Follow the Leader - Ridge's Historic 2016 Monte Bello Will Be 100% from Organic Grapes

Ridge's famed Monte Bello vineyard - now organically farmed and certified
and its wines bottle labeled (as of the 2016 vintage)

I wrote earlier this month about Ridge's 2013 small lot (175 cases) Steep Terraces Cabernet (from a portion of the Monte Bello vineyard above Silicon Valley) being organically grown (and bottle labeled as such).

Now comes even bigger and better news - Ridge, which is one of North America's most prestigious wineries (it's been named the most respected wine brand in North America numerous times) and is currently the 7th most respected wine brand in the world - has made their 2016 Monte Bello Cabernet ($200), one of America's finest wines, solely from its organic estate grapes.

While Ridge has gradually been converting Monte Bello to organic farming, the 2016 bottle label will be the first to reach 100% organic grapes and will feature the words "organic grapes" on the back in the ingredients section. (We will have to wait several years for this vintage to be released as Ridge is currently selling the 2013's.)

What this means is that the bar has been raised, signaling that consumers are truly ready to be treated as grownups when it comes to buying wine. Those who buy organic food - and it's more than 5 percent of all food in America - buy it because they can identify it by the label. It is most popular among the very socio-economic demographic that buys expensive wine.

It's time for the industry and consumers to recognize that organically grown wines come in all prices points - ranging from $4 to $400 - and quality levels (the same as the entire wine market) and that using the word "organic" is not one that should not be filed into the no added sulfite/Frey wine bin.

(The U.S. is the only country in which this organic wine stigma persists as it is the only country that ever confused sulfite levels with organic grapes and promulgated the world's most confusing, organic wine standards and labeling. Much of the credit for this goes to the Frey and LaRocca families, who have been the biggest supporters of no added sulfite wines as well as the biggest economic beneficiaries of this segment of the market.)

This has been a source of huge confusion and frustration for consumers who want to find our best fine  organically farmed wines for a variety of reasons. Many people do not realize conventional - and "sustainable" - wine grape growers are responsible for using hundreds of thousands of pounds of Roundup (glyphosate) in wine country, affecting soil health, water, workers and residents. Conventional - and "sustainable" - wine grape growers also use a large amount of dangerous fungicides (imidacloprid, in particular), including those that have been banned in Europe because they have been found to harm bees and birds.

And yet....while 8 percent of Napa's vineyards (the most prestigious wine region in North America) are certified organic, it is rare to find those that have organic labeling, even on the back label.

Much credit goes to Ridge vineyard manager David Gates for his dogged pursuit of organic farming at Ridge, converting more than 275 acres of vines in Santa Clara and Sonoma counties to organic certification. Credit is also due to Ridge overall, for making the commitment to organic farming and labeling, and carrying it out over a long period of time.

Not many people know it, but Ridge is by far the largest organic vineyard owner in Sonoma, with 200 acres of certified vines. A good neighbor!

David Gates, vineyard manager for both of Ridge's estates 

Ridge will be joining a number of other prestigious Cabernet producers from Napa - including Beaucanon Estate, Ghost Block, Grgich Hills Estate, Neal Family, Oakville Winery, and Volker Eisele, - who farm organically and label their wines as such.

Other Napa wineries focused on other varietals - Domaine Carneros (known for organically grown sparkling wines in past vintages), Storybook (known for Zinfandel), and Adastra, Madonna Estate and Robert Sinskey (all known best for Carneros Pinot Noir) - also bottle label the words "organic."

Many others who make wine solely from their certified estates could bottle label but haven't so far. Some are considering it. This list overall includes Brown Estate, Ehlers Estate, Eisele Vineyard, Inglenook, Oakville Ranch, Rocca Family, and Sinegal Estate.

Others could label some or a few of their wines (at least the ones that are estate grown from their certified estate vineyards). This list includes Adamvs, Chappellet, Flora Springs, Frog's Leap, Hagafen Cellars, Hall, Heitz, Long Meadow Ranch (which uses certified organic grapes but calls them "responsibly farmed"), Odette, Peju Province, Raymond, Spottswoode, Staglin Family, Tres Sabores, and Turley.

Many of these wineries proudly display a CCOF sign outside their wineries on Napa's main drag, Highway 29, but are somehow shy about putting the words "organic" on the label, despite the fact that they hand sell most of their organically grown vintages at their wineries.

"Curiouser and curiouser," cried Alice in Alice in Wonderland (or could she be in Wine-derland?).

There is a simple fix. Consumers: clamor for labeling.

Tell wineries you want them to state what is in the bottle on the label. (Tweet, visit, repeat). You're going to see more and more bottles labeled "sustainable" which means, in general, better water and energy saving practices than wineries followed in the past, but means nothing about the dangerous vineyard chemicals used in farming these wines.

Make no mistake - Sonoma and the Wine Institute of California have huge marketing budgets to confuse consumers about how green they are. (They're not very green because their sustainability standards are very low). The organic people have zero marketing budget. Mainstream conventional wineries also have market research that shows that 43% of consumers think "sustainable" means "organic." (See graph at right from a 2017 wine market research presentation.)

Labeling the words "organic" on the bottle - even if it's just the back label - is the only way you will find out who's not using Roundup (glyphosate), which, as of July 7, will be labeled officially as a carcinogen in the state of California. So, ask wineries to step it up - and follow the leader, Ridge.

A Trip to Brown Estate in Chiles Valley: Napa's Only Black Owned Winery (Now Officially Organically Farmed) Features Historic Buildings and Fine Zinfandels

Last week I took a trip to visit two Napa wineries that recently certified their vineyards as organic, under CCOF certification. One was Sinegal Estate in St. Helena and the other was Brown Estate up in a rural area above Napa's valley - Chiles Valley.

Brown Estate is unique in many ways. The most notable, for most people, is that it is the only winery in Napa owned and run by a black family. While that's of interest, I found the historic aspect of the property also quite compelling - and of course, there's the wines, numero uno, which are, as Eric Asimov of the New York Times put it, "elegant, balanced and pure."

The Brown family got its start here when Bassett Brown, a black doctor from Pasadena and a native of Jamaica,  and his wife Marcela Abrahams Brown (originally from Panama) purchased the property as a family farm and rural getaway for the family in 1980.

"It was so run down then," said Coral Brown, one of the three offspring of Bassett and Marcela, as she gave me a private tour of the grounds and family residence. "Would you believe there were 250,000 bats in this house when we first bought the place?"

Coral and her two siblings now run the winery.

The 1885 Queen Anne Victorian residence; a Romanian stone worker
later added the elaborate chimneys

The family lovingly restored the 1885 Queen Anne Victorian house when she herself was in school at Cal in Berkeley. Since I live in an historic 1927 house in Oakland (and have done a lot to restore it, too), we knew all the same sources - Omega Salvage, and other spots - to get vintage hardware and trim.

In 1985, the Browns planted their first Zinfandel vineyard - nine acres. Today they have 50 acres, all farmed and now certified organic (as of 2016) with the help of vineyard consultant Molly Soper. "We never used anything harmful here, ever," said Brown, "because we live here."

In the era when they were growers, they sold grapes to neighboring wineries (including Nichelini and Red and Green), as well as Cabernet to Grgich Hills (which no longer buys outside fruit, as it is 100% estate).

The stone foundations of the barn date back to 1859

In the mid 1990's the second generation of Browns decided to begin making their own wine from the property, producing a few thousand cases at a custom crush facility, before restoring the historic 1859 barn and making it into a winery in 2002.

"We were able to preserve the original wood on two faces of the building," Brown told me.

A few years, they added wine caves, famously dynamiting out the underground spaces (after drilling through granite proved untenable).

The Napa Historic Society presented them with a preservation award for their historic renovations to the house and encouraged them to pursue efforts to restore the barn as well.

Which brings up what I liked best about visiting their estate - the rural, historic character of the place. Often, wineries will preserve the old and also add the new. What's lovely about a visit to this place is that only the old is visible. There's no brand new production building that has to blend into the landscape. It's all old school. And rural, too - which adds a level of relaxedness to the setting.

And then of course there are the wines - and the beautifully composed nibbles paired with them.

Hospitality and Education Coordinator April Enos with estate proprietor Coral Brown,
one of the three Brown siblings who run the winery

Pairing nibble included such delectables as bacon jam,
Sonoma mission fig jam and Saint Agur Blue cheese

I was invited to join a group tour of the wine caves and a tasting, and the group that I accompanied was the board of a national organization of commercial realtors of color; most were from the NYC area. They were enthusiastic about supporting other professionals of color, and talked about how to include Brown Estate wines in upcoming events.

Brown Estate is known for Zinfandel. Zinfandel advocate and pioneer Larry Turley was an early fan and booster. And the Chronicle has featured them on its top 100 wines list for years.

Sited as it is in Chiles Valley, the region is known to locals as "the cool valley," Brown explained, saying the local microclimate had temperature swings of as much as 60 degrees, making for better acidity and therefore greater balance in the wine.

We tasted through three single vineyard designate Zinfandels - Rosemary's Block, Mickey's Block and Chiles Valley (all priced at $55).

While the Browns sell 80% of their wine through their wine club and tasting rooms (they just opened a second tasting room in downtown Napa), they also have two wines that are sold via distribution - a red blend they call Chaos Theory and a Napa Zinfandel.

The fee for tasting and touring at the estate is $100 per person; the tasting fee at the downtown Napa tasting room is $60 per person.

The tasting also featured, as an added treat, a dessert wine named "Duppy Conquerer," which means "ghost buster" in Jamaican Patois.

For those who are looking for a taste of Old Napa, far away from the crowds, in a relaxed rural setting, Brown Estate deserves to be on your radar screen.

You'll find redwood trees and chairs to relax in - there are even a few welcoming picnic tables (for scheduled special events only) in the shade. You can also stroll over to visit the resident goats, or just sit a spell and bask in the glow of a beautiful Zinfandel.

Another Historic First for Ridge Vineyards: Winery Releases First Monte Bello Wine with "Organic Grapes" Labeling on the Bottle

It's sold out now, and only 175 cases were made, but Ridge Vineyards' 2013 Steep Terraces Monte Bello is a history making wine: it is the first Ridge wine from its famous Monte Bello vineyard to be sourced solely from certified organic vines and bottle labeled with organic grapes on the label.

For those who are unfamiliar with Monte Bello, it is a vineyard owned by Ridge that has produced one of the best Cabernets from America over a long arc of time. It's been called "America's First Growth," placing it in the company of the finest wines from Bordeaux. (Its accolades are really far too numerous to list here. You can see a video about the vineyard here.)

Too many vintners who have wines sourced solely from certified organic vines have backed away from bottle labeling their wines with the word organic - even on the back of the label. It's an important turning point in wine history that high end producers, including smaller Napa producers Storybook Mountain, Volker Eisele, Ehlers Estate, Grgich Hills and others - are among a small but growing movement toward honesty about organics.

Prominent wineries who have organic vineyards and could bottle label but don't include Frog's Leap, Odette, Spottswoode, and Hall in Napa, and Tablas Creek (for its estate grown wines) in Paso Robles. These wineries are proud to tell you about their organic vines on their web sites, but shy away from bottle labeling their estates' pride and joys.

Often consumers are shocked to find out that vintners using organic grapes don't bottle label, as was the case at yet another tasting I went to recently at an (unnamed) Napa winery.

And just as often, vintners themselves have no idea they could be labeling the back of their bottles with the words "Ingredients: Organic Grapes." This type of labeling does not require that the wines be made in a certified organic winery and is the more common type of labeling among high end producers who do bottle label.

What is even more wonderful is that Ridge has been committed for years to taking bottle labeling a step further.

It's famous for its progressive labeling philosophy. It insists on listing the ingredients of each wine on the back label and, for this wine, it has chosen to label this wine with "organic grapes" on the back label.

In addition, Ridge explains to visitors at its Lytton Springs tasting room (which I visited in March) what its labels mean and why it feels labeling is so important.

 

It's time for all wineries to step up to the plate and explain to consumers why if "wine is food," as they tell us in their marketing, consumers should know what is in this "food."

Like food producers, wineries should see the good in labeling wines that contain only organic grapes to let consumers know when a wine is sourced solely from organic grapes. Again, time after time, most consumers are surprised when they find out that most fine wine producers using organic grapes don't bottle label with organic labeling.

We don't want to have to guess what's in the bottle or be suspicious about additives in wine.

Of course, the bigger danger is what is in the vineyard. With wineries providing every other detail about wine- the alcohol content, the tasting notes, the pairings, the number of months in oak and which oak source they use, doesn't it seem a little odd that wineries don't say - in writing - what's on the grapes and what's in the wine?

It's time for consumers to speak up and let wine producers know they'll support wineries that tell them they farm organically and list what's in the bottle. Ridge is setting the standard. We can ask others to adopt these practices and build greater integrity for their brands.

Update (June 26, 2017): The upcoming 2016 Ridge Monte Bello, the winery's flagship wine, will be entirely sourced from organic grapes (and bottle labeled as such). 

Alice Waters Film: Free Online on PBS

"I'm hoping we can come to a time where everything that we have on the table is something that's wholesome and pure and delicious," says Alice Waters in the hourlong 2003 documentary that's currently streaming on PBS's American Master series.

This lovely film showcases Waters' contribution both at Chez Panisse and at the Edible Schoolyard, where my godson attends classes and makes feasts for us at his North Berkeley home. For the Oscars, we had delicious Korean tacos, which he learned to make at school.

Waters could be said to be the patron saint of this here blog, using as I do, her signature line "the delicious revolution" in our tagline.

While good at the table has become something that's more "wholesome and pure and delicious" than when she said this in 2003, one thing has not and that is our wine. It's worth having a look at this documentary and pondering how we might make drinking as "wholesome and pure and delicious" as eating, holding a glass of organically grown wine in hand as you enjoy the show.

See it here:

A New Crop of Biodynamic Vines: Ten U.S. Vineyards and Wineries On the Path to Demeter Certification

The movement toward Biodynamic agriculture in the wine industry continues to progress in the U.S. with ten wineries currently on the path to certification. The acreage totals 339* acres of newly certified Biodynamic vines.

This builds on the very large increases in 2016, with the addition of the mammoth southern Oregon winery, King Estate (465 acres of Biodynamic vines, the largest organic and Biodynamic vineyard in the country), and the prestigious Pinot Noir winery, Sea Smoke Estate Cellars (170 acres), in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA in Santa Barbara County.

Currently, two of the country's most prominent wineries - along with eight other wineries and growers - are on the path to Demeter Biodynamic certification.

Famed Pinot Noir producer Beaux Frères in Oregon and Rhone wine superstar Tablas Creek in Paso Robles are on target to certify all of their estate vines Biodynamic.


Beaux Frères has long been one of the super elite wineries in the Willamette Valley. Located in the Ribbon Ridge AVA in Newberg, the winery was founded in 1986 by Michael Etzel. Aside from his wine growing and winemaking expertise, he's also famous for having married the sister of wine critic Robert Parker, Jr., one of the part owners of the winery. Beaux Freres is close to another acclaimed Biodynamic winery in Ribbon Ridge - Brick House Vineyard - run by Doug Tunnell - that has long been Demeter certified.











Tablas Creek has been working with Biodynamic vineyard consultant Philippe Coderey for several years and using Biodynamic practices, but has not been certified.

It is owned by an American family, the Haas family, and a French family, the Perrins, who are rockstars in the Rhone region in France and it is well known for its fine Rhone wines from Paso Robles.

Tablas Creek recently planted new Rhone varietal vines in the Old World style, en gobelet, spaced far apart according to conventional U.S. standards, so that the vines would be able to survive drought conditions.

Becoming certified will enable these wineries to legally use the word Biodynamic in their marketing.

In addition, eight more wineries are in the Biodynamic certification pipeline.

Here's a breakout by region with notes on the primary varietals.

OREGON - PINOT NOIR

Beaux Frères - 25 acres in vine
Planted to: Pinot Noir

Paradigm Farming (acreage NA)

CALIFORNIA - NAPA

Boisset Collection  (12 [new] acres)
Planted to: Cabernet Sauvignon, other

Tesseron Estate - Pym-Rae -18 acres
Planted to: Cabernet Sauvignon 

CALIFORNIA - SONOMA

Eco Terreno - 100 acres
Planted to: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc

Home Farm - 2.5 acres

Westwood Wines (Annadel Gap) - 22 acres
Planted to: Pinot Noir and Rhone varietals

CALIFORNIA - PASO ROBLES

Tablas Creek - 127 acres
Planted to Rhone varietals

CALIFORNIA - CENTRAL COAST

Popeloucham (Randall Grahm/Bonny Doon) - 5 acres (an additional 8 acres coming soon)
Planted to: Furmint, Grenache Gris and Grenache Blanc

WASHINGTON
Hedges Family Estate (Red Mountain AVA Partners LLC) - 16 acres  (Les Gosses)
Planted to: Syrah

Congrats to all of these wineries for pursuing holistic farming standards and exemplary agricultural practices.

Note: This post formerly reported 409 acres, based on Boisset reporting 72 acres. Boisset actually already had 60 acres and is certifying an additional 12 acres, so the overall total has been adjusted accordingly.

Calling All Glyphosate Geeks: Tune in Online July 20th

Credit: The Detox Project

The California Dept. of Public Health's next public meeting of its Biomonitoring California group takes place in July and includes expert input on biomonitoring for glyphosate, the active ingredient in the widely used herbicide Roundup.

The agenda for the July 20th Biomonitoring California meeting features a presentation by Roy Gerona, Ph.D., and Axel Adams, M.P.H. (both are from UC San Francisco) entitled "Glyphosate Biomonitoring: Challenges and Opportunities."

California's conventional wine grape growers used more than 700,000 pounds of the herbicide statewide. More than 60,000 pounds were used in Sonoma County alone.

Earlier this year, 14 leading environmental health researchers called upon the CDC to begin monitoring glyphosate, a substance not currently included in the 200+ chemicals it regularly screens for environmental health risks.

Members of the public may attend the July 20 meeting in person (in Richmond) or view it online in a livestream.

For more information, click here.

Postscript: The FDA has just announced it will resume testing for glyphosate. Details here.

Credit: The Detox Project

A Moment of Sunshine Amid the Organic Void: Lunch with Susan Lin, Master of Wine Aspirant

A few weeks ago I had the kind of day all writers dream of - when an accomplished expert in your field - like Susan Lin of Belmont Wine Exchange - pays you the ultimate compliment of inviting you to meet, and arriving with a printout all of your published articles, with underlinings throughout and handwritten notes in the margins. (The biggest article - featured in the photo - is my Wines & Vines oped on the Organic Opportunity which you can read here.) The marks of a reader who has thoroughly consumed the material.

A wine professional going for her Master of Wine, Lin's day job is selling rare wines to wine directors and collectors, among others. She already has a number of impressive wine credentials in the field of wine education, and is currently working on getting the wine world's most impressive credential - the MW.

Back story: we'd met at a winery luncheon event for a French winery with organic vines.

At the event, the topic of organic came up and in passing Susan mentioned that she had heard a presentation from the Sonoma sustainability program folks recently at an event for those who were studying for the Master of Wine.

I told her the sustainability program was not all that it was cracked up to be. And it was a lot of marketing hype, that had some real merit but the benefits were conveniently overstated for the purposes of wine marketing. Sustainability programs have done little or nothing to reduce the use of harmful chemicals in vineyards.

In fact, according to a recent survey, more than 40% of consumers think sustainable means organic, which is not lost upon sustainability marketers, who do little to educate the public on the differences.

"I want to know more," Lin said. We kept in touch, and eventually arranged to have lunch in downtown SF.

We had a wonderful conversation, as she pummeled me with questions, while I ate steak and frites. At the end of the meal, she insisted on picking up the tab, and we talked excitedly of wine tastings we hoped to do in the future.

A writer's dream? Absolutely. But it also had meaning in a broader sense.

As I contemplated the lunch later, I began to wonder. Why should an MW candidate have to seek out  a writer and read just a few articles on the topic of organic and Biodynamic wines? Why was it that the entire field of wine education skips this core topic?

How is it that the encyclopedic knowledge standards wine experts are called upon to master - what soil types are in the Jura, what are the various designations of Rioja, what are the various sub appellations of Chianti - are not applied to the most fundamental facts of vineyards?

"Until I read this article, I had never heard of glyphosate," Lin told me.

We in organic circles (and academia) know that pesticides/fungicides/herbicides affect vine growth and grape flavors.

In the industry, a few people know.

Kermit Lynch says he can taste the difference between a conventionally grown grape, an organic grape and a Biodynamic grape from a vineyard he's an investor in in France.

Jancis Robinson told me over lunch in Napa that she can taste when a wine is Biodynamically grown.

So why aren't these topics covered?

It's a question only the industry can answer.

The Organic Void

Today, I can say perhaps it's some kind of progress to note that the industry has a blind spot - let's call it the Organic Void. What can be done about it?

Sommeliers, wine educators and Masters of Wine - do you think can do better?

Let's raise the bar and include curricula on organic farming, Biodynamic methods, and wine certification types for organically and Biodynamically grown wines in your professional education circles. There are experts, like me, who are more than happy to create educational materials and come speak on these topics.

There are very big reasons why organically grown wine - just like organically grown food - matters and how the wine choices you make impact wine country residents, workers and consumers.

Do you really want to support the use of 60,000 pounds of glyphosate each year in Sonoma? 30,000 pounds in Napa? Do you really think Pinot Noir has to be raised with fungicides? (There are dozens of elite producers who don't).

I have found through research over the last 7 years that there are organically grown wines that match the full spectrum of price point and quality for any conventionally grown wine on the market today. People just don't know where to find these wines and how to buy them. Or they still harbor suspicions that organically grown wines mean Frey at Whole Foods. (Frey and no added sulfite wines represent a very small percentage of the organically grown wines available in the U.S. today).

And why do wine directors, wine educators and somms fall for the wine industry's sustainability marketing programs, which highlight energy and water savings (good but also relevant to the bottom line) while obscuring the negative impacts of chemical farming (and its increased use of water in the first place)? Buyers beware.

You - in the wine industry, restaurant business and as consumers - have the power to bring your values to the marketplace. Are you using your power for good?

What steps do you think we should take to help broaden wine knowledge so that the understanding of organic viticulture is part and parcel of a thorough wine education?

In the meantime, I'd like to salute Susan Lin - for being curious. May this spirit of curiosity spread to her peers - and all wine lovers.