Here is Vanessa Conlin, Master of Wine, in a Wine Access video for consumers to buy wines featured at the prestigious Per Se restaurant in New York. (Per Se's wine list used to include Ridge's Pagani Zin.) It's a vineyard that is heavily farmed with synthetic herbicide and has been for years.
I just can't help myself sometimes. I have to laugh. But it's not funny.
Michelin Guide announced today that it's now going to cover wine. It could be great news.
BUT...Its first organic explainer includes a bottle shot of one of Sonoma's oldest synthetic herbicide users, Pagani Ranch, allegedly picked by elite wine directors at WineAceess. That's not funny.
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Wine Access is a company that sells wine–i.e. a merchant, not an organic expert. It's recently been bought by a startup–Full Glass Wine–in 2024. Full Glass appears to be on a bit of a shopping spree.
(As a former startup C-suite executive in several multimillion dollar companies fueled by big dotcom cash, I remember the days. "Get Big Fast," they said. We can see where that landed.)
Wine Access is banking on its star somm line up and buying power to seize the day. To be fair, these wine experts from prestigious restaurants are not paid to assess how green the farming is in the wines they select and sell. (That's sad but...)
They are taste experts and they work for the most elite institutions–where selling expensive wine is a big economic factor in the restaurant's business success. (Wine accounts for a bigger percentage of high end restaurant profits than food in many establishments).
Although it's not said so, I am beginning to wonder if Full Glass or Wine Access is greasing the slides and is forging a paid partnership with Wine Access and Michelin's new wine division. (Obviously companies like JancisRobinson.com and the Wine Advocate have been under pressure for years to do deals like this but have so far seemed to have maintained editorial integrity.)
(In my years in startup land, we used to pay for amazingly high priced partnerships because it made business sense when you're trying to get market share and brand recognition. But I digress from the topic–which is organic and truthful, accurate content.)
Wine Access previously signed, in 2023, a deal with Sunset magazine to run a Sunset magazine wine club. Its press release then said, "In 2021, Wine Access was named the official wine provider of the MICHELIN Guide." So this relationship has a history.
In addition to its coveted quality stars, Michelin also said it would give new green stars to wine producers.
Here's an excerpt from Michelin Guide's organic explainer, from Wine Access provided content.
REALITY: ORGANIC GRAPES - OFTEN "WINE BY WINE" NOT BY WINE BRAND
Are these new "green wine" star givers going to understand that most small (and not so small) wineries in the USA are not all estate, and that many organic estate producers ALSO buy grapes from other producers who do not farm under the same green practices that the estate does?
I call them hybrid producers and their numbers are huge.
Many, many, many estate wineries also buy grapes from others. They may make any kind of wine they want to from them. Many make single vineyard designates–95% of the grapes in such a wine must be from the named vineyard. That's what this Ridge's Pagani wine is.
PAGANI NEVER CLAIMED TO BE ORGANIC. IT USES A LOT OF HERBICIDE. THAT IS LEGAL. CALLING IT ORGANIC IS NOT.
Here is an excerpt from Pagani's pesticide use report, which is its official report to the state of California on its 2025 sprays in Sonoma County vines.
As you can see, Pagani sprayed Lifeline herbicide on all of its 77 acres. Organic regulations prohibit the use of synthetic herbicide, which is what Lifeline (glufonisate ammonium) is. Many experts say it is worse than Roundup (glyphosate plus other ingredients which scientists say are more toxic than glyphosate alone). Until recently it used plenty of Roundup Powermax Herbicide, a commercial, extra strength version of the product only professionals can purchase. (Geeky? View three years of PUR data from Pagani here, showing earlier herbicide use.)
Another spray listed here, Alion, is a pre-emergent herbicide, which many experts say is worse than Roundup or Lifeline.
RIDGE DOES NOT SAY PAGANI IS ORGANIC
It is true that Ridge Vineyards has made all of its estates organic and certified them, but that is only its own estate wines.
Here is its description of the Pagani wine. It does not say it's an estate wine or farmed organically.
I first watched this unfold when Robert Parker's Wine Advocate called out Ridge as a Green Star. Its own estate is and is to be commended for this. I worship the ground Ridge's vineyard manager David Gates walks on and call him (as a journalist) from time to time for expert opinions.
But Pagani is not organic. Who says so?
WHO SAYS PAGANI FROM RIDGE IS ORGANIC?
Apparently, it's Wine Access.com "experts" (which has a content relationship with Michelin) or Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (owned by Michelin) who have not done their homework.
Too many wine experts with incredible sensory skills are credentialed by organizations that do not take the chemicals used in wine grape farming seriously enough to teach them. (And yet we know they can affect and improve flavor. One study by wine economists looked at 128,000 French wines scores from more than 30 French wine experts from 1995 to 2015 and found that overall, organically certified vines accounted for an average 6 point bump in scores and biodynamic farming an average 12 point bump.)
Is it possible this misunderstanding about Ridge's Pagani came from Robert Parker muddying the waters with its green stars program? That program gave a green star by brand (not wine by wine) to Ridge.
It you ask me, the MWs and MSs and WSET diploma experts should all be required to take at least one semester of training that covers both conventional and organic vineyard management. Then they might not make these kinds of rookie mistakes.
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