Organic Wines Uncorked: Kudos to Cooper Mountain! A Wine & Spirits Top 100 Best Buy Wine!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Kudos to Cooper Mountain! A Wine & Spirits Top 100 Best Buy Wine!

Cooper Mountain's biodynamically grown Cooper Hill Pinot Noir ($15) is one of the Top 100 Value Wines of the year, says Wine & Spirits magazine.

(I already knew, since it's in my forthcoming wine app, but it's nice to spread the word.)

Wine & Spirits also gave impressive scores to two of Cooper Mountain Vineyards higher end Pinots with Mountain Terroir (list: $45) taking a 92 point rating and "Life" (sold out) garnering 90 points.

I am a big fan of Cooper Mountain and Cooper Hill. The latter brand name is its line of wines sold through distributors only, while the Cooper Mountain wine is available from the winery.

Congratulations, Cooper Mountain! Well done!

A Top 100 Value Wine of the Year

Cooper Mountain along with other Oregon wineries will be putting on a party all weekend Memorial Day weekend. More info available here.

You can probably pay for airfare for a winery weekend in October on the savings in tasting room fees (over Napa, for instance).

Online you can pick up a bottle of this outstanding Pinot Noir (Matt Kramer of Wine Spectator is also a fan) for $13-15. See here.

Stay in the know about all things Cooper Mountain (the only budget brand that's biodynamic all the way) by liking them on their Facebook page.

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1 comment:

jackshonMay 21, 2012 at 11:29 PM
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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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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Kudos to Cooper Mountain! A Wine & Spirits Top 100 Best Buy Wine!

1 comment:

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