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[part 2 of 3] Organic Wine

Show Summary

A nice cross-section of organic, fair trade. and biodynamic wines for you to try and some resources for finding more.

First a  disclaimer, we are no wine aficionados, but we do like our evening wine.  Today we wanted to learn how to make more informed selections so we went to the Liquid Learning Center at Joe Canals in Iselin, NJ for a lesson in Organic Wine tasting.  Store Manager, Sean Woods shares his knowledge of wine making and the difference between:

Sustainable – Growing by organic standards but not yet certified by the CCOF

Organic – Grown organically, or made using grapes purchased from a certified organic farm.

Biodynamic – The kitchen sink…  Biodynamic practices also forego the use of pesticides, but there is also the addition of a good deal of ritual and even mystisism, all with the intention of optimizing the balance between flavorful fruit and long-term soil quality.

We tried 6 wines from four catagories:

Chardonnay – The most widely planted and most complex white grape.
Sauvignon Blanc – A lighter, fresh, “Summer” white
Cabernet Sauvignon – A bold, full-bodied and complex red
Merlot – A smoother and more fruit laden red
Meritage – special limited production wines that blend Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot yielding interesting, balanced, wines. (like Bordeaux)

Today we sampled wines from:
Melania – Chile – Organic, FairTrade ($10)
Chardonnay – Grassy and green with a good amount of citrus.  Reflective of a full and many-layered chardonnay grape
Cabernet Sauvignon – Dark and earthy with very strong black pepper spice.  The fruit was plumb and oak.

Frogs Leap - California – Organic ($20)
Sauvignon Blanc – Lemongrass and wet stone

Ehlers Estate – California – Organic, Biodynamic ($35)
Merlot – Blackberry, cocoa, earth

Long Meadow Ranch – California – Organic ($40)
Cabernet Sauvignon – Blackberry, thyme, cherry, chocolate, tobacco

Benziger - California – Organic, Biodynamic ($70)
Tribute – Meritage – Figs, butterscotch, cocoa, smooth

My favorite was the Benziger Tribute, I’m a fan of reds but I find many are more peppery than I like.  The Tribute was very smooth and reminded me of Opus One.

Bear in mind that in the wine world “organic” carries a stigma of “cheap” or “substandard”, a seeming carryover of wine snobbery and uneducated customers.  As a result many of the growers who grow organically or biodynamically because they recognise the inherent benifit to flavor and livelyhood, do not indicate that they have committed to these practices on the bottle for fear of hurting sales.  So what is an aspiring organic wine customer to do?  Leg work unfortunately.  We’ve tried to give you a jumpstart with the wines listed here.  A good wine store should have someone like Sean on hand to help guide you, don’t be afraid to ask.

A complete listing of wine makers and distributors can be found at the CCOF.org site but it is a rather unusable interface for a quick search to try one evening.

Here’s some Google searches to get you started:
California Organics
Organic Wines
About.com – some good links