Organic Wines Uncorked
The Delicious Revolution Will Be Vinified: News and Views on Organically Grown Wine
Friday, June 26, 2026
In Vineyard Demos, Bio Based Tech Wows at Central Coast's First Mindset Regenerative Conference
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Remembering Eileen Crane | Who Also Made Domaine Carneros Organic for a Time
Sharing some special moments from a 2013 interview I did when founder Eileen Crane led the Carneros sparkling wine house to organic farming and certification.
See this post with PHOTOs here.
In 2011 when I was first getting into wine, and focusing producers who farmed organically, I was very impressed to find Domaine Carneros as the sole French founded sparkling wine producer with organic grapes.
I was inspired to start a blog and launch apps - Organically Napa was one (no longer available) – and it was around then that I visited Eileen Crane and tasted with her. What a treat! I am glad I still have a recording and transcript of our interview which I dug out of my archives to share with you to honor her recent passing at the age of 77.
As so many have said, Eileen was most gracious and welcoming. I will never forget her interview with me and her kindness in seating me next to her and her husband at one of the winery’s famous lobster dinners.
Now, years later, I appreciate her for her rarely mentioned organic legacy as well as her many other accomplishments and her warmth and patience.
Today only Gloria Ferrer (the other winery she originally founded and ran) is now farming organically (certified) and has recently certified 300 acres in Sonoma.
Interview highlights:
• When Domaine Carneros opened in 1990, its historic French chateau look was criticized by some locals.
• At the grand opening, the plan had been to dress in historic French costumes, but no one could fit into the rented gowns as they were too small.
• In the year 2000 as the world marked the millennium, founder and owner Claude Taittinger celebrated at his famous Parisian hotel by serving his 500 guests Domaine Carneros’ Le Reve, which he chose because he said the most significant thing in 1000 years was the discovery on “making wine in the New World.”
• The journey to organic was a passion of Crane’s. (Sadly a retreat followed due to mildew pressure). Crane said it cost only 4 percent more to farm organically.
The Interview
PHOTO Chief Bubblehead
Crane | We started trying to go organic in 91, 92, but it was really hard back then. You were kind of on your own. Nobody else was doing it. And there’s something about getting a group of people who can share information and who are more knowledgeable, in that you don’t have to do all the research yourself.
We had some successes and some failures.
We went for organic certification in 2004. Got it in 2007. The winery was certified just before harvest in 2009. So now we have more bottles that say organic on the organic label.
But sparkling wine is such a long process. We have one wine that between harvest and its release takes seven years.
[Around 2013, the winery ended its organic certification and became sustainable certified].
So this culture of being interested in being organic – where did that come from? Did it come from France? Did it come from the corporate ownership? Where does it come from?
Well I’ve always been interested in it – sort of innate. To me. I don’t know why. Like the solar panels I learned about in graduate school and that just sort of made so much sense to me. I love beauty and nature so I have a real bent towards, just wanting to be and participate in beautiful things, I come to work here every day – five days a week for the last 26 years, and people stop and look around so it was a nice area, but it wasn’t gorgeous like this. So to me beauty is just a value and you only keep things beautiful by preserving them, taking care of them.
Maybe that’s probably a funny thing to have organic and solar panels as a love of beauty but it’s a concern for the earth and keeping it this magical place that it is.
I am also interested in sparkling wine buyers...cause I don’t really know much about them as a subset of wine buyers. What can you tell me about the people who buy bubbles?
The bubbleheads?
I’m the chief bubblehead. I should put that on my card. When I met the guy who runs Semifreddi’s – the bakery – and his card said Chief Bootlicker, I thought I could have mine say Chief Bubblehead.
As soon as people get into the category, they learn the most important thing is balance. That is a wine that when you smell it, what it tastes like, what the finish is like – all works in concert – and nothing’s overwhelming.
So we do know that a lot more women drink sparkling wine in this country than men.
That tends to be…but that’s not always the case. There are certainly many men who love sparkling wine.
I think it’s also people who have traveled more. Like when you go to Europe, if you eat in a white tablecloth restaurant in France, and not even in a fancy restaurant. A lot of regions will have their sparkling cocktail.
For instance, in Normandy it will be a sparkling wine with a little bit of maybe Calvados in it, and some apple or something. The kir royal is a little bit of cassis and sparkling wine.
Go to England and you’ll see people in pubs ordering bottles of Champagne. In pubs. And so they’re eating pub food but that doesn’t prevent them from enjoying a bottle of bubbles.
So I think that with this European experience, in the United States, we’re surprisingly backwards about sparkling wine and its use.
I do see that our biggest market is by far in California and the West Coast. There are many good restaurants that will serve a good sparkling wine.
We’ve had so much of that “wedding wine” in this country. The caterers say you want to buy the cheapest because nobody will drink it. Now there’s a self fulfilling prophecy. You buy the cheapest of any wine and people are not going to be very happy about drinking it.
Also sparkling wine often gets served with the wedding cake. And that’s not good…that comes from a historic trend – champagnes and sparkling wines used to be very sweet.
So talk to me a little bit about what it’s like to be owned by a French company.
The family – the Taittinger family – it’s a family owned winery – they’re Champagne based…and traded on the Bourse, the exchange in France, but it’s been family controlled forever. It’s one of the last Champagne houses of any size that’s still family controlled. And they grow far more of their own grapes, like we do.
We didn’t actually talk about our certification. We have 300 acres of grapes and 100 percent of them are CCOF. Cause a lot of wineries will show you the 10 acres out of their 200…
Or they say they’re organic and yet they have only four acres that are organic.
What did you do before wine?
My graduate work at UConn was in nutrition and biochemistry. I lived in New Haven, Connecticut which is where the Culinary Institute of America was located. I’d always been interested in wine, because my dad had a wine cellar in the 1950s. And in my early 20s, I was very interested in winemaking.
When I found out you could study winemaking in California, I moved out here, gave up my tenured track at UConn and took classes for several months and started working at Domaine Chandon. I was there six years in the laboratory mostly, and then became the assistant winemaker eventually, and then I was hired at Gloria Ferrer.
I was there three years and then the Taittingers hired me to do the construction and build this winery.
We started Domaine Carneros in 1987.
So how is it working for French companies. Have they settled if there’s an American or Californian sparkling wine style?
There isn’t just one American sparkling wine style and there’s not one French sparkling wine style either – they’re all over the place.
THE ART OF CHAMPAGNE
I went through eight interviews before they hired me. They tasted their wine, tasted my wine.
I was hired by Claude Taittinger (1927-2022), who was an art collector – he’s now retired [in 2013] , but he was an art collector.
Taittinger has a very decided style and so do I. So it was pretty much a marriage of style.
Claude Taittinger said to me, “Great things are always originals, they’re never imitations.” The analogy he used was Picasso would have been unknown if he had been trying to imitate Renoir. So now as Domaine Carneros, you must be an original style.
Most of the other French houses had sent over a winemaker for a week to do the blends. Taittinger has never done that. We’ve always made them here. So it’s very much – we are our own shape, form, evolution.
Art is a good analogy because people say, ‘Well, do you still produce the same wine you did?”
I say Picasso went through a blue stage and a rose stage and Picasso went through different stages, in his artistic career and winemakers do that, but you can usually see the relationship at different stages.
We get better every single year.
Though people who had our wines maybe 5 years ago or 15 years ago, still recognize the style, the style has evolved more. And we also make several more different styles of wine than we used to.
As a winemaker, I know great wines are always wines of a place.
You can make very good wines if you buy from various locations around, but it takes a winemaker a long time to get to know their vineyards because you only get one crop a year.
I’ve been making sparkling wine for 36 years. I’ve only made sparkling wine 36 times. A chef might make their famous dish 36 times a night.
In the wine business, experience counts for much more than almost any other industry because it’s a slow process that takes a long time.
So having your own vineyards and really being able to hone in on how you adjust – how you prune them, how you manage them, how you harvest them. Having your own grapes is enormously important.
So is Taittinger organic in France?
No, you know, because of the conditions. They have rain all summer long. And we’re very blessed with a dry season. So there are people in France who are going organic or biodynamic. Champagne is very northerly so I think it would be very hard to do that.
[Subsequently, people have tried but few have succeeded.]
Because?
Because they get rains and often they’re harvesting very late in the season when it’s cold and they’ve been rained on, cause they have such a slow ripening…you keep waiting.
Whereas we always get ripeness and if we get an unexpected rain in the summer, it’s very breezy right through here and we get dry very quickly. I’ve only seen rain damage in sparkling wine once in 36 years.
Taittinger grows more than 50 percent of their own grapes which in Champagne is extraordinary. The fact that we do 96% of our own is extraordinary.
You never get the quality from vendors that you get from having your own grapes. The grower has a different incentive than the winemaker does.
I didn’t actually find out agewise what type of person is attracted to sparkling wine? Who are the bubbleheads, agewise?
I’m not sure that there’s an age group. I think the 20-30 age range that’s coming along right now [this was in 2013], we have a lot of enthusiastic supporters in that age group but we also have a wonderful wine club. We do a lot of social events and we have a beautiful outside space you can sit in.
But we have people who come and show us that they just turned 21 and we have people who are in their 80s drinking bubbles…or 90s…we have people from Topeka, Kansas who come here every summer and come here and sit out on the terrace everyday that they’re here and drink bubbles. It’s actually a group of gals – it’s four gals who come and they call this home. And they usually come for the Le Reve and lobster party we do in the middle of the summer. And then there are neighbors who come and sit on the terrace.
Chateau de la Marquetrie PHOTO
So let’s talk a little bit about the decision to make the building look like what it looks like. How did that come about?
Well, the Taittingers own a historic chateau called the Chateau de la Marquetrie..and we’ll do a little walkaround and I will show you a picture of the Marquetrie…and the Taittingers have always been interested in historic architecture. So when they took over in the mid 1930s, they started acquiring some historic buildings, and the Chateau de la Marquetrie was one of the first of them.
And then in the center of France, Reims, they own an old house, a mansion, of the Count of Champagne.
And then they have these historic cellars – based on an old abbey. So they’ve got this great interest in historic architecture, preserving it and repurposing it so it can stay alive.
So when it came time to build a winery, the Taittingers convinced the other partners that new winery in Carneros should be a chateau based on their Chateau de la Marquetrie.
Their argument was that they expected to produce world class wines here and they wanted something that said “world class” as far as a statement.
When this Domaine Carneros building was first built, there were a lot of people who were horrified and said this doesn’t fit in with the territory, etc.
But if you look at Mondavi, for instance, Mission style is basically a form of what came out of North Africa. But it came here by way of Spain.
And so what would fit in with the territory? Would it be tipis? I don’t know.
The Taittingers wanted to do something that would clearly say ‘world class.’
And they loved their Chateau de la Marquetrie and they wanted this recreated in the U.S.
So I was at the Napa Historical Society last weekend and I saw these photos from when the winery opened when it first opened – people dressed up in the French costumes.
Yes, the Grand Opening.
Do you still do costume things or?
Well for the Grand Opening, it turned out that the costumes from the Dangerous Liasons show had just come off of a year long loan, like two days before the Grand Opening. So we were able to use them.
There was just one problem. They were all these gorgeous costumes, but the waists were very tiny.
We were very heart broken; we were sure we were going to wear them.
So we went to the high school and tried to get people who were size 8’s but they couldn’t…The costumes were like size 4’s.
BEST MOMENTS - THE MILLENIUM MARKED AN AUSPICIOUS TURNING POINT
Eileen: I had Le Reve on the millennium. It was exciting. Befitting.
Claude Taittinger served it to 500 of his closest friends. He owned the Hotel de Crillon in Paris at the time.
I asked him why they chose that? Because, he said, it was making wine in the New World, which he said was one of the most significant things in the last 1,000 years.”
Have you noticed anything different since you started growing organically?
The quality of the grapes is just phenomenal. I mean originally we did it for the guys and gals working in the vineyard. And it was really thinking that it would be a much healthier environment, but the vines just look so much more vibrant and healthy and the fruit that you get has so much more body and finish. Every year, they get better because the soils get better because we’re not spraying herbicides.
The soils keep getting richer and better all the time, and the vines look healthier and the grapes get better. A lot of people don’t do it because they think it’s too much work or they think it’s going to be too expensive and it is more expensive, but it’s not. I think we figured out it costs us 4 percent more to farm organically than non organically.
Well some people say ‘we’re organic but we’re not doing the paperwork.’ Well going organic is this much work [big] and the paperwork is like this much work [tiny].
People steal our (CCOF) signs all the time. So that’s why I put out those certificates. To show that we’re actually real. Cause a lot of people just steal the signs.
I’ve always been mystified by people’s denial about the value of certification. They all say ‘oh the paper work, oh the cost.’
For one place it was like 4 cents a bottle, cause the government gives you back the fees…like half or three quarters.
Do you have a consultant?
No, we’ve done it in house and the CCOF people are helpful. I mean it’s some work but it’s not onerous.
Take us through these next wine– so the rose is named for Madame Pompadour…the Cuvee de la Pompadour…[now called simply their rosé]
So the rosé – part of a rosé’s identity is its color and it’s really the only sparkling wine that has a color identity. They can be almost red. Some sparkling wines are red. But then they can just be an off gold. But this actually has a little more color than most of the rosés, but I like this sort of soft peach color. We make a rosé by leaving it in contact with the skin.
Most people add red wine back to the cuvee. In Champagne they don’t get enough color from the Pinot Noir grapes, so they have to add red wine, but we leave it in contact. About 20 percent of the Pinot Noir we bring in, we leave in contact for the rosé, with the skin.
It has a very interesting finish.
It’s our prettiest wine, but it’s not sweeter. A lot of people actually think this is drier than the Brut.
So how are French people finding the wines when they come?
They respond pretty favorably. A lot of the Champagne producers are concerned because California sparkling is generally less expensive than Champagne. So you can get a heck of a good bottle here for a lot less.
So what part of the process do you love? What part do you get sort of little high about?
Harvest. The grapes come in and the grapes smell good. The aromas keep changing. When you first press the grapes, you get the aroma of this fresh juice and then as it ferments in the cellar, the fermentation smells change during the fermentation. And then you have the new wines to taste. But I also like the cuvee blending.
I was going to ask you about that –isn’t that kind of where the magic happens?
If you did your job right during harvest, that’s where the magic happens, but you have to…it’s like a chef in the kitchen.
The grapes, or your ingredients, have to be just right.
And how you handle the early phase is like preparing a meal – in preparing a meal, it has to be just right. The assemblage is putting all those properly produced elements together.
The assemblage is a great challenge because you haven’t done that job for a whole year.
At harvest, if you make a mistake in the first couple of days, it’s a big one.
Often sparkling harvest is only 10 or 12 days long. You have to get your mind to kick in really fast and think ‘Okay.’
Because I’ve worked with these vineyards and before, for another ten years, in Carneros. I have this mental inventory.
‘Oh, I remember this happened in 1984…and this was the situation and this was how we handled it and it worked.’
And you pull out from this rolodex or piles of information from past years and that didn’t work out… let’s see how we’re going to handle this.
And we had one clone here–we still have it–and the very first year when I picked it, it has a very muscaty, very over the top quality and I just thought ‘Oh.’
Of course I wasn’t anxious to tell my brand new employers that we were going to have to pull it out…a young healthy block of vines. So the next year I thought, ‘Why don’t we try harvesting it several days earlier, before it’s really ripened.’ And I did that and it was better. Actually it’s now one of the backbone clones in the Le Reve. And I don’t use a lot of it. But in the Le Reve there’s usually 5-7 percent of it.
I love our wine with shellfish. Scallops is probably the most perfect match. We do a fun party in the summer with members called Le Reve and Lobster. Which is very casual. It’s just lobsters, out on the tables, and blueberry pie. With a slab of vanilla ice cream.
So Maine [where I used to live].
With a shooter of clam chowder. It’s informal. It’s fun. We hand out bibs. It’s silly and fun and delicious. We do those all summer long. People really love it.
Maybe you would like to come to one.
Yes. [And I did…and I will never forget it. Thank you, Eileen. And may there be more lobster dinners in heaven with your wines.] PHOTO
Friday, June 5, 2026
The Cool Kids Are Gathering in One Epic Afternoon Tasting in Cambria: SLO Coast Hosted at Parr Wines June 28
The most amazing collection of wines and wineries. With gas prices gone wild, you can stop having to drive hither and yon and just come to this one big beautiful tasting.
Many of California most beloved indie wineries will be pouring June 28 in Cambria at the SLO COAST & FRIENDS 2026 event. Tickets are $50.
• From the North Coast: Drew Family, Jaime Motley, Matt Taylor Wines, Pax, Preston
• From Oregon!: Johan Vineyards
• From the SLO Coast: Lady of the Sunshine, Scar of the Sea, Parr Wines
• From the Central Coast/Paso: Lone Madrone, Stirm
• From SBC: Amevive, Ojai
Almost all of these wineries have appeared in Slow Wine USA. You can order a copy on Amazon.com or Bookshop.
Hope to see you at Raj’s. It’s definitely worth the drive
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Former Esprit Exec Turned Environmental Leader Peter Buckley, Founder of the David Brower Center in Berkeley, Dies After a Long Life Devoted to Good Works
He and his wife Mimi Buckley started Front Porch Farm, the family's organic farm and vineyard in Healdsburg, among other things.
Click here to read more about his contributions, which included starting the Brower Center in Berkeley, a hub for nonprofit environmental groups and Berkeley's first LEED Platinum building.
The Buckley's have a 12 acre vineyard and make some wine, too, but mostly they grow food and flowers, flowers, flowers. Their farm U-pick dates are coming up...click here for more info.
Remember The Real Carlo Petrini (1949-2026), Slow Food Founder, in this Rousing 2012 Speech at the Heirloom in Santa Rosa | It's All About Pleasure and Change
Petrini's gifts to us were many and his presence in Sonoma County giving the keynote address at the National Heirloom Expo in 2012 was just one of them. Slow Food, Slow Wine, Slow Wine USA, Terra Madre of the Americas–Let us count the ways he expanded our worlds.
Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food, died, from prostate cancer, and bios of his life and times are everywhere.
I was looking for an old photo taken in 2012 that exists–somewhere–in my photo archives of me and Carlo, when he came to speak at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. I was so thrilled to get a selfie (something I rarely do but for a photo with him, I was willing to make an exception!) I had no idea I would come to work as editor of Slow Wine USA later in my life.
But due to my excellent filing system (LOL), I cannot find that photo. Maybe I will get lucky someday and Facebook Photos will pop it up randomly. But I found something much better–video of Carlo in his prime, giving a moving speech. I filmed these two videos in 2012 at the National Heirloom Expo.
Click here to see the post with videos.
Sunday, May 10, 2026
The 1976 Paris Tasting: My How The Farming Has Changed - Out with OBG's DDT, Atrazine and Paraquat and In with Biopesticides, Oils and Organic Farming
Farming has changed a lot since 1976 when harsher and more toxic chemicals were more commonly used. (Even though many disease-related agrochemicals are still used today.) Six winners are now organic.
So see this post as it was published - with charts and photos - please visit https://organicwineuncorked.substack.com/p/the-1976-paris-tasting-my-how-the
PHOTO Stephen Spurrier, who organized the tasting with Patricia Gallagher
As the wine industry approaches the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris (the historic blind tasting that redefined California wine), many wineries involved in the tasting are celebrating with exclusive dinners, parties and celebrations across the country.
Here is Patricia Gallagher, who suggested the tasting to Stephen Spurrier, and organized it with him, as she reminisces about organizing the event. (Video filmed at a memorial to Spurrier several years ago).
See https://organicwineuncorked.substack.com/p/the-1976-paris-tasting-my-how-the
While the wineries who participated in the 1976 Paris Tasting have a lot to celebrate, celebrations should also recognize the enormous farming improvements in Napa and across California, reducing the number and type of toxic chemicals applied to wine grape vineyards.
Six wineries from the 1976 event have converted their vineyards to organic farming and certification.
That said, the state continues to trail European wine producers in the percentage of vineyards that are organic (and do not use synthetic chemicals).
4 versus 20
In California four percent of vineyard acres are certified organic. In Italy, France and Spain, 20 percent of vineyards are certified organic.
A lot has changed–for the better–in wine grape farming since the early 1970s when DDT was banned and the most commonly used herbicides in California then became (gasp) atrazine and paraquat–both extremely toxic, declared carcinogenic by scientists and banned in Europe. Over the decades, the state of California and growers (with pressure from the state) phased these out. (Chinese owned Syngenta, which makes paraquat, announced it will no long manufacture it as of this year.)
Unfortunately corn farmers in Iowa have not stopped using atrazine and the state, sadly, is a leader in cancer cases. (Note: it was U.C. Berkeley star scientist Tyrone Hayes who researched atrazine’s toxic effects and who survived the then Swiss-owned Syngenta’s extreme smear campaign against his research).
Many growers have replaced those carcinogens with biopesticides and mineral oil sprays, but the world has not yet found a non toxic herbicide alternative.
Organic growers remove weeds mechanically. Some say that results in a more costly and economically unsustainable operation. Others say it costs about the same to farm organically as conventionally. It is an ongoing debate. (See here and here.)
Celebrating Farming Changes
But on to the celebration part.
The prestigious 50th anniversary is shared across a small group of Napa Valley wineries (there were 30 in all at the time). Six of the top winners (including five from Napa) have now transitioned to organic on their estates:
Organic Certification
Regenerative Organic in Napa: Grgich Hills Estate (100%), Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (partial)
Organic in Napa: Heitz Cellar (100%), Mayacamas Vineyards, Freemark Abbey (estate only)
Organic in Other Locations: Ridge Vineyards (Sonoma and Santa Clara Mountains) (estate only)
Other Winners (Not Certified Organic)
Napa: Chateau Montelena, Clos du Val, Spring Mountain Vineyard, Veedercrest (no longer producing)
Other Locations: Chalone (Monterey County) and David Bruce (Santa Cruz Mountains)
Pesticide History | 50 Years Ago
Curious to know what vineyards were sprayed with, I asked Chat GPT for a rundown on what pesticides were used in Napa in 1973.
Here is what it told me (verified with a few local experts to make sure it was accurate):
1) Organochlorine insecticides (declining but still present)
• DDT – widely used in U.S. agriculture through the 1950s–60s and still lingering into the early 1970s [and today] before its 1972 ban
• Dicofol – a DDT-related miticide used on grapes (notably for spider mites)
• Other chlorinated hydrocarbons (varied by site)
Evidence from vineyard sediment cores shows a peak of DDT residues around ~1970, consistent with heavy use just before the ban.
(My Note: Although DDT was banned in 1972, historic illegal DDT dumping in the ocean, primarily in Southern California, continues to be a toxic hazard for birds who eat marine mammal prey who have eaten DDT. Officials discovered some of the major dump sites as recently as in 2020.)
2) Organophosphate insecticides (replacing DDT-era chemicals)
• Parathion (very toxic, used on fruit crops)
• Malathion (less toxic alternative, widely used)
These became common in the late 1960s–1970s as DDT was phased out.
3) Early herbicides (beginning of “clean vineyard floor” era)
• Atrazine – used in vineyards by the late 1960s–70s
• Paraquat – widely used in California agriculture in the 1970s
This period marks a shift toward bare-soil vineyard management, which increased erosion and pesticide runoff .
4) Early synthetic fungicides
• Captan (introduced 1950s, widely used by 1970s)
• Mancozeb (introduced early 1960s)
These supplemented sulfur/copper for disease control.
What this means specifically for Napa in 1973
A typical Napa vineyard in 1973 would likely have used a mix of:
• Fungicides: sulfur, copper, captan, mancozeb
• Insecticides: dicofol, malathion, possibly residual DDT-era compounds
• Herbicides: paraquat and/or atrazine
• (Possibly) highly toxic organophosphates like parathion
The exact mix varied by grower, pest pressure, and vineyard practices—but this combination reflects mainstream California viticulture at the time.
Important context
• 1973 sits right at the transition:
◦ DDT had just been banned (1972), but residues and some use persisted briefly.
◦ Organophosphates and herbicides were expanding.
• Compared to today, pesticide regimes were often:
◦ More toxic (acute toxicity)
◦ Less regulated and less precisely applied
Wine Grape Pesticides Today
Across the state, things have gotten better over 50 years, but toxins still remain as regular sprays in vineyards.
Glyphosate is now known with even more certainty to be harmful to human health but is still widely used, even in fine wine regions. In 2026, scientists proved that a key 2000 study Monsanto and Bayer relied on to say that glyphosate was safe to use was, in fact, based on falsified data by scientist collaborators paid by Monsanto. The study was, at last, retracted.
Glufosinate-ammonium, a neurotoxin, is a suspected endocrine disruptor and reproductive toxin.
With the exception of Napa Green, sustainability certifications do not prohibit herbicide use.
This 2023 data below comes from the California Department of Pesticide Regulations. More recent data has not yet been released in a summary report format.
See https://organicwineuncorked.substack.com/p/the-1976-paris-tasting-my-how-the
You can see the full list of what is applied to wine grapes in Napa here.
See https://organicwineuncorked.substack.com/p/the-1976-paris-tasting-my-how-the
Find the Celebration of Your Choice
But let’s focus on the positive. Raise a glass to salute the vineyard managers who led the teams that converted these vineyards to organic:
• Ivo Jeramaz, Grgich Hills Estate
• David Gates, Ridge Vineyards
• Guillermo Perez, Stag’s Leap
• Phil Coturri (and company), Mayacamas Vineyard
• Mark Neal, Heitz Cellar (now Martha’s Vineyard)
—These wineries are holding individual celebrations as well as participating in wider festivities.
Grgich Hills Estate | May 2 (Chardonnay Masterclass) | May 30 | Video from the 40th Anniversary
Ridge Vineyards | May 17 in Napa | Video 2026 | Video 2022
Stags Leap Wine Cellars | June 13 and more in the fall
—COPIA is offering an event encompassing all of to the participating wineries.
COPIA | Napa All Events
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Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Groundstar Vineyard & Estate Expands Buys Historic Williams Ranch in Sta. Rita Hills Corridor
The deal expands Groundstar’s stewardship to over 320 acres
Press Release
Groundstar Vineyard & Estate, founded by Chiara Shannon and Joseph Brent, announces the acquisition of the historic Williams Ranch, a 247 acre property located at 7630 W. Highway 246 in the Sta. Rita Hills corridor. The transaction officially closed on February 13, 2026, marking a significant step forward in Groundstar’s long-term commitment to extend its regenerative land stewardship into a broader, integrated agricultural ecosystem.
Situated along one of Santa Barbara County’s most iconic agricultural corridors, the addition of Williams Ranch expands Groundstar’s stewardship to over 320 acres—a rare opportunity to implement regenerative farming at scale, prioritizing soil health, biodiversity, water resilience, and ecosystem vitality.
“This acquisition represents a large step forward for our work at Groundstar,” said Shannon. “Our focus is on farming in a way that supports the health of the land and, ultimately, the people and communities connected to it. With the Williams Ranch, we now have the opportunity to expand that work by integrating regenerative grazing, enhancing water systems, restoring native habitat, and supporting a more complete and resilient landscape.”
Expanding a Regenerative Framework
Groundstar’s approach is rooted in its regenerative organic farming principles, and is pursuing its Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC) status. The Williams Ranch acquisition extends that commitment beyond the vineyard. Goals for the Williams Ranch include:
• Regenerative grazing to improve soil health, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem balance
• Water management strategies to support retention, biodiversity and drought resilience
• Wildlife conservation and habitat restoration, including native plant and ecological renewal
• Integrated agricultural systems aligning livestock, land, and long-term stewardship
The acquisition allows Groundstar to manage the vineyard and surrounding rangeland as one connected agricultural property, with vine cultivation, grazing, water retention, native habitat, and soil health practices supporting each other across the landscape.
A Legacy of Ranching and Local Connection
The acquisition carries personal and regional significance. The Shannon family brings decades of ranching experience, having operated a cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle. The Williams Ranch creates an opportunity to carry that experience forward in Santa Barbara County.The property itself carries a deep-rooted local history. Long held by the Williams family, the ranch reflects the agricultural heritage of the Santa Ynez Valley and the Sta. Rita Hills corridor. Rodney Williams, from whom the property was acquired, is a well-known local rancher.
Chiara’s father, Mike Shannon—a Los Angeles native who helped lead the Shannon family’s former Texas cattle ranching operation and was pivotal to the transaction—is a member of the Rancheros, a historic group connected to the region’s ranching heritage. His involvement reflects a multi-generational ranching tradition that connects family history, regional relationships, and a shared commitment to responsible land stewardship.
“This project carries forward a family tradition of ranching, organic and regenerative agriculture, and care for the land” said Chiara Shannon.
Looking Ahead
Groundstar supports broader efforts to advance regenerative agriculture, including the MINDSET: Regeneration and Resilience Symposium, which brings together leaders across agriculture, science, and wine.
To learn more about Groundstar Vineyard & Estate, upcoming initiatives, and future gatherings, visit groundstarvineyard.com and sign up for the newsletter to stay connected.
About Groundstar Vineyard & Estate
Groundstar Vineyard & Estate is a regenerative, organic, and biodynamic vineyard and ranch estate in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA of Santa Barbara County. Founded by Chiara Shannon and Joseph Brent, Groundstar is dedicated to farming practices that prioritize soil health, biodiversity, and long-term ecological resilience, while cultivating premium Pinot Noir and Rhô ne varietal grapes grapes for thoughtful winegrowers. The estate also hosts curated gatherings that bring together community, agriculture, and a shared connection to the land.
A New Book Explores An Italian MW's Notion of Italianity. Italianity?
A Texas based wine writer and an Italian MW explore Italy and its wine regions–in a coffee table-esque book uniquely crammed with personal insights and rare candor.
To see this post with accompanying photos, click here.
At first this coffeetable book, suitable for gifting, struck me as indistingishable from the Italy and Italian food and wine books put out by publishers looking for another easy sell. Throw in a few photos of red Vespas, good looking models by fountains, and yet another ragu sauce recipe. (None of which are present in this volume). But as I started to read the two voices writing in tandem with each other in this hefty volume, I began to see candor and nuggets I would not have found elsewhere–at least not in an attractive, photo filled wine book.
Lonardi is unusual in the rarified ranks of MWs as he has been in the business as a producer, holds a degree in agronomy, and knows how to sell wine in New York. His is not solely a sensory path. (Though you gotta have those chops for sure to become an MW.)
Triumphs and Failures
In the book Lonardi shares experiences of hits and misses. Once, he refined viticulture for the better, harvesting at staggered intervals, not all at once, as a Chianti Classico estate previously did. As he describes it, the winemaker “was skeptical of vineyard work.” (A bygone era perhaps, as trends change.) With Lonardi’s intervention, “parcel by parcel harvesting became a cornerstone of our work.”
But he’s not afraid to acknowledge his own cringeworthy mistakes–they’ll horrify you if you are a lover of old vines. Arriving in Sicily in the early 2000s, with the ambition of “bottling Sicily’s greatness,” he cast aside “the old Sicilian model of bush trained vines and resilient local varieties,” opting to plant EU subsidized Chardonnay, Syrah and Cabernet, in VSPs and using Bordeaux winemaking techniques.
‘We planted continental models–dense rows of vines on weak rootstocks, trimmed and irrigated, arranged not for beauty or belonging, but for efficiency,” he writes.
“And so, we began the great uprooting. Old vines, deeply established in culture and climate, were torn out, We didn’t experiment. We just imitated, confident that quality would come from patterning ourselves on others.”
“I’d been chosen for my job because I had studied abroad, in France and California–the places we looked to for answers. Our guiding principles? ‘This is how the French do it.’ ‘This is how you make quality wine.’ ‘This is how you mechanize and save money.’”
But he writes, “after just a few years, Sicily spoke back. It subverted everything we believed.” Cover crops did not help, trimming in heatwaves stalled the vines, high density led to increased labor. In the end, he finds, the vineyard “improvements” failed completely and the wines were mediocre.
In the end, he finds that the Sicilian model did not need replacing–”It needed reclaiming.”
Starting in 2022 that’s what he did, championing the old vines of Marsala with his two MW co-learners
In a chapter on Friuili, Lonardi profiles Friuli born Marco Simonit as “A Shaman Among the Vines,” and admires his work on shifting wineries from hard to gentle pruning.
Although the concept of Italianity remains somewhat elusive, at least to me, a hint comes from Lonardi when he talks about Valpolicella and his growing desire to let the land speak with more transparency. At first he calls his idea Pinosophy, a word he says means “rooted in lightness, tension and truth”…based “on clarity of place, precision of flavor, harmony between fruit, acidity and texture.”
Now, “there is a world chorus singing in this key,” he says, concluding, “Lightness is not the absence of substance, it is the art of embodying depth with grace.”
MISSING PHOTO (click here for story WITH PHOTOS)
Celebrating the book’s release at a May 5 luncheon, Robin Shay, export manager for Marilisa-Allegrini’s Villa Della Torre, and auctioneer and broadcaster Liam Mayclem, KCBS Foodie Chap, with Shelley Lindgren at A16
Lonardi is now the COO of Marilisa-Allegrini’s new company, Villa Della Torre, where he is reshaping the vision, including a negociant approach by integrating old vine vineyards in Soave into the portfolio, and mentoring Marilisa’s two daughters who joined the business six years ago.
The Montalcino estate is certified organic and releases its wines in both Italy and the United States (as Made with Organic Grapes.)
Author Insights from Dupuy
Speaking at the luncheon, co-author Jessica Dupuy, shared the saga of the book publishing journey, saying that they self published the book after her agent could not find a publisher willing to release it as a bilingual publication. (Each chapter is presented in both English and Italian.)
Peppered with people profiles from start to finish, Lonardi introduced it as more timeless book about character building and career legacy lessons from role models.
“This is not a wine book,” he said. “This is a book of life, and it is a book especially for young people to understand how we can build our success, our professional career, and learn from all these people who are special.”
Biggest Surprise: The Role Mondavi Played in Italian Wine Leaders’ Inspiration
Said Dupuy, “One thing that, as a California connection, that I thought was fascinating was when we interviewed Gaia Antinori, Vittorio Moretti (who is the owner of Bella Vista and a number of other labels) and others–all of them, when I asked them, well, ‘who are some people that influenced you, who are some people that helped you in your career path?’ And without knowing that anyone had said this, all of them answered, Robert Mondavi.”
“It’s crazy. I just stopped in my tracks. Because I think as American–I work in wine, I have been writing about wine, I know Robert Mondavi. Of course we know that brand and many of you know everything he’s done, but I think I’ve kind of taken them for granted personally, and that really made me pause.”
“In fact, we had no plans to write about Robert Mondavi in this book, but after listening to them, there is an essay about that, and it’s because each one of them said it’s because of Robert Mondavi the first time I met him.
“For Angelo Gaja, Piero Antinori, Vittorio Moretti–it made them realize that Italian wine was possible on the tables of Americans, that Italian wine was possible and that people wanted us. If pizza and pasta are part of the American menu once a week at a minimum, then Italian wine can be, too, and it gave them license to move beyond and push through. And so it’s because…I can’t believe it, but because of Robert Mondavi, we have this story in front of us. So I think that’s really beautiful, that that was the inspiration. And I just wanted to share that story, because you’re going to find a lot of these in the book.”
Friday, April 17, 2026
Your Next Dose of “An Ethos of Sanity in What is an Insane World”| Slow Wine USA Debuts 2026 Guide
The 2026 Record Setting Guide is now available! Out of 409 fine wine wineries, 256 have certified organic vines or are in transition to organic, biodynamic or regenerative organic certification.
SEE PHOTO ON ORGANICWINEUNCORKED ON SUBSTACK
Slow Wine Guide party for 2026 guide field contributors (writers), editors and wineries held at Robert Hall Winery in Paso Robles in 2025.
As the 2026 Slow Wine Guide USA launches this week, the creation of a dedicated team of wine writers, wine judges and other wine professionals, the book has reached its biggest numbers ever with a record 409 wineries, up from 380 in 2025.
As its managing editor (working closely with my work bestie, national editor Deborah Parker Wong), I can say it’s a pleasure to have seen our illustrious team grow to 21 field contributors who help us fulfill our mission of in person, on site visits for each winery.
We’ve been buoyed by past praise…SF Chronicle’s beloved wine writer Esther Mobley said we were the best place to find out if a wine was farmed with Roundup, while US born, Catalunya based wine expert Miguel Hudin said we had created “An Ethos of Sanity in What is an Insane World.” That latter phrase rings truer than ever in this current moment when so many lies abound and misinformation floods the zone.
The Most Transparent Wine Guide on the Planet
Slow Wine USA has been a force for transparency indeed, and that, above all, makes me so proud to have contributed to the only wine guide–yes, in the U.S.–that follows the format of showing the fertilizer, the weed control, the plant protection and other wine farming facts that no other wine guide publishes. It is a brilliant format and I salute our Italian sponsors at Slow Wine Italy for coming up with it. In addition, it lists pertinent winemaking facts as well–what types of yeast (native, etc.) as well the type of aging vessel, case production and more for more than 1,200 wines (three per winery).
We also salute all the producers in the guide–who respond to our inquiries and share more of their farming and winemaking facts with us than other reviewers.
It is simply the best and most comprehensive guide to eco friendly wines, valuing both farming and wine quality in equal measure.
Many wineries who forgo herbicides still use fungicides, but that disqualifies them for Snail consideration.
Our USA guide was the first to say “we do not review wines farmed with Roundup or other synthetic herbicides.”
A winery can make other wines farmed with Roundup. They are just not the ones we review.
Aside from concerns about human health, Roundup is most definitely a soil killer, and one would be hard pressed to say a wine is a “wine of terroir” if the soil is treated with synthetic herbicide. (Although hundreds of wineries do say that, including fine wine wineries.)
This year, the Italian Slow Wine Guide followed suit on the herbicide prohibition, that we in the USA started first.
May it continue.
Many Things Are Left Unsaid
It can be awkward for some wineries to follow the Slow Wine guidelines, for there are wonderful and famous wineries in long term contracts with Roundup dousing old vine vineyards (even the head trained ones) who prefer not to be in the guide lest someone discover the brand reputation is not wholly defined by their certified organic estate (obscuring from view that they purchase grapes that are not as pure as the driven snow).
There are many instances of mistaken identity in other Green Wine designations (I think of the Robert Parker green award). Unless a winery is all estate, which is unique in the U.S., green is a wine by wine determination, not necessarily a winery category.
Call it the hybrid producer problem–wineries that have very green estates but buy from additional wine grapes from growers who do not. Some famous names would appear here if not for my discretion in shielding them from view.
The same hybrid producer problem goes for unnamed natural winemakers who just need to buy more grapes and don’t really want anyone to know they’re buying grapes sprayed with synthetic fungicide for instance. It’s not illegal, but many of those fungicides are bird and bee neurotoxins.
Or a winery can have sheep grazing in the fields and still use herbicide–i.e. have their rented sheep munching among recently sprayed, herbicided grasses. A agro-non-ecological nightmare.
When the founders of Sonoma Valley’s SORBET group observed this happening, much to their consternation, it spurred the organic folks to form a collective to combat that type of greenwashing deception.
Herbicide Free Wine
I think after all we have been through to create and adhere to this criteria at Slow Wine, a little bragging about the criteria of herbicide free wines is ok.
Asking marketing directors at hundreds of wineries if the wines they represent are farmed with Roundup, fungicides, conventional fertilizer, etc. has been an education for those we’ve crossed paths with in the course of writing this guide, year in and year out.
People are now more familiar with these attributes.
It goes far beyond “does it have sulfites” and natural winemakers saying “We did nothing” over and over.
Proud to Honor Our Snails | Wineries That Use No Synthetic Chemicals in the Vines
Napa - 25
Oregon - 21
Sonoma - 17
Williamette Valley - 15
Paso Robles - 9
Santa Barbara County - 8
Slow Wine USA also lists certifications where they are used, and also includes the uncertified, recognizing that good farming requires a clean Pesticide Use Report, not a certification certificate. Our Italian Slow Wine leaders created this criteria and it enables us to be much more inclusive than if we were an organic only guide.
An Educational Journey
We spotcheck the uncertified California wineries, using our state’s fantastic pesticide use reports, in the hopes that we can encourage and validate transparency. Of course, we are not omniscient so we do have rely on what wineries tell us, but cross referencing official spray reports gives us some degree of confidence. Would that every state had mandatory pesticide use reporting like California does.
We also require wineries to report the percentage of grapes they purchase–a very revealing and useful indicator, as most people have no idea wineries buy grapes or in what quantity. Often it is a surprise to consumers and even to wine professionals. Clearly more education is needed in the industry among wine educators, retailers and wine professionals.
The Love In These Wines
In the end, what matters most is being able to say to our readers, this guide encompasses 409 great wineries and more than 1,200 wines you might want to try. They range in price from $16 per bottle (Folk Machine’s White Light, also available in 3L boxes for $42) to the luxury tier stratosphere (Adamvs at $425, for instance).
Every one of the Snails, in order to be a Snail, cannot use synthetics, whether they are fungicides or herbicides, insecticides or conventional fertilizer.
This year we have a record number of Snails.
Price is, uniquely, one of the criteria, for a Snail should not be overly costly.
Bravo for the fine quality of our wineries who meet these high standards. And for all the shoe leather guide writers put in and the many hours the production staff in Italy devote to this endeavor.
2025-6 A Banner Year, A Turning Point
Aside from all this, the past year was a banner year, with the launch of the first full fledged Terra Madre USA in Sacramento. which included more than 100 of our wineries engaged in panels and tastings.
PHOTO: see on substack. Regenerative organic pioneer Caine Thompson, then general manager of O’Neill’s Robert Hall Winery in Paso Robles, giving a talk on agroforestry at the inaugural Terra Madre of the Americas held in Sacramento
Buying the Guide
Interested in buying a copy of the guide? It’s a fitting tribute during Earth Month and a show of support to our stellar team (and the wineries) who provide so much value in this amazingly thorough and comprehensive guide.
Get your 2026 guide on Amazon or from Bookshop here and get to know “all the best people”, and their wines” and wineries.
Makes a great gift, too, so buy a few copies for friends.
Thank you for supporting Slow Wine USA.
Monday, April 6, 2026
Earth Day | Organically Grown Wine Conference in Oregon Launches Its First Two Day Conference
Press release
Attendees can expect farmer-led learning and collaboration geared toward growers, producers, media, buyers, and other stakeholders who care about quality, sustainability, and authenticity. (Courtesy image)
WILLAMETTE VALLEY, Ore. — Join us for two immersive days of connection, education, and tasting at the 2026 Organically Grown Wine Conference—a gathering at the intersection of organic viticulture, winemaking, market innovation, and the people who are shaping the future of wine.
Building off the successful inaugural 2025 conference, attendees can expect farmer-led learning and collaboration geared toward growers, producers, media, buyers, and other stakeholders who care about quality, sustainability, and authenticity.
DATE: April 20-21, 2026
LOCATION: Willamette Valley, Oregon
Day 1 of the Organically Grown Wine Conference is geared towards trade, buyers, media and industry members, but open to anyone who is curious about organic wine farming.
The full day conference includes:
Panel Discussion, Lunch + Technical Tasting at Linfield (McMinnville)
Field Tour at Soter Vineyards (Carlton)
Shuttle transportation will be offered from Portland.
Day 2 of the Organically Grown Wine Conference is geared towards growers, viticulturists, winemakers, and those transitioning to organic practices - trade and media are welcome.
The full day conference includes:
Panel Discussion, Lunch + Technical Tasting at Chemeketa Eola (Salem)
Field Tour at Chemeketa Eola (Salem)
Happy Hour After Party (McMinnville) - details will be sent to attendees.
Business of Organic: Avaline Surpasses Josh and Bonterra in Sales at Sprouts
How did the all organic brand Avaline catapult into 2025-6's list of wineries achieving double digit growth wineries? Is organic resonating with consumers? If well made and marketed...yes.
Please see this post with the photos we published with it. Go here.
Founded by actress Cameron Diaz, a Hollywood star, and Katherine Power, an entrepreneur with several hit brands in beauty and fashion, in 2019, Avaline imports organically grown wines and brands them with Avaline branding, while also crediting the wine’s producer source (on its website under each wine description).
The fast growing brand is widely available at Target, Sprouts, Whole Foods, Total Wine and many other retail outlets.
At Sprouts, Avaline recently surpassed Sprouts’ sales of Josh, a conventionally grown wine that is a top seller nationally. It also surpassed Bonterra in sales at Sprouts, Avaline’s CEO Jen Purcell said.
In May of 2025, Business of Drinks podcast host Erica Deucy interviewed Avaline CEO Purcell about the company’s success, pointing out in her introduction that “Avaline is more than a celebrity-backed brand. It’s a category-shaping brand. In 2024 alone, Avaline sold 213,000 cases.” That earned it a Hot Brand from Shanken News Daily.
But the following year was even better. Avaline hit 300,000 cases in sales.
Said Deucy, “We’re talking nearly 50% growth in a category that saw contraction.”
“What’s driving this growth?” Deucy continued. “It is a radically different approach to wine. It’s about simple and transparent labeling, the use of organic grapes, and messaging that is wellness-forward and frictionless.
“The label itself doesn’t focus on terroir. It tells you the ingredients and what the wine tastes like. And it’s the brand’s willingness to really distance itself from traditional and staid wine language and harness the signifiers found in beauty, wellness and modern food brands.”
Its target demographic? “Tech savvy, health conscious women between 35 and 54,” Purcell said. It takes its cues in branding from fashion and wellness trends, leaning into female buyers.
Listen to the full interview in the podcast. 63: How Avaline Became a $33M Wine Powerhouse with CEO Jen Purcell - Business of Drinks
Avaline’s Brand History
Avaline initially launched in Sprouts in 2020 and in 2021 began its DTC, ecommerce channel. The vast majority of sales are still in retail outlets.
Avaline’s investors include Greycroft (which funded Powell’s other ventures), Marcy Venture Partners (co-founded by Jay-Z), H Venture Partners, Plus Capital, and Sonoma Brands. Angel investors include Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicole Richie. By 2021, it had raised $14.6 million from investors. Today it has reached more than $33 million in sales.
Avaline’s two bestselling wines; rosé and an unconventional white blend from Spain
What makes Avaline different from the biggest domestic organic brand, Bonterra?
Avaline’s branding is more upscale and fashion forward, but it also lists ingredients (transparency), messages “no added sugar” (often 0 grams total), displays nutrition facts and emphasizes “no unnecessary additives.”
And all of the winemakers are in the EU –where the organic wine market and organic acreage for organically grown wines is 4-5 times bigger than in the U.S. with a wide selection of producers to create private label wines.
Unconventional Marketing for the Wine Industry
A lot of Avaline’s strategy is born out by current market research–listing ingredients, messaging low calorie and no sugar, ingredients transparency–but no one had ever put all of those things into play in the marketplace with the added attributes of fashion and film celebrities who can appear on TV talk shows.
On the other hand, market researchers have consistently been saying that these consumers were asking for these attributes, but wineries did not appear to be listening.
“Better for you” brands were a halfway step-but not organic. Domestic wineries did not cultivate this demographic with well made and well marketed wines. And major retailers like Whole Foods never fully embraced organically grown wines, apparently since few domestic brands had the capacity to scale nationally.
In Berkeley and Oakland, where I live, one can hardly find an organically grown rosé (from any country) at a local Whole Foods.
Finding enough organic grapes and really good organically grown wine in the U.S. may have been a hurdle for domestic producers as growers are often resistant to growing organically, fearing it is financially risky. Though warmer wine growing climates are often similar in California and the three main EU wine grape growing countries, European producers have a different culture and mindset, with 20% of wine grape acreage certified organic in France, Italy and Spain.
Organic in Lodi?
At the same time, a few U.S. growers see organic as a path to prosperity. Giant Vino Farms in Lodi has found it can charge 2-3 times more for certified organic grapes, while its farming costs rise only around 10 percent for organic. It’s also fueling a new, all organic Avivo brand as well as selling grapes to many artisanal, boutique wineries whose consumers value organic certification.
CEO Purcell: “Avaline was really founded out of their need (for the founders) to understand what they were putting in their bodies and something that they were consuming, a fair amount of, which was wine.”
Avaline’s founders, Purcell said, “realized they didn’t understand anything about what was being put in that bottle. I think that when we first launched, a lot of traditional wine buyers were a little bit confused. They’re like' ‘why aren’t you putting the vintage on the bottle?’
Or why aren’t you talking about where this wine is from, or their terroir, or anything like that?”
“But we were like, well, the research that we’ve done has shown that research that we've done has showed that the consumer doesn't care [about those things]…the consumer does care about what they’re putting in their body, what this wine is made out of. And they have no idea what that is for any other wine. And so I think that really has differentiated us in the market-leaning into those messages.”
Showing Some Rizz
The brand’s growth earned Avaline a spot in Fast Company’s Brands That Matter 2025. That year Avaline “launched a wine with Stella McCartney, celebrating the limited-edition rosé with a cocktail party that had Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Andy Cohen in attendance,” the magazine wrote.
The Stella McCartney rose
“Those activations have helped the brand grow online, especially on Instagram, where Avaline is the most followed U.S.-based wine brand globally with 240,000 followers (a number that grew 8% year over year in 2024),” the magazine continued.
“Think Different” | A Unique Start
Avaline’s earliest wine hits were not the usual varietals marketers lean into–Cabernet and Chardonnay. The original four wines were a sparkling, a red blend, a white blend and a rosé.
Today, they’ve expanded into those common varieties and more, launching red sets, white sets, welcome sets and more. They offer a six bottle wedding set. The brunch set is positioned as “a curated way to bring ease, beauty, and organic wine to any spring table.”
Beauty. Another differentiator.
The Goal? Be a Top 10 Brand
The brand’s emphasis on integrity, organics and authenticity puts it in stark contrast with other celebrity brands.
• Sarah Jessica Parker’s Invivo X, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, now sold with Jalapeño with Natural Flavor
• Snoop Dog’s 19 Crimes (Treasury Wine Estates)
• Dolly Wines, Dolly Parton’s new brand
One other celebrity driven, supermarket priced wine with organic grapes is Whoopi Goldberg’s DOCG Prosecco launched in 2025. It sells online for $23 a bottle online. So far it is the brand’s only wine.
Seeking Even More Growth
In 2025, Avaline switched from RNDC to a national partnership with Southern Glazer’s, aiming to continue its strong retailer growth.
In her podcast interview Purcell said the brand wants to become one of the top 10 wine brands in the country. “That is our ultimate goal.”
As a brand that leans into lifestyle marketing and good wine, with solid financial backing, it appears to be headed in the right direction–at a time of down markets for wine. Will the industry pay attention to these consumer trends?
Friday, April 3, 2026
Seismic Shifts, Part 2 | Four Trends Defining the Future of Wine Growth | Wine Data Guru Danny Brager's Take on Trends, Where Wine's Falling Behind And How It Can Get Its Groove Back Again
It is simple math...and yet, so many miss these points.
Danny Brager is the wine indsutry’s favorite data geek and for good reason. In this second part in a series, we share highlights from his Wine Market Council research conference talk on trends that could fuel growth in the wine industry.
Brager talked overall about overall trends…
• Whites are doing better than red
• Single serving containers a huge success (but not yet in wine)
• On premise price jumps hurting wine in consumers’ decision between cocktails and wine
• Fast casual eateries (serving more ethnically diverse food) outpacing fine dining which is in decline
1. It’s White Wines for the Win (But Only Some Whites Make the Cut)
Used with permission. Thanks to Danny Brager.
Just like the Bar Lucia wine menu (mentioned in Part 1), whites are in, and reds are…declining, according to this SipSource data.
In addition, Brager said he gets calls from journalists about the impact of tariffs, so he looked at the data and found that “imports are doing better than domestics.”
Partly that’s because more than half of the imports are whites, he said.
“When you look at the percentage of imports versus percentage of wines in Washington, California, Oregon, and the color of the percentage of imports, 55% are whites. It’s harder to chase growth when you’re largely invested in varietals that just aren’t doing as well overall, from a consumer perspective,” he said.
Read the full story over at our substack where all the informative charts are displayed.
https://organicwineuncorked.substack.com/p/seismic-shifts-part-2-four-trends
Champagne's Herbicide Nightmare
I am posting a link here to Caroline Henry's truly shocking videos of herbicide use in Champagne. See the video here.
Her video of the spring season spraying shows the undeniable truth - yellow row after yellow row, where Roundup has been used.
She notes that "grapes coming from these blank sprayed vineyards will make their way into most houses' non-vintage cuvees, especially since these same houses have been heavily investing in regenerative practices in their own vineyards. Why bother at all if everything will be blended together in the end?"
Earth Month Kicks Off | Robert Hall Winery Launches Two Wines from Regenerative Organic Grapes | Whole Foods Exclusive
Bold, clear regenerative organic labeling makes them a standout. The two wines-a red and a white-will be available nationwide and sold only at Whole Foods. Scroll down for the tech sheets and labels.
It’s been in the works for sometime, but today’s the day! The project former Robert Hall general manager and regenerative organic evangelist Caine Thompson started with Jeff O’Neill years ago is finally on the launch pad and lifting off in Whole Foods nationwide.
The winery is releasing a red–a Cabernet–and a white–a Sauvignon Blanc–today.
Labeling
One thing I really love about this launch is the prominent branding for regenerative organic labeling. As the press release says, “With Robert Hall ROC® wines, we moved the Regenerative Organic Certified® and B-Corp Certified seals to the front of the wine label, creating a clear, consumer-facing expression of purpose.”
Here’s what the bottle looks like: GO TO OUR SUBSTACK TO SEE THE STORY WITH VISUALS.
Closeup of the neck:
Hopefully this will achieve its purpose: helping consumers to find eco-friendly wine at the supermarket.
Press Release
OBERT HALL WINERY LAUNCHES REGENERATIVE ORGANIC CERTIFIED® WINES
IN EARTH MONTH EXCLUSIVELY AT WHOLE FOODS MARKET
Paso Robles, Calif., April 2, 2026 -- Robert Hall Winery, a pioneer in the Paso Robles AVA and a Regenerative Organic Certified®estate, today announces the launch of two Regenerative Organic Certified® wines exclusively at Whole Foods Market, 2024 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2025 Sauvignon Blanc, SRP $29.99.
Robert Hall Winery, an O’Neill Vintners & Distillers B Corp Certified winery, has produced the first Regenerative Organic Certified®commercially available wines in distribution at retail in honor of Earth Month, a groundbreaking achievement for the future of wine.
Regenerative farming is a future-forward approach that addresses global challenges created by conventional agriculture by restoring soil health and sequestering carbon. Paso Robles has emerged as a leader for regenerative organic viticulture, and Robert Hall Winery is among a small group to achieve Regenerative Organic Certification®(ROC®). This rigorous standard, built on the foundation of organic certification, sets the bar across three core pillars: soil health, animal grazing integration, and worker fairness. The alignment between Robert Hall Winery and Whole Foods Market is rooted in a shared belief that the future of agriculture must be regenerative and transparent. Together, they are redefining how climate-smart, values-driven products reach consumers, meeting at the intersection of quality, integrity, and environmental stewardship.
Jeff O’Neill, Founder & CEO of O’Neill Vintners & Distillers, has been an environmental champion for more than two decades executing on an unwavering belief of “farming for the future,” cementing O’Neill as the leader in at-scale sustainable viticulture. What began as a long-term commitment to better farming for O’Neill has become a defining mission that culminates in bringing Regenerative Organic Certified® wines directly to the everyday consumer.
“For over 20 years, we have believed that farming isn’t just about what we produce today, it’s about what we leave behind for the next generation,” said O’Neill. “Regenerative agriculture is the most important evolution of that belief. We are proud to bring that to the everyday consumer, making it more accessible in the marketplace and at an approachable price point, so anyone can choose to walk with us on this journey.”
As consumers increasingly make purchasing decisions shaped by values as much as quality, Chief Marketing Officer and EVP Luxury at O’Neill Vintners & Distillers, Maeve Pesquera, recognizes the opportunity is no longer just to produce differently, but to communicate differently, making purpose visible at the exact moment choice is made. “Consumers are not just asking what is in the bottle; they are asking what it stands for,” said Pesquera. “Our role is to make that answer immediate and intuitive at the shelf, where trust is built in seconds. With Robert Hall ROC® wines, we moved the Regenerative Organic Certified® and B-Corp Certified seals to the front of the wine label, creating a clear, consumer-facing expression of purpose.”
This commitment extends beyond packaging into education and engagement, with Robert Hall ROC® wines featured in the Whole Foods Market employee “WINE 201” curriculum hosted by Wine Folly, equipping Whole Foods retail teams with a deeper understanding of regenerative agriculture and empowering them to speak clearly and confidently to consumers about its impact on wine quality, land stewardship, and long-term sustainability.
The Robert Hall ROC® 2024 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2025 Sauvignon Blanc, made by Winemaker Amanda Gorter, are available at Whole Foods Markets nationally, SRP $29.99.
About O’Neill Vintners & Distillers
O’Neill Vintners & Distillers, a Certified B Corporation, is a family-owned, vertically integrated wine and spirits company dedicated to crafting exceptional wines and spirits while setting a new standard for sustainability in the industry. Founded in 2004 by visionary Jeff O’Neill, the company has emerged as a true leader in environmental stewardship-proving that scale and sustainability can go hand in hand. O’Neill has earned some of the highest honors in the field, including B Corp Certification, Regenerative Organic Certified® status, and the prestigious Green Medal Leader Award from the California Wine Institute. These accolades reflect not only a deep commitment to regenerative farming and climate-smart practices, but also a bold vision for the future of wine and spirits. With winery estates in Sonoma and Paso Robles and a winery facility in Parlier, O’Neill’s diverse portfolio includes Ram’s Gate Winery, Robert Hall Winery, Line 39, Wines of Substance, FitVine Wine, Harken Chardonnay, Rabble Wine Company, Charles Woodson’s Intercept, No. 209 Gin, and BrandyLab. To learn more, visit www.ONeillWine.com.
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Note each is blended with 14-15% of a second varietal.
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Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Grgich Hills Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Paris Tasting with Rare Chardonnay Masterclass May 2
50 years ago, at the historic Judgment of Paris, the world of wine was changed forever. At the forefront of that revolution stood Miljenko ‘Mike’ Grgich, the winemaker behind the famous 1973 Chardonnay that beat the very best wines of France for the first time in history. You’re invited to join Grgich Hills Estate President Violet Grgich and veteran winemaker Ivo Jeramaz as you're guided on a tasting journey through the decades, to learn more about the varietal that gave rise to Grgich Hills Estate.
A curated selection of Chardonnays past and present will be showcased, including rare library vintages unattainable elsewhere. Attendees also have the distinct privilege of being among the first to taste a brand-new release: our 2023 Paris ’76 Chardonnay, a 97-point masterwork described by Lisa Perrotti-Brown as “Elegant and beautifully poised, yet with intense zesty and savory layers… Absolutely stunning!”
$95 per person, $76 for members.
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Paso Robles Emerges as Global Epicenter of Regenerative Organic Viticulture
Monday, March 30, 2026
Video: "Definitely harmful" — Scientists Issue Warning on Glyphosate Impacts to Human Health
The scientific findings are only growing more alarming as more research is conducted.