Grow, Baby, Grow: Fred Franzia Is Converting 5,000 Acres to Organic Certification

He's better known as the man behind Two Buck Chuck but Fred Franzia is also the man behind some of the country's biggest selling organic brands. If you're looking for an organically grown wine that's almost as cheap as Two Buck Chuck, you may have found his bestselling organic brand - Green Fin - which sells at Trader Joe's for just $4-5.

Now there's Fred Franzia's Next Big Thing - Rare Earth - an organically grown wine at TJ's for $8.

If you ask me, Fred Franzia and his son Joey Franzia are reading the (organic) tea leaves pretty well. While Big Wine has, for the most part, decided organic is not for them, Bonterra and Green Fin have the market to themselves. And Franzia is ready to grow, baby, grow. (When I say Franzia, I am referring to the family that owns Bronco Wine, not the Franzia Winery owned by The Wine Group.)

The latest research increasingly shows that younger wine drinkers are ready, willing and able to buy organically grown wines. At Unified Wine & Grape Symposium earlier this year, Danny Brager of Nielsen presented findings on what wine consumers want and found that 30% were interested in organic wine. Millennials were more interested than older consumers.

That's similar to studies in Europe that find Millenials are the most interested in drinking wine from organic vines, a change from the older generation. The chart below shows the consumer interest in organically grown wines, from a presentation earlier this year.

See previous post on BioVin Italy

MARKET LEADERS

Today there are just two big guns in the organically grown table wine space - Bonterra and Franzia.

Bonterra currently makes 350,000 cases of its wines, widely sold in supermarkets and at Costco.

Bronco's role in this marketplace has not been as prominent or noticeable, probably because most of its wines are sold at Trader Joe's, yet it is quite a significant player in this space.

Its Green Fin brand ($4-5 a bottle) is already selling 140,000 cases a year, through Trader Joe's. Bronco Wine has other organically grown wines in the marketplace, including Cottonwood Creek (5,500 cases a year) and Green Truck (8,000 cases a year from Mendocino growers).

Its Rare Earth wines already sell 32,000 cases a year.

That makes Bronco's case production of wines certified as "Made with Organic Grape" wines already a whopping 185,000 cases a year.

BONTERRA: 19% GROWTH

Bonterra enjoyed its best year ever, winning a Hot Brand award this spring for its spectacular 19% annual growth. That comes on top of 15% year over year growth. Its wines are widely available in supermarkets and sell for about $10-15 a bottle. It's also carried in Costco coast to coast.

Bonterra sources its grapes from 900+ acres of its own and buys grapes from growers, that add an additional 900 acres or so to the number of acres it sources from. So it totals about 1,800 acres of organic vines. That's more than ten percent of the country's organic vines.

FRANZIA: PROJECTED 100% GROWTH

Often a desire or interest in going organic meets a serious obstacle - the lack of available organic grapes.

Today there are roughly 15,000 acres of certified organic or Biodynamic vines in the U.S. including 11,400 from CCOF, 500+ from Organic Certifiers (Ridge and Tablas Creek and a few others) and 500 from other certifiers. Demeter's Stellar Certification Services accounts for another 3,300 acres.

Franzia has one big advantage in vastly expanding his organically grown wines - he owns 40,000 acres of vines in California, more than anyone else in the U.S. So the Franzia family doesn't have to go around convincing conventional growers to go organic and wait three years. They can just act - and voila. French plows replace glyphosate and Roundup.

That's what's happening right now, according to Franzia. The family says 5,000 acres of their Madera County vineyards will be certified in 2017, meaning they could ramp up production to as much as 400,000 cases of organically grown wines in 2017 - which would more than double their current high volume production.

That's quite an accomplishment.

Growing the organic vineyard acreage in the U.S. from 15,000 to 20,000 represents an increase of 33% - an entirely new direction, since U.S. organic vineyard numbers have been declining in recent years, even as the rest of the world's grows.

For now, you can try the two Rare Earth wines already on Trader Joe's shelves. And raise a glass to the next 5,000 acres. That is truly something to celebrate.

Domaine Anderson's Dach Vineyard Demeter Certified: Doubles Biodynamic Acreage in Anderson Valley

Domaine Anderson's Dach Vineyard is now certified Biodynamic, the winery announced this summer, celebrating the news in its latest ads. This make the winery the first vintner in Anderson Valley to have Biodynamic vines.

This development comes in a region where organic and Biodynamic Pinot Noir has lagged well behind regions of comparable quality and size.


The new Domaine Anderson is one of 11 owned by the Champagne Louis Roederer Group in Champagne and is located a stone's throw from its very big brother, Roederer Estate, and its other sibling, Scharffenberger Cellars, both noted sparkling wine producers. Unlike its siblings, Domaine Anderson is devoted exclusively to still wines - Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Domaine Anderson is also the first Champagne Louis Roederer Group winery that sells only via direct to consumer channels, following the model of many successful artisanal brands. The wines will only be available at the tasting room, through its online web site or via its wine club.

Its first vintage from in transition vines, the 2013 Dach Vineyard Pinot Noir (215 cases, $65), is available only to wine club members.

A 2013 Dach Chardonnay (142 cases, $55), from in transition vines, has also been released for sale in the tasting room and will be part of the wine club's upcoming shipment.

In addition, the winery certified the five acre Pinoli as well as the Dach vineyard organic in 2014.

Total case production for the winery is 4,800 cases.

Domaine Anderson's winery, designed by Napa's celebrated winery architect Howard Backen, and tasting room, designed by Patricia Roberts, opened in May, offering an attractive setting for sampling the wines indoors or outside on its terrace overlooking the vines. Outside the winery are bee friendly gardens (away from the tasting area and paths); the tasting room prominently displays a bee friendly gardening book for sale by the celebrated gardener, Kate Frey, who also lives in Mendocino.

Domaine Anderson sources from seven estate vineyards (consisting of 50 acres, according to its web site); three are made into single vineyard designate wines. Of those, Dach is the only one that is certified Biodynamic; Pinoli is also certified organic. Some other vineyards are in the certification pipeline.

The winery also has a demonstration garden showing organic versus Biodynamic vegetables growing side by side to show the difference in the vitality of the food produced. (Raymond Winery in Napa also has a similar demonstration garden to show the difference.)

August 2016 harvest at Domaine Anderson with Darrin Low, winemaker,
and Jane Khoury, assistant vineyard manager and Biodynamic program manager

BIODYNAMICS IN ANDERSON VALLEY

Previously, Filigreen Farms, a noted Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris vineyard, was the only grower in the area to be certified Biodynamic. Its grapes go to artisanal producers who produce very small lots of wines from its vines, including Donkey & Goat in Berkeley, Lichen, Yamakiri, and Panthea. It also has 17 acres of vines, so the addition of Domaine Anderson's vines brings the total in Anderson Valley to 34 acres of Demeter certified vines.

ORGANICS IN ANDERSON VALLEY

In addition, Handley Cellars, Anderson Vineyards and Long Meadow Ranch also farm organically in Anderson Valley.

Handley Cellars has 29 acres of CCOF certified vines, bottled into four estate wines. Anderson Vineyards (part of Roederer) has 44 acres that are CCOF certified, but these are not vinified separately. Long Meadow Ranch has 69 acres of in transition vines (CCOF), making the organic-only vineyards' tally 73 acres (plus 69 in transition).

Added to the Biodynamic vines (which are also certified organic, by Demeter's Stellar Certification Services), that brings the total to for organic vines to 107 acres (plus 69 in transition). When those in transition vines are certified, expected in 2017, the total will be 176 acres in Anderson Valley AVA.

BIODYNAMICS AND PINOT NOIR: ACRES COMPARED

Biodynamics is already quite popular with Pinot Noir producers in Oregon, where more than 830 acres of (mostly) Pinot Noir vines are certified Biodynamic. That represents roughly a third of the Demeter certified vineyard acreage in the U.S.

Major Oregon producers include Maysara, Montinore Estate, and Cooper Mountain with Johan Vineyards, Soter Vineyards' Mineral Springs Ranch, Brooks, Brick House Vineyards, and Winderlea. In addition, King Estate, in the southernmost part of the Willamette Valley, is expected to be certified Biodynamic later this year, which will add another 465 acres on top of Oregon's current total 830 acres. (About half of King Estate's vines are Pinot Noir.)

The new total for Demeter certified acreage in Oregon will then top 1,300 acres.

Many of the world's most famous Pinot Noir vineyards in Burgundy are farmed Biodynamically, including Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine Leroy, and Domaine Leflaive, and Oregon producers have always looked to Burgundy as a reference point. In fact, among Demeter certified vineyards in the U.S., Pinot Noir producers top the list with the most acreage of any varietals in vine.

In comparison to Anderson Valley, here in northern California, Sonoma has about 85 acres of Pinot Noir (plus more of other varietals) that is Demeter certified. Estate producers include Benziger, DeLoach, Mabaroshi, Porter Bass and Porter Creek. (In addition, Radio Coteau has no vines but it does have a certified Biodynamic winery.)

In central California, Ampelos Cellars (25 acres) in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA in Santa Barbara County has been Biodynamic since 2009. Its neighbor, Sea Smoke Cellars, is expected to be certified Biodynamic this year, bringing on another 170 acres of (mostly) Pinot Noir vines to the Biodynamic fold.

ANDERSON VALLEY IN CONTEXT

To recap, before any U.S. newcomers come on board, the Biodynamic tally for Pinot focused regions is Anderson Valley - 34 acres - compared to 25 acres in Santa Barbara County and 830 for Oregon's Willamette Valley.

After the newcomers are certified (expected this year), the comparison will be Anderson Valley - 34 acres - compared to 195 acres in Santa Barbara County and 1,300 in Willamette Valley.

Clearly Domaine Anderson is taking in a step in the right direction, and helping to bring Anderson Valley closer to best practices among top Pinot Noir producers in the U.S.

Organic Outliers in the Central Valley: Madera's Wine Trail's Fäsi Winery - Where A Swiss German Makes Syrah That Surprises

I am sure many people driving down Highway 41 to Yosemite's southern entrance near Oakhurst wonder why they see a winery tasting room rising from the dry, golden hills in this hot, dusty part of California.

But then, maybe they just don't know about the Madera Wine Trail.

I traveled the trail earlier this summer, a day before going to Fresno State's Grape Day, to see just who in Madera was growing organic wine grapes.

This summer I've become intrigued by the people who have organic vineyards in the Central Valley, where the vast swathes of grapes (interspersed between the monoculture almond and walnut,plantations) are grown for California bulk wine. Surely, anyone growing organically out here must be special to be outliers in this no-mans-land of chemically farmed vineyards.

To put this in perspective, Madera County has 36,696 acres of wine grapes. Just 626 acres of that, according to the county ag commissioner's office, are certified organic.

The other folks use 88,000 pounds of glyphosate - that's more than twice as much per acre as in many other regions of the state. And they apply imidacloprid, the bee and bird toxin banned in Europe, on 27,590 acres. Boscalid, another bee and bird toxin, is applied to 12,271 acres. And that's just a partial list.

From the CCOF directory, I discovered that a guy named Ralph P. Fäsi had 42 acres of vineyards in Madera. Who was he? And what was he doing with a vineyard here? A vineyard he has wine made from?

It turns out to be quite a tale.

A large cork oak tree has been planted (left) in the yard

In case you haven't driven there lately, it is necessary to have a fully working air conditioned vehicle to visit Madera and Highway 41 in the heat of summer. My antique, collectible 1991 Miata is not yet equipped with full strength cooling (and is not fixable according to my mechanic, due to its age, as we ascertained upon closer inspection this week), so I was overjoyed to reach the Fäsi tasting room in Friant, where the air conditioning was working at warp speed.

One enters into the dimly lit tasting room after parking in a lot near three acres of vines planted by the previous winery (not organic - at least not yet) and walking by a graceful water fountain and several large black and white cow sculptures, a symbol of Mr. Fäsi's Swiss German heritage.

How did they and Mr. Fäsi come to be here, in central California? A very good question.

It all started, like so many things in life, with a trip to Yosemite. In 1983, Mr. Fäsi and his wife, Yvonne, also Swiss German, came from Switzerland to see Yosemite. On their journey, they had a car accident, which necessitated a stay in Madera for recuperation. During their time there, they became enamored of the area and decided to live here.

In 1992, the couple found riverfront property along the San Joaquin River, purchasing a vineyard planted to Thompson seedless grapes, a mainstay of Central Valley grape growing, and Grenache.

Together with their family friend, Professor Cesare Fabietti (who taught Italian at nearby Fresno State), they made some homemade wines, which were not sufficient to satisfy their palates.

Fäsi decided to get serious and decided to see what it would take to make first class wines from his estate. He wanted to show the world what Madera could do, if it was freed from the goal of producing in quantity and instead focused on quality.

He engaged the best local talent, hiring Fresno State viticulture and enology professor Robert Wample to assess the soils. After extensive testing, Wample recommended Syrah as the best grape for the site. The site is cooled by the river, which lowers the temperature about 10 degrees in comparison to surrounding sites.

In terms of financial return on investment, Wample recommended - surprisingly, for this area - becoming organic, as the grapes would sell for a higher price than other grapes from Madera.

(There are very few organic vines in Madera County, even to this day).

So Fäsi and company ripped out all the old vines and planted anew - a new state of the art vineyard, a la 1999, based on the best advice from Wample. Three years later, when the grapes were harvested, the Fasi's held back the grapes from 2 acres, selling the rest to a buyer.

Fäsi entrusted the winemaking to Claude Bobba of Wente Vineyards in Livermore, trucking the grapes to the winery in Contra Costa county. The 2003 was the first vintage.

Fast forward 12 years to 2015. A Forbes writer ranked the 2010 Syrah as one of her top ten wines of the year, calling it, "rich and complex." By then the 2010 vintage was long gone, but the review brought TV crews and many local visitors. See this local TV coverage.

"We had no idea how the Forbes writer got a bottle of the wine, or that she was going to put it on her list," said Erica Magarian, the general manager for Fäsi Wines. "And by the time she wrote about it, it was already several vintages behind our current release."

Today the winery is serving the 2013 vintage ($29), and it's quite impressive. You get the point - that Madera can make great wines.

In fact, Fasi has been experimenting with many different approaches to its estate wines. It has four different wines made by three different winemakers.

Claude Bobba of Wente in Livermore has made every vintage of the reserve Syrah since its inaugural release. "We've won gold medals for every vintage," says Magarian.

Bobba is also responsible for making the port style Syrah that's a sweet wine.

Winemaker John Schumacher of Hallcrest Vineyards in Felton wanted to make a no-added-sulfite, USDA Organic Wine from Fasi's grapes and his 2012 is the current release.

In addition, the local team of John Giannini, who was a Fresno State connection, makes a rosé wine from the vines.

Fairly amazing for a winery that only makes 400 cases from the Syrah vineyard (out of 1,000 cases total). But what a story about believing in Madera and a vision of fine wine.

Paso Comes to Oakland, Part 1: The Tasting

The Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance came to Oakland last month, putting on a wine seminar and a tasting that brought in several hundred of the winerati, who are more normally oriented more in the North Coast direction, to explore the fruits of its vines.

It's a region that, despite its age, still feels like a group of a few adults mixed up with a bunch of teenagers. There are great wineries and there are crazy, naive wineries. There are accomplished growers and winemakers pouring gorgeous expressions of Rhone grapes and then there are wild-eyed madmen coming up with Cab-Syrah-Zin-whatever bathtub blends. And there are noted winemakers playing up unconventional combo blends, too. It seems to be a place where anything goes.

The USDA handed out quite a bit of funding to the Paso folks this year to promote their wine region - $312,000 - but that was just to publicize it in the state of Texas, not the state of Oakland. Hopefully Texas drinkers will appreciate that sense of grand experimentation going on in Paso blends. Presumably, these great and the not-so-great blends all go well with steak. (Don't take this as Texas bashing; I was born in Texas although I left when I was four, just old enough to have petted Trigger and Buttermilk while I was there.)

Anything goes in Paso - except perhaps lowering the water table (read: Justin and others) and cutting down hundreds of old oak trees - not once but twice (read: Justin).

The seminar leader, Chris Taranto, communications director for the alliance, promised to tell us more about all the new appellations in Paso. In 2014, it created 11 new sub appellations, and I think a large part of the audience had arrived that day hoping to hear more about them, trying to understand what makes Paso's different regions unique. What were we to make of Adelaida District AVA and El Pomar District AVA? No time for that. Four winemakers had us taste through their wines individually and then time was up. (Don't you think they paid handsomely for this privilege?)

Part of the event's success, however, was simply having the gathering in Oakland at the historic Scottish Rite temple. The setting was superb, situated near the lake and with it own parking lot. It's a gorgeous historic venue. More like this, please.

Some 30 vintners were on hand to display their wines. 

The two of note for me were Tablas Creek, with its full complement of estate grown, organically farmed Rhone blends. It has four main blends - a red and a white Cotes de Tablas and a red and a white Esprit de Tablas, each built around a different varietal. The red Cotes is based on Grenache, while the white Cotes is centered on Viognier. The red Esprit is focused on Mourvedre, while the white Esprit is mainly Roussanne. 

Since I'm more of a red wine fan than a white wine fan, the red Cotes and the red Esprit were the wines I gravitated toward. The red 2014 Cotes tastes of black cherries and blackberries - bright fruits - with spices. 

The deeper yet still medium bodied 2013 Esprit, with its Mourvedre core, is tempered by the Syrah, Grenache, and Counoise. The last adds peppery notes to the bright fruits. 

Of course, Tablas Creek is well known as one of the great vineyards and wineries of the Paso region and one (among others) that really helped to put it on the map. It's an enterprise that brings together two great wine families. On the one side - the Perrins, of Chateau de Beaucastel in the Rhone, one of the most famous Rhone wineries in a region known for Chateauneuf du Pape wines. On the other side is the Robert Haas family. Robert Haas is a very successful wine merchant in the U.S., who imports the Perrins' wines. His son Jason Haas, is the general manager at Tablas Creek today. The combination of the two families' expertise has made Tablas Creek flourish and wine lovers rejoice.

Another winery I track in the Paso region is tiny, by comparison, but noble in its aspirations and references - Giornata. It is a lover of limestone, like Tablas Creek, but in a different way - to express its Italian dimensions.

Making wine from the fruit of Luna Matta's organic vines, Stephy and Brian Terrizi produce Aglianico, Fiano, and Nebbiolo. Italian somms may scoff, but former San Francisco Chronicle wine critic Jon Bonné called their Nebbiolo "the most successful Nebbiolo yet in the state."

I hope to have a chance to tour the vineyard sometime and see for myself if it's got the fog that makes Nebbiolo legendary. The 2013 ($45) still needs time in the bottle for its bright yet complex strawberry flavors to develop. It's a reminder that some of Paso Robles' experiments yield beautiful fruits of the vine, pleasures worth waiting for.

Postscript: One question for Paso remains - why so few organic vineyards? You can count the vintners with organic estate vines on one hand - Castoro Cellars (350 acres) and Tablas Creek (125 acres) - and then there's just one tiny (but important) Biodynamic winery - AmByth Cellars (20 acres). There are a few dedicated growers - Luna Matta and Pine Hawk (60 acres)- but that's it. That comes to around 550 acres all told, with most from just two wineries.

With 41,000 acres in vine, let's hope the good folks of Paso get more interested in organic viticulture. Right now they're batting just 1.3%. I look forward to the day when they do more. (For comparison's sake, Napa's at 7 percent certified organic vineyards out of 40,000 acres.) What can consumers do to help you grow your organic side, Paso?

Postscript, Sept. 1: I had omitted two Paso Robles vineyards above - Maha Estate, which just certified 14 acres in 2016 (organic and Biodynamic) and Thomas Hill (organic) which has fewer than 10 acres of organic vines.

Tasting and Touring in the Sierra Foothills AVA, Part 2: Milliaire's Clockspring Zinfandel - Bottling History

Organic vineyards are rare in the Sierra Foothills, and although I have not had a chance to visit it (at least not yet) the name Clockspring comes up often. This vineyard, formerly 400 acres in size, was tended to by grower Frank Alviso, who planted the vines here in 1973.

Its history lives on in the bottle.

Alviso farmed the Amador County vineyard - the largest Zinfandel grower in the county (a county devoted to Zinfandel) - for four decades. It was certified organic in 2000; most of the grapes went to Bonterra, until 2011. In 2013, Frank decided to retire, and sold off most of the vineyard, keeping 65 acres.

Over the years many vintners discovered Clockspring's charms, including Todd Taylor (who has a tasting room in Clarksburg), Amador Foothill Winery, Mountain View - and Milliaire, a boutique winery in downtown Murphys, which had the longest lasting relationship with the vineyard.

I had a chance to visit Milliaire on a recent trip to Murphys and check out its tasting room, housed in a gas station that has been so charmingly renovated you might not notice its history. When it first opened, locals called it "Roadside Chateau." (That was before Murphys was wall to wall art galleries, chic shops and winery tasting rooms.)

Milliaire is owned and run by Steve Miller, whose day job is being head winemaker at the giant Ironstone Winery in Murphys (200,000 case production). Like many winemakers, he just had to have his own winery label and Milliaire is it. Case production here is around 2,300 cases, or about one percent of what he makes for Ironstone.

Miller worked at David Bruce winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains before coming to the Sierra Foothills town of Murphys where he made the very first vintage of Ironstone wines, back in 1990. He's made every vintage there since then.

But before that chapter of his life started, Miller, as far back as 1978, had started working with Alviso and his Clockspring Vineyard grapes.

In 1986 he made his first Clockspring Zinfandel under his Milliaire label - a Christmas Cuvee White Zinfandel - back when he was still living in the Santa Cruz Mountains. At that time, the vines were just 13 years old. By 2013, the last vintage, they were 40 years old.

Alviso started Clockspring with his business partner John Hahn. The two met at Stanford where they were college roommates. The vines were planted in 1973 and were head trained, in the traditional
manner.

Today you can still taste the 2012 Clockspring Zinfandel ($26) and the 2011 Clockspring Zinfandel Port ($32) - both current releases - at Milliaire's tasting room. Pepper and fruit - the hallmarks of a great Zin - that's what you get. The fruit is bright, yet mellowed, from the old vines.

The port is fortified with brandy. Do I recommend it? You bet.

So if you find yourself in Murphys, or hankering for a road trip exploring organically grown wines grown in the Sierra Foothills, this is one stop you'll want to make. 

Lodi Native: Missing Half the Story When It Comes to Old Vine Glory

Attending the Wine Bloggers Conference in Lodi last week, I was happy to learn more about Lodi's old vine Zinfandels.

Over the past three years, I've been intrigued and enchanted by the Historic Vineyard Society's annual tours. This year the HVS tour of Russian River vines, including Limerick Lane, was incredibly special. So was the one in Napa Valley two years ago. It's also been a pleasure to take the old vine tour at Ridge Vineyards in Sonoma County and hang out in Grgich Hills historic Cabernet vineyard.

My all time favorite is Galleano Winery, which has old vines, down in Cucamonga Valley. About 300 acres of old vine Zin grow gracefully in total desert conditions, dry farmed and organic.

The magic of those old, gnarled vines casts a spell that that inspires and engages us. And the wines that come from them speak softly, subtly, beautifully.

Watching my fellow wine bloggers conference in Lodi last week discover Lodi's ancient vines was a sight to behold - comrades in arms. They snap-snap-snapped photos, tweeted on Twitter and blogged away about these Lodi treasures. They were as enamored of them as I was - well, except that maybe I was and then maybe I wasn't.

Lodi's old vine vintners are now making a play to showcase these old vine wines in a new way. Lodi Wine has just announced the new Lodi Native project - a regional effort to make old vines wines that are vinified in a similar manner in the cellar - using only minimal interventionist ways and vinifying only on native yeast. Hey - native yeast. It's trendy. And it's authentic. It's hard to imagine wine being made when these vines were first planted - as far back as the 1880's - with added yeast. No, back then, people trusted the grapes and they had plenty of healthy yeasts because of the way they farmed those vines. No pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. No sirree.

So Lodi's on to something - but oddly, it's only paying attention to the second half of the story - the part where the grapes come to the winery. What about the first half of the story - the way the vines are farmed?

Bechtold Vineyard, the oldest vines in Lodi, date back to the 1880's
Photo: Lodi Wine

If you really want to honor these ancient vines - and they are unique in all the world - might I suggest it would be a sign of veneration to start farming them organically, as they would have been back in the day?

And what about watering? Though most are dry farmed, I've heard of one famous old vine vineyard, dating back well before 1900, that is being flood irrigated on occasion. Really?

These beautiful old vines are planted far enough apart and old enough to have very deep root systems, and, if left to their own devices, strong immune systems.

Two of our most prestigious old vine producers - Turley and Ridge - who have built quite a reputation for old vine wines -  farm their old vine vineyards around the state organically. Ridge has just certified all of its old vines. Turley certified all the vineyards they own years ago. (They say they can't certify all of them because they lease land from some owners who would prefer not to be certified, though Turley says the vines they lease are farmed organically. At least they are doing what they can wherever they can.)

Of the six vineyards currently enrolled in Lodi Native, none is certified organic. So, please, Lodi Native winemakers, think this through. If you want us to pay attention to your gorgeous old vines, don't put herbicides, fungicides and insecticides on the ancient ones. Reconsider what it means to get back to your roots (pun intended). Get back to real, organically farmed wine grapes - that's historically authentic. And by their sheer existence, these vines have shown that they've got what it takes to stay rooted and thrive.

I'm happy to say there's one Lodi vintner who is on the right path. That would be Lucas Winery, which has three acres of vines dating back to the 1930's. They make a beautiful ZinStar wine from those vines ($50).

I'll raise a glass to those vines - and hope that Lodi Native will see beyond the cellar door and back to the vineyard. Microbes made this magic happen - yielding the fruit of your old vines. Feed that magic.

Raise a Glass to Julia: It's Her Birthday

Lest we forget...it's Julia Child's birthday. Raise a glass!

 

Glyphosate: The Battle Royal in France

Politico has released a story about the battle over glyphosate in France that details the inner conflict inside the French government where two key ministers have been battling it out over whether or not the Roundup, the herbicide that contains glyphosate and which has been deemed carcinogenic by the UN's primary cancer researchers, should be used in France.

Royal and Foll

According to the news report, the minister of the environment, Segolene Royal (who is the mother of French President Hollande's four children) has prevailed, with Hollande voting on her side of the debate, to ban the sale of glyphosate in the future. According to Politico, Hollande believes the support from green voters is larger than the support from farmers.

Agriculture minister Stephene La Foll, a Socialist, has opposed the ban on behalf of French farmers.

France has also passed a permanent ban on neonics, the bee and bird killing toxin (widely use in the U.S. on vineyards) that will take effect in 2018.

In large measure, support for the ban shifted after a French television station aired a documentary showing the impact that vineyard chemicals were having on workers and children. (See the earlier post on this topic here.) Here is the documentary:



According to Politico's coverage, other European countries are passing stronger laws governing farmers' use of chemicals - Germany and the Czech Republic are passing new legislation to place stricter controls on these pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.

Meanwhile in California, Monsanto has held up EPA regulations to label Roundup as a carcinogen by filing a lawsuit against the EPA.

In April, San Francisco, ABC television station, Channel 7, covered the story of glyphosate in two news segments. Here's the first one:



The second can be seen here.

Best bits: the interviews in each segment with Dr. Michael Antoniou from University College in London.

What would happen in the U.S. if 60 Minutes took up the subject?

Tasting and Touring in the Sierra Foothills AVA: Part 1 - Estate Wineries - Lavender Ridge Vineyards Offers #Organic Gold in Wine Country

My, my how Murphys has grown up!

When I last visited, which could have been a decade ago, it was a laid-back Gold Rush town Americans went to see for its historic appeal. Today it's a chic, boutique-filled destination site, much frequented by European tourists, as well as Americans, who delight in strolling through its tiny, family-owned winery tasting rooms, clothing shops, and art galleries.

One such winery that's been on my bucket list for years is Lavender Ridge Vineyards, which is one of the very few in the area to have an organic estate vineyard. Its Murphys tasting room is housed in a delightful, 1859 stone structure that originally served as the town's grocery and later as its bakery and it's just a few steps away from the iconic Murphys hotel - Murphys Inn.

Lavender Ridge is owned and run by the Gilpins, who settled here in 2001, and who have an 8 acre certified organic vineyard about 20 miles south of town where they grow Rhone varietals. Their vines sit on a 42 acre property at 1,200 feet of elevation, overlooking a scenic schoolhouse (that was used in the TV series Little House on the Prairie).

The shop is filled with lavender, as well as
an excellent assortment of cheese, in addition
to their lovely wines

It was a delight to wander down to their Murphys tasting room with my new friend Gwendolyn Alley (we met at the Wine Bloggers Conference - her blog is here), a poetry professor from Ventura, who specializes in food and wine pairing, since Lavender Ridge Vineyards sells cheese and offers wine and cheese pairings.

Gwendolyn Alley tasting at Lavender
Ridge with our tasting room host

Lavender Ridge Vineyards makes two wines from their estate vines, in a normal year - a Cotes du Calaveras Blanc and a Cotes du Calaveras Rouge. Unfortunately due to the last three years of drought, the 2015 white wine was blended with other vineyards's grapes, so an all estate wine wasn't available to taste.(Of course, I tasted it anyway and recommend it as a way to continue to support organic growers). The red Cotes was 90 percent from estate vines.

The 2013 Cotes du Calaveras (Rouge) ($24) is a beautiful wine, translucent and light in weight, as it's a Grenache-based blend. (The exact blend is 42% Grenache, 29% Syrah and 29% Mourvedre). It boasts tart cherries notes, which our tasting room server told us are unique to this region. (Cases made: 285.) Gilpin uses native yeast on all the wines.

The wine was paired with a delicious Black Diamond Old Cheddar from Canada topped with a sour cherry compote made from Armenian cherries. Our server told us the sour cherry was selected because it paired well with the tart cherries in the wine - and it did. The lightness of the wine was also a perfect complement to the richness of this creamy cheese, a cheese I was happy to discover. (I left with two jars of the compote).

On weekends, the winery can get a lot busier
and opens a back room for flights.

But Lavender Ridge has more to offer - its lavender theme carries through to the decor as well as bags and bouquets of lavender for sale. It also carries the lavender theme into its wines which have lavender colored screw tops.

The back wall of the tasting room is filled with lavender bunches.

A most elegant dump bucket

It's nice to see that the Gold Rush regions are finding they can make a living by becoming "wine country." And while I don't think Murphys is quite "the next Napa," as some of its promoters say, it's a fun little town to explore. And Lavender Ridge has something to offer for all kinds of tourists (unless you don't like cheese or wine).

We also visited Ironstone Winery, with its unique historic attraction (hint, hint). And I tasted at a little winery down the street that makes an organically Zinfandel. More on that later.