Celebrating Earth Day: Check Out Our Newly Released Biodynamic Wine Apps

Here they are - three, count-em, three - new apps on Biodynamically Grown Wines.

Now you CAN - find the more than 300 wines made from certified Biodynamic vineyards. And yes, the apps are available for both Apple iPhone users, Android users, and all tablets.

ALL APPS

All three apps include:

• Introductory articles covering Biodynamic farming, pesticides, growers' and scientists' research, the history of Biodynamically grown wines in the US, and much more
• Detailed wine information including cases made, price, and vineyard and winemaking details

WINE FINDERS

The two wine finder apps include:

• Wine listings (150+ in each app)
• Sorting filters to help find wines: critics' picks, where the wine comes from (appellations) and more. There are about 25 different ways combined with 3 additional filters - that gives you hundreds of filtering combinations.

TASTING AND TOURING GUIDE

In addition, there's a tasting and touring guide that includes:

• 50 wineries to visit from Lompoc (in Santa Barbara County in California) to Seattle (in Washington)  and everything in between
• Winery clusters are located in Napa and Sonoma in northern California and the Willamette Valley outside Portland, Oregon
• Trip planning features - find wineries with bocce ball, owner tours, gardens, food, and more
• Eat/sleep overviews - find suggested farm to fork restaurants and interesting accommodations, including farms and B&Bs
• State of the Art Phone Mapping - GPS to lead you to each and every location (and will even order a cab for you)
• Facebook, Twitter and video links to connect you to winery social media streams

APP DETAILS

The apps cost $9.99 each and come in these flavors:

1. BIODYNAMIC WINE FINDER

• Apple App Store Link
• Google Play Link

The original, the first, the only guide to Demeter certified wines grown in the USA. Get the app and see what you can find in your local wine shop or grocery aisle!

This baby has 160+ wines made according to Demeter winemaking standards - this means you know what's in the bottle and a bit about how it was made. It also means you'll find the Demeter logo or Biodynamic language on the bottle.

To make it snappy, there are two kinds of Demeter certified wines - one lets winemakers do a few things in the cellar (use organic yeast, for instance) but not very many things (unlike conventional wine with up to 200 additives).  This standard is called Made with Biodynamic® Grapes.

The other standard - a gold standard, really - is Biodynamic® Wine. This means no additions (other than a low amount of sulfite). I repeat - no additions.

Carcinogens used in California from
growing wine grapes (State Data)

Both standards allow no more than 100 ppm of sulfites (a low amount). Sulfite has been used to prevent wine spoilage for millennia.

 And, of course, the real chemicals we need to talk about are not sulfites but pesticides.

None of the following are used in Biodynamic (or organic) vineyards: imidacloprid (the suspected bee killer, used in the vast majority of American vineyards and agriculture), no Mancozeb (linked in many scientific studies to Parkinson's disease, and more), no Roundup, no other dastardly stuff.


TOTAL WINES
Wines in this app: 161

TOTAL WINERIES
Wineries in this app: 31

TOP SCORING WINES
Wines rated 90+ pts.: 65 (more than 40% of the wines)

AFFORDABLE WINES
Wines that cost $25 or less: 41

There are wines you can find in most Whole Foods and Costco's (from a producer who make 70,000 cases a year) and wines that can't be found in any wine shop (40 microproduction wines). There are 90+ pt. rated wines under $25 and there is even one of Napa's finest and most expensive historic Cabernets ($175+).

Get the app and see what you can find in your local wine shop or grocery aisle…it's the wine finder game app, really.

I can find a few at my local grocer in Oakland including one of my affordable favorites - Verdad's Rosé.

(Of course if you can't find them on the shelf, contact the wineries to buy the "inobtainium" - i.e. wines left behind in our byzantine and overpriced wine distribution system.)

2. BIODYNAMIC VINE FINDER

• Apple App Store Link
• Google Play Link

Not satisfied with merely finding certified wines? Move on to the next level of the game - finding the wines from certified vines (only).


What's the difference?

Many producers certify the vineyard - but not the wine - meaning they have more options in the cellar (no restrictions on yeast, sulfites from 0 to 350 ppm, etc.) but the vines are grown according to the same Demeter farming standards.

These wineries can talk about Biodynamic certified vineyards on their web sites but you won't find any Demeter logos or Biodynamic language on the wine labels. Call them the stealth wines.

This app lists all of these certified vine made wines - or at least that is how the vintners are representing these wines. A number of these wines come from estates with all Biodynamic vineyards. Many have not certified the wines because they've felt there hasn't been enough consumer interest in Biodynamic certification to make it worth their while. (Hopefully - with your help - that will change).

See how many of these you can find…(and if you can't, order directly from the winery).

TOTAL WINES
Wines in this app: 157

TOTAL WINERIES
Wineries in this app: 49

TOP SCORING WINES
Wines rated 90+ pts.: 53 (a third of the wines)

AFFORDABLE WINES
Wines that cost $25 or less: 47

Of these wineries:

Wineries with estate vineyards (meaning they grow their own grapes): 29

Wineries purchasing Biodynamic grapes: 20

Most of these make single vineyard designate wines (meaning 95-100% of the grapes are from the designated vineyard).

3. BIODYNAMIC WINES AND VINES: A TASTING AND TOURING GUIDE

• Apple App Store Link
• Google Play Link

Go to the source.

Now that you've learned about the wines, meet your vineyardists and winemakers on their home turf - the wineries. See where the wine comes from, sip and savor and perhaps buy wine or join a wine club. (After all, what's the difference between a wine club and a CSA - Community Supported Agriculture? None.)

Plus you'll find pretty much all of the wines for sale when you visit the winery. Take a tour with an owner or vineyard manager (aka farmer), relax in Biodynamic gardens, and stay awhile while you enjoy the fruits of everyone's labor - including soil organisms, microbes, yeasts, insects, birds, vines, growers and others. Yeah baby. Soak it up. What better way to celebrate Earth Day!

TOTAL NUMBER OF WINERY LOCATIONS

California: 31 
Colorado: 1
Oregon: 8
Washington: 3

P.S. Today we're working on our new web site to provide one spot to learn about all of these three apps. Pass this blog post along and sign up for news of our app home site launch at www.biodynamicwinefinder.com!