Nothing says New Year’s Eve like the sound of corks popping, but that doesn’t mean you’re limited to Champagne. Prosecco, Italy’s famous sparkling wine, makes a great and affordable alternative. We spoke with with Enore Ceola, Managing Director of Mionetto USA, about their success in bringing organic [...]
When Organic Vintners announced they would stop online wine sales it was sad news for those who like to purchase their organic wines online. But now The Organic Wine Company has come to the rescue and will be offering many of Organic Vintners selections on their online store. [...]
Summerhill Pyramid Winery, the largest organic winery in Canada, has been named Canadian Winery of the Year by the International Wine and Spirit Competition in London, England.
Read the full story at bclocalnews.com.
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Hidden away in a remote river valley of a region historically known more for gold than grapes is Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden, a boutique Demeter-certified Biodynamic estate winery whose first releases are the toast of The James Beard Foundation, Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women Summit, and Oregon’s [...]
To understand Israel’s Tishbi Winery, it helps to know the history of winemaking in Napa and Sonoma. California’s wineries were started in the last quarter of the 19th century by visionary European immigrants, hard-working farmers. They grew grapes they were familiar with in the “old country” [...]
I was only in Spain for a week and I wanted to take things easy for my last days in Europe. While I was planning on passing the time by checking out the Spanish queso scene and filling up on tapas, my host Amy suggested that I [...]
Tony Coturri does the official ribbon cutting.
One of the perks of working at the Organic Wine Journal is sometimes a favorite winemaker stops by on Thanksgiving. And you can convince them to do some weird things in the spirit of [...]
Up in the Lebanese Bekaa valley at around 1,000 metres is an extraordinary property whose wines have become virtually synonymous with Lebanon. Serge Hochar has continued to make French-influenced wines here in spite of the various conflicts that have raged and blighted this beautiful but unstable region. [...]
Thierry Casse of Domaine de Barbazan
Everyone is familiar with the great wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. But when I had the chance to work with a producer in the small Madiran wine region in the south west of France, [...]
Looks like one less place to buy organic wine online. We got the following email announcement last week.
Organic Vintners has made the decision to stop servicing consumers direct. While this is a difficult decision, Organic Vintners is making progress in 28 states through wine distributors, retailers, restaurants, wine shops, and [...]
Harvesting chenin blanc at Domaine de la Roche Fleurie in Chancay.
Our year in France started once again last February with the Salons des Vins de la Loire in Angers. This is a great venue for any wine [...]
Pioneers in biodynamic winegrowing in New Zealand since 1983, James and Annie Millton’s winery, Millton Vineyards has recently received Demeter Certification. “It is great to see that my twenty six years of experience as a biodynamic winegrower are proving to be a useful foundation for the growth and acceptance of [...]
John Williams, owner of Frog’s Leap Winery and a pioneer on the Napa organic scene, is a man of analogies. When asked about grapes from irrigated vineyards, he conjures up an entirely different fruit.
Irrigated grapes, Williams says, lack the flavor of those from dry-farmed vineyards like [...]
The inaugural Nedbank Green Wine Awards were announced today at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town.
The Nedbank Green Wine Awards have come about due to the increased popularity and consumer interest in this category. Nedbank was the natural partner for the awards due to their ongoing involvement with conservation [...]
Stanko Radikon’s is making some of the most striking and unusual wines coming out of Italy’s Friuli Venezia Giulia today. His uncompromising views have brought him acclaim and a devoted following around the world. He acknowledges that his wines are not for everyone. They are unusual enough [...]
Living in a new world. That is the concept that the De Martino winery is looking to convey to the consumer with the release of its Nuevo Mundo (New World) wine, the first Carbon Neutral wine in Chile and Latin America.
Produced from organically grown grapes in the Maipo Valley (BCS [...]
If you want to taste some stellar wines that were made with organic and biodynamic grapes, here is my quick list for Thanksgiving wine choices:
Sparkling Wines:
Domaine Carneros Brut Cuvee 2005 $26 (widely available)
Aroma: Honeysuckle and toasted nuts. Flavors: Pear compote and lemon custard. A perfect match for slightly spicy asian [...]
Congratulations to Australia’s Harris Organic Wines which is celebrating their tenth anniversary. In honor of the occasion, Duncan and Deborah Harris are releasing their first sparkling wine, “Madeleine Claire,” named after their daughter. Learn more about Harris Wines at ledaswan.com.
[...]First MUNDUSvini BioFach International Organic Wine Award
• Powerful partners: world’s leading exhibition cooperates with MUNDUSvini/Meininger Verlag
• Deadline: 21 November 2009
• Tasting from 7–9 December 2009 in Neustadt on the Wine Road
The wine segment at the World Organic Trade Fair gets another highlight in 2010 when BioFach and MUNDUSvini/Meininger Verlag organize the [...]
Keith Wallace at the Daily Beast has an interesting article about how the top 30 wine brands in the United States aren’t from what we would traditionally consider a true “winery.” While the piece does not deal with the organic side of the issue, it does illuminate how successful the [...]
Good news from our friends at BioFach 2010. Organic wine is still doing well internationally despite the economic downturns. Germany is predicting a 10% increase in organic wine sales and Austrian organic wines are riding an increased demand from markets overseas, including Japan. French organic wine is “booming,” according to [...]
I had the pleasure of meeting winemaker Antonio Bravo from Emiliana Winery today. There is quite a bit of online chatter about organic and biodynamic wines but I especially relish the opportunity to discuss these wines with the person who actually makes them.
Antonio made vast amounts of conventional wines [...]
I love this restaurant. One of Keith McNally’s first successes, it’s been a fixture in New York’s Tribeca for 29 years. I lived four blocks away from 1975-1985 during a wild and crazy time in New York so it’s a real trip down memory lane just [...]
“When you have a winery in your family, you can’t say when you started working there,” says Nicolò Mascheroni Stianti of Castello Di Volpaia. “You just grow up with it.” Nicolò is also CEO of a publishing company in Milan, but since 2006 he’s been spending more [...]
Working the last two months at Tenuta di Valgiano in Lucca, Italy has been the turning point in my life. My discussions on biodynamics with Saverio Petrilli, the winemaker, have been so powerful I could only compare it to a religious experience. Saverio is well respected within [...]
Randall Graham is embracing biodynamics and Bonny Doon is now on its way to certification with Demeter. Bonny Doon has also started putting ingredient labels on their wines in an effort towards “complete transparency.” So, along with grapes, you may see tartaric acid, untoasted wood chips and copper sulfate printed [...]
When when of our favorite wineries teams up with one of our favorite importers it can only mean good news for New York wine lovers. Coturri Winery is now going to be represented by Jenny & Francois Selections. Known for their collection of natural wines from France, this will be [...]
Dominique and Patrick Belluard own this biodynamic estate of just 13 ha at Ayze, in the heart of the Haut Savoie valley of l’Arve. They are the third generation of the family to run it since it was created in 1947. They took charge in 1988 and converted to biodynamics [...]
When it comes to food and wine, “peasant” hardly means low class any more. To me it means small stone farmhouses in the south of France with honest, rustic dishes to match. You know exactly what’s in your glass and what’s on your plate. A good peasant wine will be [...]
On a recent trip to Ohio I saw an Unoaked Chardonnay section at a wine store. This is the kind of sections, and honesty, more stores should have. Send us your suggestions for what you would like to see. Here are some ideas from our group:
Lyle [...]
We’ve been writing about them for awhile, and now everyone is catching on. Check out Eric Asimov’s latest column about The Ten Bells. He praises the wines, the food and the laid back atmosphere.
[...]According to the Associated Press, congress has granted $350 million in aid to struggling milk producers. It seems there is an oversupply of milk, and the price paid to farmers is so low they are losing money on every gallon sold, hence the needed rescue by taxpayers.
What wasn’t written about [...]
Working with some obscure theory that wine and taking off your clothes are somehow linked, Greenpeace has teamed up with photographer Spencer Tunick to do a shoot at a vineyard in Burgundy to bring awareness to climate change and how it may affect your favorite vintages.
From the press release:
Save [...]
Have you ever dreamed about giving up the coporate life and running away to Italy to make wine or up to Vermont to make cheese? Our good friend Katarina Maloney did just that and you can follow her adventures on her blog, Make Wine And Cheese [...]
A Tale Of Three Rosés
One of life’s unfortunate characteristics is limited choices. In August one cannot be lounge about in St. Tropez and hike Oregon’s Cascade Mountains at the same time. Bicyclists must choose to go touring or trail riding. People lucky enough to have a horse or a boat [...]
The first edition of this book ignited this writer’s fledgling interest in all things vinous some twenty-five years ago. It was the first wine book I ever bought, almost by accident. I was initially attracted to it because of the superb illustrations by Paul Hogarth rather than by the words; [...]
Slovenia is a middle-European country that was once part of the former Yugoslavia, whose western Goriška province borders the Friuli region of NE Italy. The border between them runs through a small wine area with a violent history, known to Italians as the Collio and Brda to the Slovenes.
Once part [...]
We’re getting into late August which means grapes all over the Northern Hemisphere are ripening, weather forecasts are being watched more closely, and we here at the Organic Wine Journal are taking a breather. Between baseball games and late summer getaways, we’ve been tasting lots of incredible organic, natural, and [...]
The recent announcement that Wal-Mart will be evaluating the environmental impact of the products sold in its stores was more than a little weird. As the biggest of the big box stores worldwide, a merchant that made “we sell for less” the gold standard in retailing, this new obsession with [...]
Discount for Organic Wine Journal readers. Use the promotion code B1G105 and you’ll get a second ticket for the price of one.
Organic, biodynamic, sustainable, natural…these terms tend to confuse more than they clarify, particularly within the wine world. Join Adam Morganstern, editor of the Organic Wine Journal, as we [...]
Amy Atwood spoke with John Albin, Director of Wine making for King Estate Winery in Oregon. King Estate is certified organic by Oregon Tilth.
How did you become a winemaker?
I started making wine with my father when I was a kid. I grew up in Seattle and at the time [...]
Organic grape grower and vintner Gunther Di Giovanna came to New York this week with his wines for a tasting at ‘inoteca Vino e Cucina in the Lower East Side. Articulate, and poised and clearly devoted to organic growing, Gunther shared six of his vintages. ‘inoteca [...]
The Slovenian town of Gorjansko is too small to need traffic signals. Nestled in the hills, just a few kilometers from the Italian border, it is the home of Branko Cotar one of the country’s foremost practitioners of organic winemaking.
Cotar, who works with his son Vasja, [...]
The Val di Cecina is a picturesque and unspoilt region of rolling hills toward the coast of Tuscany just north of the Bolgheri wine region, the new frontier for Tuscan wines over the past couple of decades. It is also known as Il Giardino (the Garden), [...]
Jonathan Russo, Publisher of the Organic Wine Journal, was interviewed recently on the Heritage Radio Network’s At The Root Of It program. Host Erin Fitzpatrick talks to Jonathan about the rewards of drinking organically, the Slow Food movement in the Unitesd States and the ethics of luxury.
Beckmen Vineyards is proud to announce that it has achieved both biodynamic and organic certifications for its Purisima Mountain Vineyard located in Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley. The culmination of a rigorous certification process through Demeter USA and Stellar Certification Services, these certifications reflect a strict commitment to both [...]
What was the vision behind opening Ten Bells?
The story of The Ten Bells was to open a place where we would go to : good food with the priority of getting ingredients from local producers working organic or sustainable methods, and natural wines.
What did you do before Ten Bells?
I [...]
In this episode, Lyle tries two Grüner Veltliners and becomes the first wine reviewer on record to open a wine bottle with a cigarette lighter.
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Joe Denton knows a thing or two about unusual Italian wines. As co-owner of New York’s beloved ‘Ino and ‘Inoteca restaurants, Denton helped select the over 600 wines they serve, many from Italy’s best organic producers. We recently caught up with Joe and he shared [...]
Cathy Garrard, Amy Atwood, Adam Morganstern, Jonathan Russo, Katarina Jack, Paul Howard, Greg Wacks, Michael Tulipan, Dave Kasper, Katarina Maloney
