Organic Wines Uncorked: Napa Wine Auction: Organic Vintners Lead the Pack With Winningest Offers

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Napa Wine Auction: Organic Vintners Lead the Pack With Winningest Offers

The big gala event of the year in California's most glamorous valley was this weekend - rainy and cold, but warm in spirit. The auction raised $7.3 million dollars for local charities (about $1 million less than in 2010).

Several organic vintners made headlines. A few highlights:

The Staglins

• Staglin Family Vineyard, which makes only organically grown wines, put together one of the winningest bids: $300,000 for a wine and food weekend in Napa with meals cooked by Michael Chiarello. The Calabrese-themed offer was doubled in order to sell it twice. The winning bidders were Sandi and John Thompson of Woodside (he is chairman of the board of Symantec) and Dan Duckhorn.

• Chappellet Vineyard & Winery (transitioning to CCOF) also doubled its offer, raising $200,000 each for the ultimate road trip for 6 to Big Sur and south along with double magnums of its cabernet sauvignons.

Cal. Lt. Gov. (and Cade partner) Gavin
Newsom with U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson

• Jean-Charles Boisset, of Raymond Vineyards (in transition to Demeter certification), offered dinner in Paris in the Baccarat Cristal Room, and a trip to Burgundy, for $195,000 and got and fulfilled two offers, also doubling the money.

Other offers included organically or biodynamically grown wines from Araujo, Quintessa, Joseph Phelps (who partnered with Schramsberg), Spottswoode and Cade. Cade partner (and California's Lt. Gov.) Gavin Newsom was on hand to celebrate the festivities.

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Wines We Cover

We publish information about wines grown from certified organic or Biodynamic vineyards that are generally made with sulfites (which are usually added in small amounts to preserve the wine).

That includes these certification types:

ORGANIC WINE CERTIFICATIONS

• Made with Organic Grapes

Vineyards: certified organic

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites (i.e. a normal range)

Winery: certified organic facility

Labeling: front or back label

• Ingredients: Organic Grapes

Vineyards: certified organic

Vinification: up to 350 ppm of sulfites (same as for any non organic wine)

Labeling: back label only

BIODYNAMIC® CERTIFICATIONS

• Biodynamic Wine

Vineyards: certified biodynamic

Yeasts: native

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites; no additives of any kind

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back label; Demeter logo may appear

• Made with Biodynamic Grapes

Vineyards: certified biodynamic

Yeasts: native or organic

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites; limited number of additives permitted

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back

Note: unlike organically grown wines, for which there is a category called "Ingredients: Organic Grapes," wines sourced from biodynamic grapes may not make any biodynamic claim on the bottle label. Bottle labeling is reserved for Demeter certified wines only.

SULFITES IN CONTEXT

According to U.C. Davis, the average among all wines in the U.S. (as well as globally) is 80 ppm.

WHAT THE USDA CALLS ORGANIC WINES

Unlike any other nation, the U.S. oddly imposes a no sulfite restriction on wines in order for them to be called Organic Wine. These wines are also called NSA or NAS wines (which stands for "No Sulfites Added" or "No Added Sulfites.")

From the above description, one can see that there are in fact three types of organically grown wines:

1. Organic Wine (less than 15% of all organically grown wine)

2. Made with Organic Grapes

3. Ingredients: Organic Grapes

The vast majority of wines from organic grapes are labeled Made with Organic Grapes, Ingredients: Organic Grapes or are blended with nonorganic grapes and unlabeled.

Fine winemakers do not generally make wine without sulfites and a number of large wine retailers like BevMo do not sell wine in the category of "USDA Organic Wine."

With rare exceptions, this blog does not cover what the USDA calls "Organic Wine."

We are hopeful that the USDA will revise the categorization of organically grown wines and make NSA or NAS wines a category of their own.

This would put the U.S. in accord with the rest of the world, where "Organic Wine" means a wine from certified grapes made within limits on sulfites (generally under 100-150 ppm).

Organic Wines Uncorked

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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Napa Wine Auction: Organic Vintners Lead the Pack With Winningest Offers

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