Wines are going green!
It's Spring, and everything is turning green. I guess that's why it's the perfect time to have a reminder of protecting Mother Earth. We have just passed the official Earth Day, and seemingly every day we see somebody reminding us to recycle and "go green." The wine industry has increasingly been following this trend, not simply to save the planet, but to make better wine.
You may have seen the terms "organic" or "biodynamic" on a bottle of wine or in some literature, so I thought that I would take this timely opportunity to explain what those terms mean, so that you can confidently "go green" with your wine purchases.
I'm sure that it's no surprise that agriculture today uses a multitude of pesticides, fungicides, and other chemical-cides to help control and guarantee the health of the crops. But, it wasn't always this way. If you've ever picked up a Farmer's Almanac then you might know that it's chock full of moon phases, tidal information, and other information vital to agriculture. This publication has been produced since 1792 -- but, somewhere along the path we lost our way and have tried to use science and technology to control Mother Earth.
Organic wines are very simply wines that contain grapes grown conforming to the National Organic Program guidelines. These guidelines prohibit the use of all of the aforementioned 'cides, plus outline what may or may not be done in the winery. That is, little or no manipulation of wines by reverse osmosis, excessive filtration, or flavor additives (such as oak chips). Many organic winemakers also prefer wild yeasts for fermentation. There is one tricky situation to watch for: "wine made with organic grapes." These wines started out with organic grapes, but the winery did something in the processing to lose the "certified organic" status. This something is most often the addition of sulfites. Now, sulfites occur naturally in wine, so no wine is sulfite-free. But, most winemakers add sulfites during vinification to enhance this natural preservative. So, if you are sensitive to sulfites, certified organic wines may be something worth searching.
Biodynamics is like organics on steroids. Rather, it's not simply the absence of chemicals, it's a complete change in the way the grower works with the land. All of those things that were naturally occurring and later suppressed are reintroduced to the land. Earth worms, bees, bugs, natural washes, cover plants, birds, bats, chickens, goats, etc. are all welcomed back to the particular ecosystem that was in place before someone decided to drop in some Pinot Noir. Other key elements of biodynamics are the burying of a cow's horn full of manure in the Fall and the use of crushed quartz in the field. Animals help to control the plant growth and the insect population, plus in the case of chickens, their manure helps to fertilize the crops, and their eggs are used for fining the wines as well as feeding the workers breakfast.
Biodynamics has been credited to Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. He introduced this holistic and self-sustaining method of farming during a series of lectures in 1929.
Quite frankly, I thought of Biodynamics as organic hippie farmers until yesterday. It always struck me as odd to bury a cow horn with manure. I had been led to believe that this was ritualistic -- not necessarily related to anything useful in the farming process.
So yesterday I met with Katrina Fetzer who is in charge of marketing her dad's wines under the "Ceago" label. Her dad is Jim Fetzer, formerly of the ubiquitous Fetzer Wines which he sold in 1992. Ceago has been from the beginning about biodynamics. In fact, they were the first U.S. winery to be certified biodynamic. She gave me a crash course in biodynamics, most importantly correcting my misconceptions about the aforementioned strange rituals.
"The burying of the female cow horn has a very specific purpose: to produce the best compost possible. Tests have shown that the horn is a better host to microorganisms than plastic, glass, or other containers. We pull the horn out in the spring and take the mixture and add it to hot water. The mixture is spun for an hour in each direction, creating a vortex and multiplying the microorganisms. Then, we spray the fields with the best humus mixture we could hope for" she told me. "We do the same with crushed quartz. It is buried in the Spring and follows the same process as the compost. Then we spray it on the land in the wet season to help protect against fungus and to aid in photosynthesis."
The resulting wines made at Ceago are about as clean as you can get. I think the difference shows: The wines have texture. It's certainly refreshing to know what did and did not go into those wines.
Why not go green this month and seek out some organic/biodynamic wines. There are quite a few from Europe, and an increasing number from right here in California. Other than the fantastic efforts from Ceago, I would recommend Robert Sinskey of Napa, and Benziger of Sonoma. Let's help fix the planet one glass at a time...
You may have seen the terms "organic" or "biodynamic" on a bottle of wine or in some literature, so I thought that I would take this timely opportunity to explain what those terms mean, so that you can confidently "go green" with your wine purchases.
I'm sure that it's no surprise that agriculture today uses a multitude of pesticides, fungicides, and other chemical-cides to help control and guarantee the health of the crops. But, it wasn't always this way. If you've ever picked up a Farmer's Almanac then you might know that it's chock full of moon phases, tidal information, and other information vital to agriculture. This publication has been produced since 1792 -- but, somewhere along the path we lost our way and have tried to use science and technology to control Mother Earth.
Organic wines are very simply wines that contain grapes grown conforming to the National Organic Program guidelines. These guidelines prohibit the use of all of the aforementioned 'cides, plus outline what may or may not be done in the winery. That is, little or no manipulation of wines by reverse osmosis, excessive filtration, or flavor additives (such as oak chips). Many organic winemakers also prefer wild yeasts for fermentation. There is one tricky situation to watch for: "wine made with organic grapes." These wines started out with organic grapes, but the winery did something in the processing to lose the "certified organic" status. This something is most often the addition of sulfites. Now, sulfites occur naturally in wine, so no wine is sulfite-free. But, most winemakers add sulfites during vinification to enhance this natural preservative. So, if you are sensitive to sulfites, certified organic wines may be something worth searching.
Biodynamics is like organics on steroids. Rather, it's not simply the absence of chemicals, it's a complete change in the way the grower works with the land. All of those things that were naturally occurring and later suppressed are reintroduced to the land. Earth worms, bees, bugs, natural washes, cover plants, birds, bats, chickens, goats, etc. are all welcomed back to the particular ecosystem that was in place before someone decided to drop in some Pinot Noir. Other key elements of biodynamics are the burying of a cow's horn full of manure in the Fall and the use of crushed quartz in the field. Animals help to control the plant growth and the insect population, plus in the case of chickens, their manure helps to fertilize the crops, and their eggs are used for fining the wines as well as feeding the workers breakfast.
Biodynamics has been credited to Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. He introduced this holistic and self-sustaining method of farming during a series of lectures in 1929.
Quite frankly, I thought of Biodynamics as organic hippie farmers until yesterday. It always struck me as odd to bury a cow horn with manure. I had been led to believe that this was ritualistic -- not necessarily related to anything useful in the farming process.
So yesterday I met with Katrina Fetzer who is in charge of marketing her dad's wines under the "Ceago" label. Her dad is Jim Fetzer, formerly of the ubiquitous Fetzer Wines which he sold in 1992. Ceago has been from the beginning about biodynamics. In fact, they were the first U.S. winery to be certified biodynamic. She gave me a crash course in biodynamics, most importantly correcting my misconceptions about the aforementioned strange rituals.
"The burying of the female cow horn has a very specific purpose: to produce the best compost possible. Tests have shown that the horn is a better host to microorganisms than plastic, glass, or other containers. We pull the horn out in the spring and take the mixture and add it to hot water. The mixture is spun for an hour in each direction, creating a vortex and multiplying the microorganisms. Then, we spray the fields with the best humus mixture we could hope for" she told me. "We do the same with crushed quartz. It is buried in the Spring and follows the same process as the compost. Then we spray it on the land in the wet season to help protect against fungus and to aid in photosynthesis."
The resulting wines made at Ceago are about as clean as you can get. I think the difference shows: The wines have texture. It's certainly refreshing to know what did and did not go into those wines.
Why not go green this month and seek out some organic/biodynamic wines. There are quite a few from Europe, and an increasing number from right here in California. Other than the fantastic efforts from Ceago, I would recommend Robert Sinskey of Napa, and Benziger of Sonoma. Let's help fix the planet one glass at a time...
posted by The Cask Room, Mike Kallay at
11:20 AM
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