On Organic Wine

It
should surprise nobody in the trade that Cambridge be the
quietly self-designated hotbed of a pop in the still small
niche explosion of biodynamic wines. Where but in that
socio-political cauldron of Cantabrigia could such extremism
grip sommeliers’ and diners’ imaginations? Violette Imports’
eclectic and discerning portfolio has played a vital role in
influencing the tastemakers around town. Chez Henri got
involved when ex-wine manager Scott Holliday, trained as a
chemist, became intrigued with Violette’s book. Tony Maws,
chef/owner of Craigie Street Bistrot pairs some of these
wines with his earthy dishes of pig, offal and other
exotica.

Establishment
destinations like Rialto have done well hand-selling
biodynamic wines. At a recent dinner, upon sommelier Tiffany
Taylor’s recommendation, this writer found Pierre Frick’s
2OOO Pinot Blanc to be a subtle gray-green-gold, with a
deeply fruity, slightly earthy nose, rich and smooth in
texture, long on flavors of caramel and alfalfa. (Most 2OOO
whites are deemed past peak and off most lists and shelves).
Violette owner Richard Kzirian offers background: “This wine
fermented two years on the lees! Frick says, ‘Lees contain
the essence of the flavors the soils have given our grapes.’
He shifted to organics in 197O, biodynamics in 1984, with no
chaptalizing since 1988. He’s a founder of Alsace’s
biodynamic movement; his peers look to him and
Zind-Humbrecht for counsel.”

Oleana Manager
and Wine Director Theresa Paopao is on board: fully half her
8O-entry list has organic wines color-coded blue and
biodynamic wines red, giving the list a patriotic Old Glory
look. Of Oleana’s 22 wines-by-the-glass in March, 8 were
organic and 4 biodynamic. Says the young half-Samoan,
Hawaiian-born wine director, “Rhones are most popular: the
grape varietals Grenache and Marsanne/Rousanne are well
suited to our spicy food. Since we use sustainable
ingredients from our farm, it makes sense to include similar
products on our wine list.” The farm Paopao refers to is
Siena Farms in Sudbury, Massachusetts, run by Chris Kurth,
husband of Oleana’s chef/owner Ana Sortun and named for
their baby daughter.

Do biodynamic
wines have better flavors? “They are better wines, in my
opinion,” avers Paopao. “They may not be always more intense
or aromatic, but they do speak more of the place they come
from. There’s more work involved, you can’t just dump
chemicals in the vineyard and call it a day. You have to be
dedicated and pay attention – and then a quality product
comes forth.”

Do they need
handselling? “Hey, this is Cambridge, the land of hybrid
cars and Whole Foods! These wines sell themselves. When I
started at Oleana four years ago, there was less interest,
customers were not so versed in the concept. But today there
are seminars everywhere, biodynamic wine symposiums in NYC
and France. I’m sure there’s also a direct awareness factor
with concerns for global warming. People shop at Whole
Foods, and the logic is ‘If you buy organic foods, why not
your beverages, too?’

Paopao considers
many factors in choosing sustainable wines. “Beyond how the
vineyard is farmed, it is so important that the wine goes
with our food. Many go-to wines are from Southern France and
Northern Italy as they generally tend to pair better with
the complicated flavors and spices of Oleana’s menu. But
you’d be surprised how much wine from Slovenia, Greece and
Lebanon we go through. I think people check their ‘food
reservations’ at Oleana’s front door. Because our flavors
and spices are brand new to them, once they get through the
unfamiliar territory of the menu, it’s not a stretch to get
them to try something adventurous from the wine
list.”

The trend has
national echoes in the green movement. Paopao asserts:
“Oleana is also ‘going green’: we compost most kitchen
waste, use no Styrofoam; we’re in the process of installing
energy efficient lighting; our current renovations utilize
recycled building materials. A boston globe (3/14/O7)
article on the Green Restaurant Association listed Oleana
and Upstairs at the Pudding from Cambridge, and Lumiere from
Newton among Eastern Massachusetts’ eight members in a
national group of 3OO.

Upstairs on the
Square offers many organic and biodynamic wines and
sustainable food products; at their recent high-profile
spring dinner at the James Beard House in Manhattan, Chef
Steven Brand served five courses paired with “dynamic wines
from sustainable and organic vineyards”.

What was
perceived as a trend has become an international movement.
“Cambridge has its reputation for being green,” says Chef
Maws, “but the biodynamic revolution is going forward on
many fronts. Articles and books are being written
everywhere. France has wine festivals in Paris and Narbonne.
It’s easy to embrace politically because of the way it
encompasses everything that’s happening environmentally
within the borders of the vineyard property. You can grab
onto the concept from a philosophical perspective, sure, but
at the end of the day the wine has to taste good. If you’re
not a good winemaker, biodynamics is not going to help
you.”

Maws is less
keen on the marketing than the tastes. “Most of my wines are
organic. For Americans, it may just be a marketing gimmick.
We’re brainwashed into thinking at Whole Foods that if it’s
organic it must be better – not necessarily the case. While
it does say that these products were grown using such and
such farming practices, it does not guarantee it’s worth the
difference in price, or how it hits your palate. With us,
we’re serving food that is definitely off the beaten path,
so we like surprises in our wines, too. We serve cockscombs
and pig’s tails, and these foods need robust wines with a
lot of acidity. The Loire’s a good place for them, and a
high percentage of biodynamic and organic wines are being
made by Loire producers, so it’s a natural fit.”

To
farm as flora and fauna.

Biodynamic
grape-growing stems from the philosophy and practical
teachings of Viennese physician Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925).
His own spiritual/practical philosophy, called
anthroposophy, includes understanding nature from the
ecological, energetic and spiritual perspectives. Steiner,
who founded homeopathic medicine and The Waldorf School,
taught biodynamic ideas in classes on agriculture that
predate organic winemaking by a generation. Biodynamic
agriculture is a holistic system where soil is nurtured
through natural remedies, and planting, harvesting and
bottling take place according to the positions of the
planets and lunar phases. Natural animal and vegetable
matter is applied to soil to strengthen it, and various
homeopathic herbal and mineral preparations are added to
help the soil maximize light and heat for
photosynthesis.

Holliday, a
biochemistry major before becoming a wine-buyer, found the
notions of sustainability and self-sufficiency appealing.
“Your property is an organism in which the components need
to be in balance with the right mix of mammals, birds,
insects, micro-organisms, plants – even the ideal
cosmological conditions (where I withhold belief). Your
compost comes from the animals, pomace, yeasts. It’s a
permanent reinforcement from within, year after year.
There’s a fractal, metaphorical relationship between your
property (an entity that has every living thing in it to
produce great wine) and a grape (a fruit that has everything
in it to produce great wine – sugar, flavenoids, tannin,
pigment, enzymes) and a bottle of wine (fruit, acid, color,
weight, alcohol.)”

The two
certifying agencies of biodynamics exercise but limited
influence on the free-thinking farmer-growers, asserts
Holliday. “Demeter is older and more general in that its
certification covers all agriculture (www.demeter-usa.org).
Biodyvin is a competing/complementary agency specifically
for French wine producers (www.biodyvin.com). Many growers
ignore or resent being told how to interpret biodynamics in
their vineyards; some highly individualistic producers,
overworked already, are less likely to jump through extra
bureaucratic hoops. In general, the more prestigious the
producer, the less likely they are to proclaim their
biodynamic status (Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, Domaine
Leflaive). Many have long (sometimes centuries-old)
reputations that could only be tainted by any sort of
marketing ploy.”

Leonardo
LoCascio, founder and president of Winebow, confirmed
Holliday’s remarks at a dinner at Stonehedge Inn’s Silks
Restaurant, adding an incontrovertible one: the economic
factor. LoCascio pointed out that the stringent and
expensive chemical testing that Italian wine regulations
require of organic and biodynamic wineries end up costing
producers such whopping fees that they prefer not to
disclose such processes on their labels.

Biodynamics
started in Europe but has spread in a limited way to the New
World. France leads the league of nations with biodynamic
wineries; its 17O outnumbers all other nations combined.
Following are Austria, USA and Germany [see
sidebar].

California’s
Wine Institute records that the state has about 8OOO
wine-type acres certified as organic, and much of the fruit
is used by wineries that label their wines “organic” or
“made with organically grown grapes”. Both labels indicate
grapes grown without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides,
herbicides. or fungicides for a period of at least three
years with third-party inspection. The key difference
between the two is that wines labeled “organic” have no
added sulfites to sustain prolonged shelf life and must have
laboratory certification that the wine contains 1O parts per
million or less sulfites. Labels for “organic” and “made
with organically grown grapes” are approved both by the US
Tax & Trade Bureau and FDA’s National Organic Program.
Consumer concerns for welfare of their families, the earth
and the future of society drive the growing interest in
“green” products and industries. The widespread practice of
sustainability and similar farming initiatives demonstrate
this deep commitment. California wineries utilizing organic
and biodynamic practices include Bonterra, Lolonis, Frey,
Ceago del Lago.

Violette Imports
goes about its business quietly, no trumpeting, but the
subtle and persistent choices of an ecologically oriented
portfolio put forth over the years have had a marked effect
on winelists throughout Cambridge – and elsewhere. (“We
don’t wanna be rock stars,” says Kzirian. “It’s all about
the producers.”) Though his conversations with Violette’s
David Mitchell and Kzirian opened Holliday’s eyes, his BS in
biochemistry kept him skeptical. “My background as a
scientist was to hold outlandish claims up to the light.
Some ideas are right up there with pyramids that keep razor
blades sharp and copper earrings that cure arthritis. Some
claims sound so ridiculous that people call biodynamics the
lunatic fringe of organic farming. One precept that raises
eyebrows is that you bury a quartz in a cow’s horn on the
property from equinox to equinox. To fertilize, bury cow
manure for a year, dig it up, dilute and stir it
dynamizingly (vigorously clockwise and counterclockwise).
Some great growers are stone cold serious about these
procedures. Here’s an example. We were pouring Muscadet by a
producer who spins his wines in dynamizing fashion
(counterclockwise to the Earth’s rotation) before bottling
them. I mentioned this as a joke to a Californian biodynamic
producer, who looked at me thunderstruck and said, ‘What a
fabulous idea!’ It was an epiphany for him!”

Holliday weighs
in on the wines’ pronounced chemical and mineral components.
“A major difference between organic and biodynamic wines is
the increased availability – a huge spike – in calcium ions,
a traditional and coveted source of minerality and flavor
distinction in many of the world’s best vineyards.
Biodynamic vineyard practices tend to supercharge microbial
activity within the soil, as opposed to chemical-based
agriculture, where microbial activity is nearly dead. As
nothing gets trucked out or in, the composted and recycled
culture goes back into the soil; micro-organisms make
minerals available for uptake by the plant’s roots. Chemical
fertilizer tends to make the vines turn their roots upward,
instead of seeking downward for the minerals.

“I’ve come to
approach these wines – and others outside people’s everyday
drinking experiences – as if they’re ‘characters’. If you’re
introducing someone to an eccentric friend, you might say
more than just: “Steve, Bob. Bob, Steve.” You might prepare
them a little, give a preview. You might tell a customer,
‘Unlike most Shirazes, this one has real animal quality – a
meaty core. Once you get past that, the flavors are
complemented by fruit and mineral.’ Give them a framework to
help diminish the shock. As professional tasters we’re
trained – first and foremost – to look for flaws. With most
wines, if you look hard enough, you’ll find them. That’s not
a good approach when trying to enjoy wines, and can quickly
eliminate a lot of interesting ones.” Chez Henri carries
Holliday’s biodynamic selections: Domaine de Roquefort
[Provence] Clairette, Les Portes Rose
[Languedoc], Rateau [Cotes de Beaune] a
pioneer who preceded that biodynamic prophet and poster boy,
Nicolas Joly [see Profile in January ‘O7 issue of
beverage].

Maws concurs
with Holliday’s being persuaded by knowledgeable
enthusiasts. “Wine friends like Richard Kzirian and Cat
Silirie [Nine Park] are great proponents for
teaching and discovering wines. They’ve been a tremendous
influence on my wine list from day one, and continue to be
great sources of information. They both love to embrace the
spirit of biodynamic wines . . .”

There
are no bargains.

“There are no
short-cut, bargain biodynamic wines,” continues Holliday.
“What these producers do is highly labor-intensive and
requires all sorts of extra tasks. They value hand over
machine harvesting. They value slow, wild-yeast
fermentations (that tie up your equipment for weeks) over
boutique hot yeasts that ferment in seven days. They entail
a huge disparity ratio of land versus vineyard: to keep an
ecosystem in balance costs plenty of acreage. Mike
Benziger’s 85 acres are only 5O% planted to vine; the rest
makes room for swamp, pond, an ‘insectory’, and forest for
beneficial predators. He pushes his growers to achieve
‘sustainability’; that may not be enough to benefit the
wines, but from a humanistic standpoint, it’s a great
step.”

Benziger’s
Tribute, carried by Horizon Beverage Company, is one of the
occasional Californian efforts to achieve fetish
status.

“Though organic
production doesn’t go far enough,” admits Holliday,
“biodynamics is no magic bullet to produce exceptional
wines. Yet, if your property has the potential to produce
exceptional wines, biodynamics will help enhance that
potential. You’re not gonna make a silk purse out of a sow’s
ear. Chenin Blanc from fertile-valley California won’t ever
taste like Savennieres. It’s a harsh reality. I never had
the build to play hoops in the NBA; no coaching program or
breakfast cereal regimen will ever get me there!”

Retailers
chime in

Roger Ormon of
Brookline Liquor Mart mentions the restructuring of
vineyards. “Biodynamic and organic producers range and
terrace their rows so as to get maximum sunlight, and
respect the integrity of the hillside. Yet they make it
possible for vineyard workers to access the vines without
too difficult slopes by training the vines upward to ease
hand-work. William Fevre (Chablis) and Bouchard [same
ownership] tout hand-picking in small buckets. Important
benefits are less refuse in the crusher/basket and on the
sorting table. Their wines show that – clean, pristine.”
Ormon, who’d just tasted Bouchard’s Volnay, Beaune Greves
and l’Enfant Jesus, declared they showed “real sex
appeal”.

Retailers
confirm that organics are catching on. Penny Knapman,
proprietor of The Epicure in Chatham says: “Organics I leave
some space for, as I have people who specifically call for
them. To people who say that they’re allergic to sulfites, I
gently suggest that they’re likelier to be allergic to the
tannins. You can’t fault people for being health conscious,
and my small organics section – Lolonis, Coturri and others
– suffices for my client base.”

Ormon continues:
“I respect the choices of producers to implement
[sustainable] methods and techniques in growing and
winemaking, but that, in and of itself, is not sufficient to
create good wine. It still takes talent to do it right. Some
of the best producers do it, but aren’t advertising the
fact. It’s a little like religion: some of the most vocal
proselytizers are suspect. By their wines shall ye know
them! The main thing is that the wines taste
good!”

Amazing
mouthfuls, but . . .

Chef Maws
readily admits that biodynamic wines are for more
adventurous diners. “All the wines we bring in, we have to
enjoy, whatever their provenance; they all have to have
personality. But biodynamic wines have a certain –
unpredictability – about them, for one reason because they
don’t add sulfur. Without adding preservatives, you’re
opening yourself to the possibility that the wine might take
a right or left turn. My staff is well-educated and it’s up
to them to tell people about the wines. We don’t offer wine
flights, but we open lots of bottles to pour by the glass.
(At the moment we have biodynamic wines by the glass, though
we don’t flag them as such: Zusslin Alsace Sylvaner and
Derain red Burgundy.)

“What’s
overlooked with food in restaurant settings is that the
grand marque wines that you can swirl in your glass and
contemplate are not necessarily all that good with foods.
Wines more high in acidity and tannins are going to go
better with our dishes. There are plenty of wines I love to
drink that I don’t put on my list for various reasons. Some
wines that you think of in terms of vintage and aging are
almost too pretty to have with venison, they’d overpower it.
This week we’re serving cod cheeks poached in mustard oil
and served with cardoons and tarbay beans. A white Chinon or
Derain Bourgogne Blanc are fine with this. Or Sika venison
with a walnut puree served with a wild red Burgundy or
Pierre Frick’s Pinot Noir (Alsace). We think it’s important
to decant most of our wines, biodynamic or not.

“Some biodynamic
wines – not all – are full of surprises, they have a real
life of their own. Nicolas Joly’s Coulee de Serrant is
really whacked-out, phenomenal, but it’s not for everyone’s
palate. When you first learn to drive, you don’t get behind
the wheel of a Porsche, know what I mean? Some of these
wines have a profound flavor profile, but that doesn’t mean
they’re inaccessible. Richard is always bringing in amazing
new wines to try, but some of them are really whacked-out,
too weird for my list. That doesn’t mean we don’t like to
drink them when we’re off on Monday nights! ” Kzirian
confirms, with a chuckle, “Tony tastes with me 2 to 3 times
before he puts anything on his list!”