theRealist
Wine is political.
I would have thought if I were to spend time writing about a burning subject it would be politics, or art, or film. But there are convincing voices on these subjects, even wise ones. I have spent a good deal of time planting and growing a vineyard and creating and marketing wine. I have come to realize that wine is a metaphor for our society, and it is as political as any economic or governmental issue confronting us and as creative as any art form. Also, the real story of wine (desperately missing in our culture) would make a hell of a movie.
First you ask… why is it political? Let me remind you that wine as a beverage containing alcohol is the only enterprise in this country that has inspired two U. S. Constitutional Amendments, first destroying the wine industry, than in the repeal — set up the most convoluted interstate regulations that still severely complicate if not undermine one of the only family farm-made products in the country, a product that can’t be made in China.
What Willie warns us about corporate food power is the same for wine… maybe worse: (LINK) Occupy the Food System.
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February 10, 2012
Back in June 14, 2010, Eric Asimov of The New York Times LINK wrote the following: “The world of wine is full of hornets’ nests. Prime among these are natural wines. These wines, which barely make up a tiny slice of the marketplace, effortlessly polarize, not least because of the implied repudiation contained in the word ‘natural.’ If your wine is natural, what does that make mine? Unnatural? Artificial?”
He goes on to try and define the term: “Generally speaking, though, it is intended to mean wines made of grapes grown organically, or in rough approximation, and then made into wine with a minimum of manipulation — nothing added, nothing taken away, the winemaker simply shepherding the grape juice along its natural path of fermentation into wine.”
He points out that there has begun a strange debate on a subject that one would think there would only be followers, but in this hyper industrialized food society anything that reminds us of “real” food can be alarming to some: “This would seem to be the kind of laudable idealism worth encouraging. Instead, in recent months natural wines and their adherents have been harshly criticized in newspaper and magazine articles, in conferences and on Internet bulletin boards. Some writers have warned of green-washing, the practice of making false or exaggerated claims about ecologically virtuous practices in order to reap marketing gains. Others resent what they feel is a scolding, finger-wagging sanctimony inherent not only in the term “natural wines,” but also in the admirers of the wines. Most damning is the assertion that many wines regarded as natural are unclean, impure and downright bad.”
If there was even a straw man set up for a conversation that has no relevancy this is it! To Azimov’s credit he asserts that he is a “fan of natural wines,” and he ends his article with the following: “Not so long ago the organic and local food movements were condemned as the province of eccentrics and fanatics. Yet the proof was in quality and flavor, and many of their ideas have won out. The same may eventually be true in wine.”
Azimov wrote the article almost two years ago and this unnatural debate about natural wines becomes more and more beside the point and flies in the face of the most common of our experiences.
January 21, 2012
In short: The Perfect Natural Wine…
stands as the “ideal” — the nonpareil for the artisanal wine maker. Natural wine cannot be mass produced and will not be found in super markets which require identical wines in big volumes. A natural wine is a different, wonderful discovery each vintage; in fact, individual bottles from the same year may also differ enticingly.
Natural wine is not a formula, like Coca Cola, concocted in a Frankenlab. Natural wine is the essential understanding that the vineyard is the master… not the corporation.
Perfect Nature is Perfect Balance
Natural wine-making requires vision, skill, creativity, patience, nerve, and hard physical labor. Natural wine-making requires the fundamental understanding and appreciation of wine.
Natural wines have purer flavors, genuine personality, easier to digest and supremely beneficial. Terroir can only be expressed through natural wines.
There is more money, less risk, and far less work in making what today has become the by-product of chemically induced and tightly controlled fermentation through the aid of additives. So what if a few additives are included in wine making, you might say. A few? How about at least 150 chemicals and preternatural gunk added to wine. LINK
There are no additives whatsoever in a natural wine, no oak, no filtering, no fining. Manipulation negates the idea that wine is healthy. On the other hand, natural wine, if it lives up to its definition, should be the healthiest food (meaning micro-nutrient driven) you can ingest into your body. Unconscionable manipulation transforms wine into a fast-food… losing all identity… and soul.
The cheaper the wine ~ i. e. “value wine” ~ the more the additives and unnatural chemistry. But even the most expensive wines are pumped-up with chemical additives. One most know where the wine derives as well as the philosophy, the spirit, the uncompromising dedication of the grape-grower/wine-maker.
Carmody McKnight is the epitome of natural wine, practicing it from the nutrient-driven, volcanic soils on upward… to the perfect eco-dynamism. Carmody McKnight is a leader in the Natural Wine Revolution.
Vineyard With The Only Volcano In The World — Wine Growing in Magma!
January 9, 2012
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“Wine today is far removed from its original definition of fermented grape juice. It is the by-product of chemically induced and tightly controlled fermentation through the aid of additives and structure altering equipment.” So says Isabelle Legeron (That Crazy French Woman)
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Yes, manipulated wine is what the vast majority of people consume. It negates the idea that wine is healthy. Far from it… when wine transforms into a fast-food.
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Let’s state clearly: most people drink manipulated wine from manipulated grapevines grown in manipulated vineyards. I know that is consistent with our food culture today. So what if a few additives are included in wine making, you might say. A few? How about at least 150 chemicals and weird gunk added to wine and probably much more! LINK to the list.
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One other thing that you can count on – the cheaper the wine the more the additives.
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January 6, 2012
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The “Natural Wine Movement” and “Authentic Wine” – what is it all about? Why should we care? Is it a revolution? Certainly it is a revelation.
There are many intriguing and informative blogs and commentators on the subject. “That Crazy French Woman” is worth a peek.
Pierre Jancou in “More Than Organic” also deserves a visit. Pierre attempts to define “natural wine” and covers many of the issues but leaves the most vital ones out of his description. In the main, he is worth reading on a subject that is vital for wine and our well-being. His most salient points are as follows:
“A natural wine is a wine in small quantities, by an independent producer, on low-yielding vineyards, from handpicked grapes, without added sugars or foreign yeasts, without adjustments for acidity, without micro-oxygenation or reverse-osmosis.
Most natural wines are neither filtered nor fined. The few that are will either be filtered extremely lightly or fined with organic egg-white.
A natural wine contains no more than:
- 10 mg/l
total sulphur if red, - 25 mg/l
total sulphur if white.
If sulphur dioxide is added, it will be only at bottling and only in the tiniest quantities. Many natural wines are made without the addition of sulphur dioxide at any point. The perfect natural wine in a perfect world all natural wines would be unfiltered, unfined, and completely unsulphured. In reality this is not always possible. The perfectly natural wine is best seen as the goal towards which the natural winemaker is striving. Sometimes he will get closer than others. Just occasionally he will achieve it. The winemakers that interest us are those who get closest most often. But exactly how a wine is made is not something that can be decided in advance. Each year, and each wine, is different. The winemaker has to improvise.
Consistency
A natural wine is different each year. Different bottles from the same year may also differ slightly, according to which of several foudres (large containers) the wine has been matured in. This is not something that many large buyers are prepared to accept. Supermarkets in particular will only take large numbers of bottles of identical wine. Without the preservatives and sterilization techniques used in conventional wine, natural wine is also more at risk from spoilage. This risk is drastically reduced by careful handling.
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Availability
Natural wine cannot be mass-produced. Natural winemakers will never be able to churn out the number of bottles needed to supply a chain of supermarkets or high street off-licenses, for example. There are currently very few people able to make wine in this way. If it became too popular, there wouldn’t be enough.
Natural winemaking will always produce a better, more individual wine than conventional methods used on the same site. A natural winemaker is a genuine artisan. Natural winemaking requires skill, patience, nerve, and hard physical labour. In most cases it brings small financial rewards. There is more money, less risk, and far less work in making wine conventionally.”
More comments concerning the subject:
“Natural wines have purer flavours, more personality and are easier to digest. They are also better for you. The heavy-handed use of synthetic fertilizers, weed-killers, fungicides, pesticides and inappropriately applied heavy metals like copper have destroyed soil life in most vineyards. Wine today is far removed from its original definition of fermented grape juice. It is the by-product of chemically induced and tightly controlled fermentation through the aid of additives and structure altering equipment. Why? Because the vast majority of wine has become about the bottom line. It is about producing more and more for less and less cash. It’s about producing it as quickly as possible then flogging a brand—an illusion of people at one with the earth, translating a grape and a piece of earth into a bottle.”
Isabelle Legeron (That Crazy French Woman)
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“No matter what you call minimal intervention wines, it’s all about returning to a more sensible time in winemaking when an ego stayed out of the winemaking and stayed in the farming and what was in the glass dazzled. More wine makers who are happy with small scale production will see if they make the wine they actually want to drink, there are customers waiting to drink with them. And happily, more and more farmers will be going organic, biodynamic and the real love of farming will come back to the vigneron.”
It is conversation that cannot be avoided if one has even the slightest interest in wine. It is time to “occupy” mega-corporate winemaking and rediscover the essential purpose and intrinsic beauty of wine. More on that subject of all wine subjects coming soon.
The Natural Vineyard
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One aspect we will discuss which is largely missing from the conversation… there is no “natural” winemaking without a “natural” vineyard. What is a “natural” vineyard? Therein lies the rub!
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December 27th, 2011
Starting on the ground level — what is a great vineyard?
What must a vineyard possess to be the finest and ultimately serve, through wine, our well-being? Remember, everyone has agreed, for all time, that the greatest vineyard creates the greatest wine. Sorry winemakers… with all of the wine making skills, there are no magicians… the superior wine starts in the superior vineyard. Winemakers must understand how to play the music beautifully (no small task!). But the music begins with the composer; the composer is the vineyard.
And in regards to masterly music “Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.” Ludwig van Beethoven
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December 23rd, 2011
The most notable thinkers on wines and vines such as André Tchelistcheff who was the “dean of American winemakers” (and the mentor of industry giants such as Robert Mondavi and Louis Martini) have all acclaimed that the vineyard as central to greatness. Tchelistcheff summed up his legendary wine making expertise with: “Wine begins in the vineyard, and always, always, we must come back to the vineyard.” You come across such words constantly, on wine websites, on labels, in articles — everywhere — as endless lip service is given to this essential understanding… even as it is totally ignored.
You will almost never see asserted, though, that vineyard greatness can be scientifically explained and demonstrated. It is what the study of wine history inevitably concludes. Karen MacNeil in “The Wine Bible” speaks for her fellow wine historians and experts and in the beginning of her book sums it up: “The beginning of the twenty-first century may come to be known as the Era of the Vineyard, a time when the spotlight is once again on the grapes and the land.”
The winter palette is the most wondrous of all!
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December 19th, 2011
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Listen Up! The good life begins with Mother’s Milk (LINK to learn)! (this should tweak our interest, especially women)
When I first planted this vineyard twenty-six year ago I was consumed with only the aesthetics. When it snows (as in the photo on the left) you appreciate, if not understand (which I didn’t at the beginning), what it means to be a mountain vineyard.
In the rugged sculpture of the peaks you begin to comprehend the tectonic power of the Santa Lucias, which in our geological epoch guard this gentle mountain valley from the sea-born weather.
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December 17th, 2011
Every time I see the health warning on the back of a wine label… one thought occurs to me:
DRINK WINE OR DIE!
In 1619, at Jamestown, in the very first representative assembly in the New World, the burgesses passed: Acte 12 – “All men heading a household are required by law to grow European grapes to make wine.” And the penalty if one did not follow the law? “On paine of death.”
Our first founding fathers were dead serious about wine – and we should be serious too.
So let’s find out why if we didn’t make and drink wine we would be sentenced to death by “paine.” One thing for certain — wine must have been very healthy! No wonder Louis Pasteur declared wine as the “most healthy and hygienic of all foods!” Louis made sure our milk was healthy for us; he must have known something about healthy that we have sadly forgotten today… especially on the back of wine labels.
December 16th, 2011
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And now what makes wine healthy? First clue – it usually tastes by far the best, and it will be real wine (like real food) and un-manipulated and not factory produced (so damn rare today!). This Blog champions healthy, artisanal wines; they will be explored and assessed with our combined wine intelligence as we provide the chorus to Thomas Jefferson’s spirit who wisely declared: “Wine from long habit is essential to my health.”
But when do we know when wine is healthy? Such a good point! You might not see it in the glass… or the bottle.
Oh, you must look to the land, to the soils, and to the people who tend the vines and create the wines, and to the incredible shrinking concept of small.
Spending a bit of time on this subject may provide the most valuable take-away a person could have, and then hopefully that person will not experience “paine of death!”
Hues of winter at the vineyard
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December 13th, 2011
A great wine is great viticulture – you must understand the viticulture first – its special qualities before you can understand the wine.
A great painter is a great artist – you must understand him as an artist before you understand his painting.
A great actor never plays the same scene twice – there are always unexpected nuances, new revelations. Like a bottle of hand-crafted, authentic, non-commercialized wine — ever changing in the bottle… always a fresh experience.