if necessary. We can be reached at (530) 265-0300.

More Information about the expo can be found online at:

http://www.mpwwine.com/Events/

http://www.expowest.com/ew12/Public/Content.aspx?ID=1017177.

Veronique Raskin on “Made With Organic Grapes”

Posted by Organic Wine Journal on Feb 1, 2012 in Features

Veronique Raskin, of the Organic Wine Company, gives her opinion of the sulfite issue in her latest newsletter:

Cutting to the chase, you may or may not realize this, but we, the certified organic wine makers of old, are currently caught between the “N.S.A.” (No Sulfite Added) winemakers and the “sustainable” winemakers, which sit all the way on the other side of that pendulum, obeying no third party verified standards that I’m aware of. To simplify, on one hand we have the nothing-goes crowd and on the other we have the anything-goes crowd. It’s sort of like being caught between the Baptist Church and the Flower Children- you know what I mean, no insult meant to either of these groups.
 
I like to think of myself and my company as someone who tries to follow the Golden Rule, I do my homework and I weigh my decisions carefully for collateral benefits and damages. The golden path is precisely where the wines that we have chosen to import since 1980 and the movement that we have pioneered lies: right in the middle on that Golden Path. This is not a matter of political or financial convenience, but a matter of deliberate conscious choice. Currently however, our style of organic wines manages the extraordinary feat to be at once “not pure” enough (by NSA standards) to deserve to be called organic and get the USDA Seal of approval and “too pure” by sustainable standards. This is a pretty remarkable accomplishment.
 
To add or not to add sulfites into a wine that’s then called “organic” is indeed the question. Commercial and noncommercial entities have taken positions on this (non) issue, largely based on misinformation not facts. Based on the results, it is hard to feel respect for these entities. Indeed, after five decades of dedicated organic farming and of obeying the rules, we, makers of wine made with third party certified organic grapes, we are being squeezed out of the game. On very arguable grounds our wines are only allowed the lesser label ” made with organic grapes.” We the elders, are being treated like useless, aging parents. We are the have-beens of the movement while never really having “been” in the first place! It is quite a tour de force, as we say in French, I didn’t realize that something or someone could be at once ignored, opposed and diluted… I thought that this happened sequentially to trailblazers…. But no, I found out that this can also happen simultaneously, it sure has with us.
 
I find this situation offensive, harmful to everyone and disrespectful to the pillars of organic viticulture, the mensches on whose shoulders we now all stand, incredibly courageous people who, as far back as 1965, decided to convert their small 20 acre family property to organic farming practices. Keep in mind that at that time, going organic wasn’t sexy, cool or lucrative. To the contrary, it was very risky: financially, socially and otherwise. These guys are real pioneers, the unsung heroes of our industry and they are currently being disregarded and disrespected by the labeling practices and by the new crowd which includes the Holier-Than-Thous, corporate hypocrites, well meaning but misinformed bureaucrats and nuevo-greens…. that evident disrespect is annoying and plain wrong. Honor Thy Parents, It says, and there are many good reasons for that. One of them being that it’s hard to honor yourself, if you do not honor where you come from.
 
Rather than merely expecting divine justice, I decided to take matters into my own hands and went searching for writers who would be interested in exploring the truth behind the hype, the sulfite hysteria and all manners of myth alive and well in our industry. “The Truth shall make us free.”

Stay tuned! I ended up connecting with a substantial number of wine journalists and I feel incredibly rewarded by their support and interest in our story.

Organic Wine Journal on The Well Daily

Posted by Organic Wine Journal on Jan 31, 2012 in Features

The Well Daily, a site that aims to be “your ultimate guide for creating health and happiness,” has listed Organic Wine Journal as one of their favorite sites. Be sure to check them out as well.

Greek Wine Dinner At Amali – NYC – Assyrtiko No Longer

Posted by Organic Wine Journal on Jan 30, 2012 in Events

Our friends at Amail Restaurant have a wine dinner tomorrow: Assyrtiko No Longer, The New (or Rather Old) Red Wines of Greece. See the info below.

Jean-Charles Botte – Natural Wine Advocate

Posted by Organic Wine Journal on Jan 30, 2012 in Features

Nice write-up of organic sommelier Jean-Charles Botte on Christian Callec’s website:

His struggle is a fanatic one; he is going much further than organic (bio) or biodynamic wines, he insists on the essential use of indigenous yeasts for real, terroir driven wines.

During his time as waiter/sommelier assistant, he was wondering why all white Burgundy wines were always so similar. He found the answer to his question much later, thanks to a meeting with the famous French wine grower Claude Courtois:

“White Bourgogne wines are so similar because they are all made with industrial yeasts selected in labs”.

This changed JCB’s life; he realized that all the wines he really likes are all made from well managed vineyards with low yields and using natural, indigenous, wild ferments.

Full story at christiancallec.com.

Return To Terroir NYC Participants

Posted by Organic Wine Journal on Jan 30, 2012 in Events

Here is the list of participants for the Return To Terroir tasting in NYC on February 27th, 2012.

AUSTRALIA

Ngeringa Vineyard

AUSTRIA

Nikolaihof Wachau

Weingut Geyerhof

Meinklang

CHILE

Vinedos Santa Emiliana

Antiyal

FRANCE

ALSACE

Domaine Marcel Deiss

Domaine Zind Humbrecht

Domaine Tempé

Domaine Ostertag

Domaine Josmeyer

Domaine Valentin Zusslin