Organic Wines Uncorked: Organics On Wine & Spirits List of Year's Best Cabernets and Cab Blends

Monday, November 28, 2011

Organics On Wine & Spirits List of Year's Best Cabernets and Cab Blends

Frog's Leap's 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon (92 points)
Wine & Spirits Best Cabernets of the Year
Ahead of Staglin Family (91 pts.,/$185) and Ridge
At $45 ($40 online) a W&S BEST BUY

Is this the Olympics of California wine?

Each year, we wait to see who will get the best cabernet ratings in various competitions. In this case, it's the Wine & Spirits year's best rankings.

The overall ratings game is not quite as exciting since Parker stopped tasting California wines himself for the Wine Advocate, but it's still a tiny thrill to see where the organically grown wineries wind up on this and other year's best lists.

Here are the organically grown ones from the Wine & Spirits list.

CABERNETS

94 Points

• Spottswoode
2007 St. Helena Napa Valley, $136

92 Points

• Frog's Leap
2008 Napa Valley Cabernet, $45
Best Buy
(Not 100% certified grapes as Williams buys grapes from "practicing organic" growers)

91 Points

• Rubicon Estate
2007 Rutherford Napa Valley Cask Cabernet Sauvignon, $75

• Staglin Family
2008 Rutherford Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, $185

90 Points

• Chappellet
2008 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, $135
(midway in the 3-year transition to certified organic)

• Peju
2007 Rutherford Napa Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, $105

CABERNET BLENDS

For comparison's sake, the top wine was Ridge Montebello (95 pts./$146) while Rothschild-owned Dominus 2008 Napa Valley ($149) came in at 93 pts.

93 Points

• Benziger
2008 Sonoma Mountain Tribute, $80
100% biodynamic
79% Cabernet Sauvignon with Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, and Merlot

• Rubicon Estate
2008 Rutherford Napa Valley Rubicon, $200

• Volker Eisele
2007 Napa Valley Terzetto, $75

91 Points

• Joseph Phelps
2007 Napa Valley Insignia, $225
100% biodynamic grapes (even though they don't like to advertise this, they are)

90 Points

• Rubicon Estate
2007 Rutherford Napa Valley Rubicon, $145

1 comment:

baltimoeronvinoSeptember 5, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Just a FYI you should be a bit more careful about how you specifically have your "organic wineries" listed. The idea is great, and the way you have it mapped out is really user friendly. However, a number of these wineries only have a couple "organic" wines. Landmark, for instance, only has one, and their largest production wines (like "Overlook" are not certified, nor do all the grapes come from their estate.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

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

Pages

Monday, November 28, 2011

Organics On Wine & Spirits List of Year's Best Cabernets and Cab Blends

1 comment:

Organic Resources