Organic Wines Uncorked: Video: A Conversation with Eileen Crane of Domaine Carneros

Friday, May 3, 2013

Video: A Conversation with Eileen Crane of Domaine Carneros

Last week I had a wonderful two or three hour coffee with a great friend and cinematographer that I sometimes work with (when I do video). We fantasized about doing some interesting videos about organically grown wine - we'll see where those thoughts take us. (He's shot more than 7 Emmy award winning docs and several PBS wine series; I used to make national PBS series and about 100 videos for Apple).

But for now...

I would like to share with you some wine videos I like. (Most of them I don't like - too banal - look like they came from the same video factory...but this one doesn't.)

I had a lovely two hour visit with Eileen Crane, the CEO and winemaker at Domaine Carneros in April and was charmed by the wines and the woman. I think this story-based video captures what she shared with me then - and can share with you now. Enjoy. Perhaps with a nice cool glass of sparkling wine - to cool down in this hot weather...

No comments:

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

Friday, May 3, 2013

Video: A Conversation with Eileen Crane of Domaine Carneros

No comments:

Post a Comment

GET NEW POSTS BY EMAIL:

Organic Resources