Movies, movies, movies - since when has wine become such a popular subject for movies? It's only recently.
I'm keeping up to date on the movie screenings of them in the Bay Area, and although I wasn't able to attend a recent screening of The Ways of Wine, I did find it online.
The story centers on a Uruguayan sommelier who loses his palate and tries to get it back again. The setting is in Argentina, where the real life somm, who did in fact lose his palate, goes to search for the region's best wine, in the magical hope that it would bring his palate back again.
He retreats from the glamour of wine to the basics - a love of soil and the families who tend the vines and make the wines.
The feature film came to my attention from my friend Gary Meyer, one of the Bay Area's leading champions of great films and a man who brought art house movies to the Bay Area for decades.
Gary's latest venture is starting a film festival and web site EatDrinkFilms.com.
Before this, Gary started Landmark Theaters, got the Embarcadero Cinema built (a five year project) and co-curated the prestigious Telluride Film Festival; he still runs the Balboa in San Francisco while hatching his latest project.
EatDrinksFilms.com recently launched its first film screenings, timed to celebrate Food Day Oct. 24. A bigger EatDrinkFilms festival is planned for this spring/summer, Gary tells me.
Although I wasn't able to attend the Sat. night screening at the Roxie that was part of the Food Day/EatDrinkFilms festival, I did find the movie trailer and the entire movie online. (I would have been happy to pay for that privilege but I wasn't able to find the film on iTunes, Netflix, Amazon or other online outlets.)
So here's a peek (below). If you like what you see, check out the full movie here.
This is a film that screams to be watched with a good bottle of Malbec, si?
The video/film/TV stream continues with this brand new episode from Sonoma Valley Wine - a series of YouTube videos highlighting the collaboration of Sonoma Valley's celebrated organic vineyard manager Phil Coturri and Sonoma Valley's most famous Cabernet winemaker Richard Arrowood of Amapola Creek.
Enjoy all the episodes here. Or tune in to Episode #2, which is about organic farming, a bond between the two.
Arrowood talk about the benefits of going organic in the vineyard: "the difference is - it's amazing - the life, and the tilth, all the health of the soil - and the difference it makes to the fruit. When you're not applying low level nuclear waste, it makes a difference."
Continuing our movie and TV theme this week...The folks behind the film SOMM have brought a TV series based on the life of somms to the smaller screen. Their series UNCORKED debuts on Esquire Nov. 10.
Have a look at the first episode online free - here.
Movies are the theme this week, and as the Mill Valley Film Festival ends, another film festival rises in the east - or the north. The Napa Valley Film Festival's opening night will feature the new film from the makers of the popular documentary Somm. (If you missed it, read the New York Times review here.) It's called, imaginatively, "Somm: Into the Bottle."
Here's how film's makers describe the new film (on their Facebook page):
"Into the Bottle is about wine. It is also about world wars, prohibition, why we drink what we drink, the cost, and cutting through the bullshit of what's in your glass. Wine is simple...It's about every thing."
That's a pretty wide - and wide-eyed - view of what to make a movie about.
I, for one, like the quote in the trailer from Carole Meredith: "Can there be any other business where there is so much bullshit?"
See the trailer here:
Only VIP tickets remain for the Napa premiere. But don't worry - since the film is now being distributed by Samuel Goldwyn, rest assured it will be in movie theaters everywhere. And online.
I don't think the filmmakers yet have enough savoir faire to understand why organics matter, but they should get credit for tackling the demystification of wine and where it comes from.
I've been attending the Mill Valley Film Festival all week and today was able to see the North American premiere of Argentinean/Belgian director Diego Martinez Vignatti's film on the largely untold (at least in film) pesticide disaster happening in Argentina and the workers' revolt against agrotoxics.
"It's one of the best films we've seen on chemical agriculture," said festival programmer Janis Plotkin, in her introduction to the film at the Christopher B. Smith Film Center in San Rafael. "And this is the North American premiere."
A scene from La Tierra Roja, a new feature from director Diego Martinez Vignatti
The love story pits the two protagonists on opposite sides of
the fence on the pesticide issue
It's unknown at this point if the film will get a U.S. release. It also been released in Belgian, where Vignatti resides, and in Chilé.
It is also appearing at the Nouveau Cinema festival in Montreal which had this description.
The film tells the story of a community divided - some workers have good jobs at the paper mill, which engages in slash and burn timber cutting. The government is in cahoots with the mill owners. The community opponents, who have seen the devastating effects of agrotoxics first hand, unite behind the village doctor, who sees case after case of pesticide poisoning - high rates of cancer and an unusually high number of babies born with birth defects, along with workers' respiratory illnesses and other diseases.
An all out battle between the two camps soon ensues.
The director (center) and cast on location in Argentina
Uniquely, unlike most documentaries on this topic (of which there are hardly any), the film shows the full circle of the community, from the children to the rugby team to the workers and the unionists and medical clinic.
It might send you to the internet afterwards in search of the real stories the film is based on.
To keep up with the film's releases and news, join their FB page here.
The way that pesticides have been applied in Argentina is an ongoing horror story and reminds one of earlier eras in the U.S. where huge amounts of organophosphates and Roundup were applied at much greater levels of concentration.
In a way, the film shows the progress, in comparison, that we have made since the days when Cesar Chavez fasted because he felt powerless to protect farmworkers (including vineyard workers) from the effects of the highly toxic organophosphates and other agrotoxics).
Today's wine grape growers have cutback a lot from the 1970's levels of the most toxic substances.
But, as one organic vineyard expert put it, "we've cut back on using the things that kill you right away, but wine grape growers who use chemicals [that are not approve for organic farming] are using the things that kill you over time."
Wine & Spirits Annual Buying Guide is now on newsstands, featuring the Top 100 Wineries and the Top 100 Best Wines and Best Buys.
Each year the magazine selects from an international list of wineries for the year as well as a recap of which wineries have won Top 100 Winery Awards year over year since the rankings were developed beginning in 1988.
Selecting only those wineries with certified organic estate vines, which are used in their best wines, the following list of U.S. wineries emerges:
17 Awards
Ridge Vineyards (in transition; will be 100% in 2016)
14 Awards
Qupé (Sawyer Lindquist wines)
12 Awards
Storybook Mountain (all wines)
8 Awards
Frog's Leap (all wines, )
King Estate (500 acres of vines; 3 small lot wines, 2,000 cases are organically grown)
7 Awards
Benziger (7% of 100,000 case total production)
Grgich Hills (all wines; 70,000 case production)
I am not as familiar with the foreign entries, but a few stand out as being wineries I know that are Biodynamic (and organic) and that is Chapoutier (12 awards over the years) as well as Domaine Zind-Humbrecht. Add to this list Dr. Loosen in Germany, a renowned organic Riesling producer, and Schuchmann, an organic vintner from Georgia (in the former Soviet Union).
That makes a total of:
7 U.S. wineries
2 French wineries
1 German winery
1 Georgian winery
What percentage of the total number of wineries on this list do the organic vineyards represent? 11 out of 37 is 27%, or 10 times more than the average. (Organic vineyards in the U.S. amount to just 3% of all vines.)
Do organic grapes make better wines? I'll leave that question up to you to answer.
In addition, five of these wineries - Benziger, Chapoutier, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, Grgich Hills and Qupé - are Biodynamic, which means 5 out of 37 wineries are "BD." That makes 13.5% of the top wineries over time, again more than ten times the average (fewer than 1% of all vines in the U.S. are from Biodynamic vines).
Wine & Spirits' Top 100 wines for 2015 was unveiled this week and the list includes nine wines from organic vines. (There are probably more among the foreign producers; I just am not as familiar with those wineries as I am with the domestic ones.)
Many are from repeat producers (and huzzah for them), but a few are new to the list - Laurel Glen and Lumos.
Bettina Sichel at Laurel Glen Vineyard (April 2015)
Laurel Glen
Laurel Glen is going through a revival. I visited the vineyard with proprietor and general manager Bettina Sichel this spring. Once a great vineyard (and still a stellar site), the 16 acre, dry farmed Sonoma Mountain estate had declined, due to neglect, over the years when Sichel and her business partners bought it in 2010.
Organic vineyard manager Phil Coturri was brought in to bring the vines back to their glory, and top tier winemaker Randall Watkins (formerly of Carmenet) now mans the cellar. The results from this all star team are just beginning to show.
The site is a special spot on Sonoma Mountain, at 800-1,000 feet of altitude on a sunny site above the fogline. The soils are complex, shallow, thin and rocky, yielding a beautiful Cabernet.
And not that price is the determining factor, but compare this $60 bottle with Napa prices (generally $100+). A thousand cases were made.
Dai Crisp at Temperance Hill Vineyard (March 2015)
Lumos Wine Co.
Lumos Wine Co. proprietor and winemaker Dai Crisp may be one of the only vintners more famous for wine grape growing than for winemaking (yet). Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that says something about great wine making; wine is made in the vineyard.
As the vineyard manager of Temperance Hill Vineyard, a 100 acre organic vineyard in Oregon's Eola-Amity Hills that regularly produces award-winning bottles of Pinot Noir from 10+ wineries, his own production of grapes from this vineyard is just a fraction of the overall wine made from this star site. And yet...his is on the list (and the others are not).
And not that price is the determining factor, but both the 2010 and 2012 vintages of this wine were featured in the prestigious International Pinot Noir Festival in Oregon - a very high bar as this is a very competitive category. And this wine lists for $38 a bottle (or $35 only at KLWines.) Only 415 cases made. DOMESTIC WINES U.S.
Cabernet
Ridge Vineyards, 2011 Monte Bello ($165), 96 pts. (about 95% organically grown at this point, heading toward 100% within a year)
Is it the story that could never actually be told in film? Or will one more try get it right?
Warren Winiarski and Mike Grgich's Big Win, in 1976, in that Paris blind tasting has become the stuff of legend - and a tale told in many a medium.
First it was a George Taber book - The Judgment of Paris. That was true to the facts, as we know them.
Taber was the only American journalist at the actual event, in which the Napa wines win against grand crus from top French estates in an upset victory that made the fortunes of Napa and California's fine wineries and helped the U.S. industry grow to its current $32 billion size.
Next, the story was hijacked for an indie revisionist history film, writing both Grgich and Winiarski out of the picture, when the story became the Chateau Montelena version immortalized in Bottle Shock, a 2008 indie pic that was produced by the founders of the Sonoma film festival and focused on the story of the Barretts alone in a highly fictionalized account (a boxing match staged at Kunde, a girl winery intern at a time when there weren't any, etc.). Memorably, the movie starred British star Alan Rickman, who had appeared in one of the director's earlier movies, as a snobby version of the British wine tasting organizer Steven Spurrier.
Then the Grgich story came to life, courtesy of Croatian television, in a documentary on Grgich, Croatia's most famous native son. Grgich's story is now in the Smithsonian Museum in D.C. (where the suitcase he came to America with is on display). The film is called Like the Old Vine. It's a very good film - but you can't find it anywhere except the winery.
Croatian television followed up with a second documentary that was even better than the first - Dossier Zinfandel - a ripping good yarn about the search for the genetic origins of Zinfandel, a story in which Grgich plays a leading role. (Sadly, this film is also only available on DVD at the following tasting rooms: Grgich Hills in Rutherford, Ravenswood in Sonoma and Ridge Vineyards in Healdsburg.) It is well worth searching out. (Apparently Croatian television is not very into international distribution - and more's the pity.)
Mike Grgich (left), Robert Kamen (right)
Now it's time for another indie feature film take.
The latest twist is that Sonoma screenwriter and vintner Robert Kamen (writer of Karate Kid as well as the Taken series and the 2005 wine romance film A Walk in the Clouds) is working on a new feature to be produced with Jonathan Rotella, a medical entrepreneur (with a chain of wound care clinics). Rotella has fallen in love with Winiarski's rags to riches wine story.
Kamen's version promises to tell the story of both Winiarski and Grgich through the "outsider" eyes of the American journalist George Taber.
Recently Kamen visited Mike Grgich (now age 91) to shoot some footage for the project. Enjoy these photos from their shoot.
The $10 million project is currently seeking investors. For more information (and a brief trailer), click here.
And, for those who are interested, both Grgich and Robert Kamen's Kamen Estate make beautiful wines that are quite different from each other stylistically but both are a.) organically grown in the vineyards and b.) recipients of top ratings from critics.
Kamen makes wine on an estate (50 acres of vines) on the Sonoma side of Mt. Veeder, in what is now the Moon Mountain District AVA. The site has stunning views of the San Pablo Bay.
I highly recommend the vineyard tour - it's by appointment only, but well worth it. It's on my list of the Top 10 Best Wine Tours in Sonoma.
Kamen also offers walk in tastings in its downtown Sonoma tasting room.
Grgich Hills Estate has a wide variety of wine tours on offer ranging from walk in wine bar tastings to special seated tastings where visitors may even get to hold a bottle from the Paris Tasting. Check the web site for details.
Ever wondered how all those Bordeaux wines end up on your local restaurant wine list? It's from industry trade events that ply restaurants, club directors and more with tasting events like the one I attended today at San Francisco's Gold Gate Club.
It's an interesting idea to market all the NON Grand Cru Bordeaux wines as a group as Bordeaux Under One Roof does. The trade group says the Grand Crus represent just 3% of Bordeaux. Today was about meeting a few of the other 97% of wines made in Bordeaux.
You know it's a French wine trade tasting
when there's a bouquet of roses...
China and Asia rank as the #1 consumer of Bordeaux wines. The U.S. ranks as 5th largest consumer of Bordeaux wines by volume, 4th by value (i.e. $ spent).
The takeaway from the organizers: Bordeaux offers value AND you don't have to age the wines (although many are age worthy). The price point for this tasting was under $60 (retail price).
Organics
About 2 percent of Bordeaux is farmed organically (fewer are certified), according to Mary (sorry, I did not catch her last name), Master of Wine, who works for the Bordeaux trade group and served as the expert in today’s seminar, which preceded the tasting. As in the U.S. the Bordeaux region has its own sustainability programs as well which she said 20% of the vintners and growers were participating in.
Nice to see old pals like Kermit Lynch there. And Martine's Wines - which I had never met before, but with whom my old Brit documentary colleague David Kennard (we used to work together on a national PBS series) has made films with (A Year in Burgundy, A Year in Champagne). The latest film is A Year in Port - and it should be out very soon…(So very British of them to choose Port for the final part of the trilogy. Or perhaps the Port producers chipped in on the film.)
I couldn’t get information from the Bordeaux tasting event organizers ahead of time about which wines came from certified vines, but I will keep trying to sort that out.
Comparing Napa and Bordeaux
In the meantime, Napa should gloat - although it’s only 1/6th as big as Bordeaux, about 8 percent of Napa’s vines are certified organic. Interestingly, many of those are from French wineries. (Araujo Estates comes to mind - its owned by the same group that owns Chateau Latour; until this year, Domaine Carneros was also among that number, with 300+ acres of organic vines, but they recently decertified; and the de Coninck family’s Beacanon Estate wines - the family has 94 acres of vines in Napa).
On the other hand, you can’t find a decent bottle of Cabernet or Merlot in Napa for $20 - organic or not. Oops - I’m going to correct myself here. There is ONE and it comes from that Bordeaux family’s estate - Beaucanon Estate. You can find it on their web site (it's not a winery one can visit but you can order the wine) or on Total Wine (where it's $25). The Major Attraction By 1:30 pm, attention had shifted away from the wines and towards the heavens - the Blue Angels were putting on quite a show over the water, and many sailing boats were out to enjoy both the perfect weather and the air show. (It's a commercial for their coming show during Fleet Week.) (When I was in my late 20's, I got to go on a press flight with them - something I'll never forget. Seeing them there brought back a lot of memories.) If you're into making new memories over a bottle of Bordeaux, check out the tasting booklet here.
Tired of going to winery events where only people richer than you can afford the wine? Hopland Passport is the event for you.
Earlier this year, I posted a piece about the best, affordably priced, organically grown wines - it got more than 3,000 views.
So for all of you wine lovers who read it or for anyone who's in search of table wines ($10-25) from organic vines - and your numbers are legion - set your sights on Hopland. Go with an empty car trunk.
Twice a year Hopland's wineries put on a party - and for wine lovers who prefer organic vines, it's a party with a purpose - wine buying. Because this is a weekend when the wineries offer big discounts on affordably priced organically grown wines. Many make it a point to stock up on their yearly supply of table wines at this event. (There are also plenty of fine wines, too.)
Paula and Adam Gaska, Mendocino
Organics, raise produce and livestock
on Golden Vineyards' land.
And, where else can you find locals raising organic, grass fed beef and heritage breeds at a wine event? Meet McFadden and Greenhorn farmers Paula and Adam Gaska. They'll both be serving forth.
Don't know where Hopland is? Calibrate: Healdsburg plus 20-30 minutes further north on Highway 101. Straight through.
Passport costs a mere $45 (2 days) for wine drinkers (free for designated drivers, who won't get free wine but will get plenty of free eats).
Learn Something
This year there's something new at Passport - SEMINARS. Wineries are sharing their expertise with the public, and you can learn a lot about what makes organic farming important as well as Mendocino traditions.
Organic veteran wine grape grower and vintner Guinness McFadden, a grower in Potter Valley farming organically for 40 years, will be doing chats on organic farming at the tasting room on both days. Many of his grapes go into high end Napa wines.
Sebastian Donoso - his Grenache
from Paul Dolan family's Dark Horse
Ranch should be on your list of wines
to taste during Passport
Chilean born winemaker Sebastian Donoso from Campovida will also be on hand to talk about white Rhones.
And Nelson Family Vineyards will be talking about viticulture (growing wine grapes). They farm both organically and non organically, so they are a great resource to learn from in terms of understanding the differences between the two approaches.
Terra Savia will also be offering an olive oil seminar. You can see its impressive (no pun intended) community olive oil presses, too.
Eat Local
Also new this year: SIP Mendocino, Hopland's wine store focused on local wines - is under new management. Now owned by Joe and Julie Golden, who have farmed their vineyards Biodynamically since 1999 (Heart Arrow Ranch and Fairbairn), the wine shop will be featuring heritage, grass fed meats, raised by Greenhorn farmers Adam and Paula Gaska who run a local CSA farm, Mendocino Organics, and raise livestock on the Goldens' Redwood Valley land.
Have fun - there's free eats at most of the wineries and some also have music - and support organic vineyards (the people who don't use toxic pesticides in contrast to the other 95% of the wine industry in California which generously spritzes Roundup under each and every vine) by visiting the wineries offering organically grown wines.
All Organically Sourced Wines:
• Jeriko Wine (known for Pinot Noir)
• McFadden Vineyards (30% discount if you buy a case or more)
• Terra Savia (Specialties: Chardonnay and sparkling wines) Some Organically Sourced Wines:
• Campovida
• Nelson Family
• Saracina
• Toxqui Cellars (Zinfandel-Split Rock)
Also swing by Barra of Mendocino, which is in Ukiah, not Hopland - another great table wine producer (with a few finer wines, too) and beloved by Charlie Barra's northern Italian friends (where the Barra family is from), Slow Foods founder Carlo Petrini, who gave Barra an award of appreciation in the Bay Area several years ago.
Nelson Family's Orange Muscat
My Best Bets List
• McFadden Chardonnay, old vine Zin, and sparkling wine (30% discounts for case buyers in the wine club)
• Terra Savia sparkling wine (Chardonnay based; sold at Bay Area Whole Foods the rest of the year)
• Campovida's Grenache from Dark Horse Ranch - truly a great wine (and it costs like one, too but treasure the bottles - they go fast as this is a very small lot wine)
• Nelson Family Vineyards orange muscat - a rarity and a fun treat - also makes a great gift for your non serious wine friends
While You're in the Area: Shop the Ukiah Natural Foods Wine Dept.
My favorite place to shop for organically grown table wines is Ukiah Natural Foods which has 30+ local organically grown wines - the best that I have seen anywhere. Beats BevMo by a mile for this category. You can also mix and match here from different local wineries. Want to try ALL the different Chardonnays from organic vines? Go for it. In Mendocino, most of the wineries (except for Campovida, Nelson, Saracina, and Trinafour) do bottle label their wares.
You'll find lovely rarities like Alex McGregor's 2012 Trinafour Carignane from the historic Niemi Vineyard there (under $20, only 150 cases made). One of Mendocino's top tier winemakers, McGregor's Trinafour doesn't have a tasting room, so this is the most convenient way to find it.
"Beaver Creek Vineyard has survived the Middletown fire. Part of our vineyard burned but we are one of the few businesses still standing.
If you would like to support us during the regrowth of Middletown, please visit our winery or join our wine club.
The tasting room will reopen Thursday Sept.. 24th from 11-6 pm."
NASA Image of Valley Fire
I can highly recommend their 2012 Fairytale Cabernet ($29) - a real gem of a Biodynamic Wine (no additives except a limited amount of sulfites)...which I recently had the pleasure of tasting in San Francisco. Out of 100+ wines, it was one of my favorites.
Beaver Creek Vineyard proprietor and winemaker
Martin Pohl in August at a tasting at Yield Wine Bar
I am planning to stop by on Tuesday when I will be in the area to visit Hawk and Horse (another Biodynamic vineyard in Lake County), too.
Two of the great weekday wines featured in Portland Magazine's roundup of Oregon's Top 25 Wines Under $25 and under come from some of my favorite Oregon producers - or really, just some of my overall favorite producers.
Both of these wines are featured in a book I am currently working on: Under $20: Top 100 Wines from Organic Vines.
Both are whites:
Rudy Marchesi (right) of Montinore
at a recent SF tasting
• Montinore's white Alsatian blend Borealis ($16). The blend varies year to year, but this is just always an intrinsically interesting wine - and as Portland magazine points out, great with anything spicy. The grapes are Biodynamic and organic; it's made in a certified organic and Biodynamic winery.
Montinore makes 40,000 cases a year of mostly affordably priced wines (although it has excellent small lot reserve wines, too) from its 210 acres of biodynamic vines in the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley.
Dai Crisp at a recent SF tasting
• Lumos Wine Co.'s Rudolfo Pinot Gris ($18). This comes from the 10 acre Logsdon Ridge vineyard near Corvallis. It's full of melon, spiced apple and nectarine notes on the nose.
Lumos Wine Co. is the winery of Dai Crisp, vineyard manager extraordinaire, who is famous for farming Temperance Hill vineyard, one of Oregon's finest. Appreciation for his own wines, including a Pinot Noir from Temperance Hill, is rapidly growing.
From Oregon, Temperance Hill Vineyard's Pinot Noir is looking picture perfect! This gorgeous hilltop site, with 100 acres of planted vines - among the most coveted among Willamette Valley winemakers - is farmed by vineyard manager and Lumos Wine proprietor Dai Crisp (who provided this photo on FB).
These grapes go into more than 10 single vineyard designate Pinots produced by Oregon's top vintners (Adelsheim, Bergstrom, Brooks, Evesham Wood, St. Innocent, and many more).
Dai Crisp also makes an outstanding bottling of his own, too - look for it under his Lumos Wine label. (A word to the wise - order some now. I can't say why but it's probably going to all be snapped up soon.) And on top of that, it is only $38 (versus those $75 Sonoma Coast Pinots). But of course cost is not the reason you want it - pleasure is!
Wine & Spirits released its list of 2015's top 100 wineries. A few of the regulars - with organic vines - who made the list again this year are:
• Frog's Leap
• King Estate (just three of its wines are solely from organic vines but it has 500 acres of organic vines on its estate)
• Storybook Vineyards
Both make only organically grown estate wines. Storybook labels its "Ingredients: Organic Grapes" on the bottle.
There's also newcomer Drew Wines, a tiny Mendocino Ridge AVA winery in Elk, whose first release from its organic estate vines is coming in 2016. It also grows organic apples.
Several wineries on the list also make at least one single vineyard designate from organic vines, including:
• Nickel & Nickel (Rock Cairn Cabernet)
• Radio Coteau (both its Pinot Noir-Terra Neuma and Syrah-Dusty Lane are from organic vines; the Pinot is also a Demeter certified Biodynamic Wine)
As someone who comes from the world of real journalism (my mentor was a New York Times editorial board member and I have several journalism awards, including one from the New England Press Association), the world of wine and wine writers has been something of an ethical mystery to me.
In my early days, I reported on nuclear power plants and citizen attempts to close down the local plant. It taught me a lot about consumer perception of dangers that, to many, are largely invisible.
Later in my career, I learned about "tech journalism," from the other side of the fence, while freelancing a lot for Apple. (I made most of John Sculley's videos and wrote countless presentations along with 13 books for Apple.) One veteran event producer I worked with was fond of making fun of the computer press. "They're just ducklings, and we feed them bread crumbs," he said.
The wine world is hardly known for rigorous journalism - and more's the pity. While no paper in the U.S. covers the pesticide issues connected to wineries, there's a lot of money to be made from puff pieces about the wine scene and wineries, which the wine industry paints as drivers of the local economy. (If they are such drivers, you wonder why you rarely if ever see a piece about the local economy and wine in the business section in a regular California newspaper - only in the North Bay Business Journal or wine industry press.)
Contrast that with organic foodie-ism - a huge topic in newspapers - and maybe even fracking. Sunset magazine does pieces on both of these topics. (See its latest piece on fracking here.) But pesticides in wine? Don't look for that anytime soon. Sunset looks to be in bed with the wine industry - in a newer and bigger way.
Sunset magazine wine editor Sara Schneider starring in the Napa Valley Vintner's latest video production
Sunset's just partnered with the Napa Valley Vintners, having Sunset wine editor Sara Schneider star in a new series of videos produced by the powerful regional association of the country's richest wineries. That's what I call a "brand smooch" - i.e. let's build bigger audiences by leveraging your audience and mine. The two companies logos are flashed on the screen at the beginning of each segment.
Sara Schneider "covers" harvest in a day, appearing in a series of videos posted on the vintners site. It's (allegedly) a "behind the scenes, day in the life" video of harvest. After viewing the video, which takes place in short segments shot across the valley, one has to wonder - is this "coverage" or a "commercial"?
What's in the video:
• Stops at five wineries, three of which are owned by giant wine corporations, including two based outside the U.S. (Italy, Spain)
• A casual, friendly, folksy feeling (not like areal harvest which is one of a lot of stress and moving of equipment, grapes, machines and people - all making for big hubbub)
• "On message" interviews, highlighting green practices and vintners' "love of the land" and love of preserving the land for future generations
• Pretty pictures of white people, not the hardworking Mexicans who actually harvest the grapes (although there's one Latino vineyard manager who appears very briefly in the first segment)
What's left out:
• Corporate ownership
Two of the wineries featured are owned by large, global corporations headquartered outside the U.S. Another winery - featured one that's Napa Green certified - is owned by a family that is the main contractor for the tar sands oil drilling projects in Canada.
• Toxics and water use
All of the featured wineries - Napa Green certified or not - use pesticides and herbicides, including an assortment of bee and bird toxins (boscalid), reproductive and developmental toxins (myclobutanil), and carcinogens (glyphosate/Roundup). None talk about the amount of water it takes to make a bottle of wine and where that water comes from. ARTESA
In the first segment, Sara visits Artesa, where she meets the winemaker and vineyard manager and finds out why grapes are picked in the night.
She's curious why they pick by hand - which might make you wonder how she got to be the wine editor of a major food and wine magazine? Surely she knows the answer why before she made this video. Therefore, we might not really be sure whether to trust this host or not... Corporate ownership - Artesa: Spanish-based Cordoniu/Raventos, founded in Catalan and one of the world's largest producers of the Spanish sparkling wine cava. It owns wineries on 5 continents, including 7,400 acres of its own vineyards. It employs 800 people globally.
Toxics: 46 gallons of Roundup - the carcinogen you can no longer buy in a French store - on estate vines; more on purchased grapes from other growers.
CLIFF LEDE
Next stop: Cliff Lede where Sara meets the viticulturist and the enologist where she learns what happens in the winery, and asks, "I understand that Cliff Lede is Napa Green certified. What exactly does that mean in the vineyard?"
Then we get a non-answer from the Cliff Lede enologist: "We're committed to the land and to future generations."
The Cliff Lede staffers go on to say that 90% of the energy that they use in the winery comes from solar panels on the property (subsidized by energy tax credits provided by California taxpayers).
They also talk about the wine caves used to store their wine barrels. "The cave system requires minimal amounts of energy for cooling," the Cliff Lede employee says. Gee, what a modern technological marvel - since caves have been in use to age wine for as many as 8,000 years.
"We collect our water and we use reclaimed water to irrigate our vineyards and our landscaping," they say, without saying what volume of water that amounts to and how much water they use to produce a bottle of wine.
Ownership of Cliff Lede: Cliff Lede created his winery backed by his days working in the family business, Ledcor, an Alberta construction company. Ledcor is the leading contractor for the Canadian oil tar sands project. Toxics at Cliff Lede: lots of Roundup and the bee and bird toxin, boscalid, are used on its 47 acres of estate vines, in addition to toxics applied to grapes it buys from other growers.
ANTICA
Then it's on to Antica, on Atlas Peak, where a "typical" harvest luncheon is served. It looks more like a Sunset magazine shoot for the perfect beef industry promotional meal. Plates with heaping portions of steak are passed around as Sara "interviews" general manager Glen Salva, who looks like he just stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad, about the activities at harvest time.
In the video, there are plenty of shots of young, white people in winery positions in the cellar. A quick reference is made to the harvest crew - but we don't see or hear from any of the (Mexican) vineyard workers.
Salva talks about the owners - the Antinori family, an Italian wine dynasty - and their commitment to "passion, patience and perserverance."
Pesticides aren't on his P-words alliteration list.
Corporate ownership of Antica: Italian wine giant Antinori, one of the world's largest wine companies, owns vineyards and brands across the globe, including in Hungary, Roumania, Spain (Malta), and Chile, as well as Napa and Washington State. It is a part owner (along with Washington-based Ste. Michelle Wine Estates) of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars in Napa. Toxics used at Antica: 20 gallons of the bee and bird toxin boscalid; 21 gallons of the developmental and reproductive toxin myclobutanil (one of the more toxic pesticides, it's labeled a "Bad Actor" by the EPA) TRINCHERO
Then, because Sara needs a caffeine break by now, it's on to coffee in St. Helena with Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home fame. Trinchero, a winemaker in Napa since 1960, is the guy who created White Zinfandel, now a $6 billion business.
He reminisces about how he got his start in 1960, when there were only 15 wineries in Napa Valley, where his family was already in the business. You'd be forgiven for not knowing he's also one the country's biggest vintners, because it's never mentioned. You know, he's just an old timer from when Napa was a folksy, intimate place.
Corporate ownership: Trinchero Family Estates, the 5th largest winery in the country, owns 30 wine brands, including Sutter Home. It just opened a state of the art mega-facility in Lodi, where it can make all of its annual production of 20 million cases and can store up to 4 million at a time in the 850,000 square foot facility. Toxics used: with 30 brands, toxics used are too numerous to count.
SCHWEIGER
Then it's back to the grapes - this time, Napa's signature varietal Cabernet Sauvignon, which hasn't ripened enough to be picked. Sara visits Schweiger Vineyards, the only winery in her day in the life that actually is a small family winery. It has 35 acres of vines on Spring Mountain.
"What do you think makes this an attractive place?" she asks the proprietors Fred and Andy Schweiger. Their answer? "We do this because you [sic] love working with the land and putting into it."
Toxics: feeling "the love" of the land and putting into it 13 gallons of the carcinogen glyphosate
HARVEST PARTY
The video concludes with a big harvest party (even though most of the wineries haven't picked their Cabernet yet).
Sara's at the party, holding a glass of wine and saying, "You can keep the magic going the next time you open a bottle of Napa Valley wine."
ETHICS
I'm not sure the New York Times would allow Eric Asimov to mouth these words to camera, nor would the Wine Spectator, even. But one does wonder - what rules are being followed here in terms of Sunset's editorial policies?
The American Society of Magazine Editors does have some rules. Its rules say, "Editorial content of any kind should not be submitted to advertisers for approval."
Didn't Sunset staff and the magazine's logo appear in the videos? Yes. And did the magazine edit the videos? In all likelihood, no.
With Sunset having announced its relocating its test gardens and kitchens to Sonoma (and its offices to Oakland's Jack London Square), we can anticipate where this brand is going - i.e. deeper and deeper into wine country. But can we ask Sunset to be accountable for its editorial content and policies - and to let us know those policies? After all, it's owned by Time, Inc. And they should know something about journalistic ethics.
Personally, I don't blame the NVV for putting out a promotional video - it's a great piece of advertising for their brand. They are doing what great marketers do - deliver consistent, high quality messaging about their brand.
But I do think that Sunset should watch what it's doing. While they're no environmental watchdog, they do have a brand to protect - one based on home, family, food and travel.
Credibility is based on editorial ethics - and Sunset's are, at the very least, questionable.
ADDENDUM (Sept. 27)
The data on pesticide use quoted here was not meant to single out these particular vineyards and wineries, as more than 80 percent of the vines in Napa Valley use one or more of these toxic pesticides (and others). Enumerating just some of what was used was to point out the disparity between vintners who proclaim themselves to be green (and spend millions promoting that marketing messaging) and the actual facts of their farming practices. Consumers are very confused about what the wineries are doing, which is precisely the point of the wineries' green marketing efforts.
Saying you have a love of the land and want to preserve it for future generations is a media talking point, and wineries and their staff are rehearsed in media trainings to provide that quote over and over. Many - maybe even most - staffers do not know the actual facts of what is used at their wineries.
I'll be posting an updated list of the countywide quantities of toxics used in Napa, and Sonoma, and Mendocino and statewide in a future post so you can get a sense of how pervasive and widespread the use of toxics is. But for starters, Napa Valley growers applied more than 50,000 pounds of Roundup (glyphosate) in 2013 over 34,000 acres (out of 40,000 bearing acres in the county), according to the state's pesticide use reports.
Sunset is carving a deeper niche in the wine space, in an effort to promote its role as the voice of authority for wines from supermarket aisles to fine wine departments - as well as wine tourism. The current issue's cover focuses on "The Best of Wine Country," a feature focusing on Napa, Santa Barbara County and Southern Oregon.
The Napa wineries feature a number of wines from $85-150 - pretty pricey for what I would expect to find in Sunset magazine.
Four years ago, the magazine launched its own wine competition, and brings together an all star panel of judges to judge the wines.
Like most wine competitions, the results can sometimes be surprisingly odd, making you wonder...
• Barefoot Cellars $7 Cabernet (from Argentina) getting a gold? Higher than the $125 world famous, Fay Vineyard Cabernet from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, which only got a silver?
• There were almost no wines from Oregon producers (despite the fact that the magazine included a special on touring southern Oregon wineries)
• There's no mention of the number of wines submitted and how many awards were given, so you don't really know how many wines did not win any award or how much wineries had to pay to have their wines considered.
But never mind.
Here are the organically grown wines that took top awards and gold or silver medals. A few of these are personal faves. I've underlined those.
TOP AWARDS Red Blend
Oakville Ranch - 2012 - Field Blend ($55) WHITES ALBARINO
After three days of judging last week, the 2015 Sonoma County Harvest Fair Wine Competition results were announced today.
With just 1,409 acres of organic vines in the county (out of 58,280 total), or 2.4% of the total vineyard acres, the organically grown wines represented 5% of the Best of Class awards.
BEST OF CLASS
Cabernet Sauvignon
Medlock Ames, 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon - Bell Mountain Estate (Organic Vineyard), Alexander Valley, $45
Out of 315 gold medals (out of 1,189 wines total), the organically grown wines numbered ten, or 3 percent. Cabernet Sauvignon
Benziger Family Winery, 2012 Obsidian Point (Biodynamic Wine), Sonoma Valley, $60
Benziger Family Winery, 2012 Three Blocks (Biodynamic Wine), Sonoma Valley, $49
Benziger Family Winery, 2012 Tribute (Biodynamic Wine), Sonoma Mountain, $80
Petroni Vineyards, 2010 Cabernet (Organic Vineyard), Moon Mountain District, $75 Chardonnay
DeLoach, Chardonnay, Estate, (Biodynamic Vineyard), Russian River Valley, $50
Pinot Noir
Benziger Family Winery, 2013 Bella Luna (Biodynamic Wine), Russian River Valley, $49
DeLoach, Pinot Noir, 2012 Maboroshi (Biodynamic Vineyard), Russian River Valley, $50
Merriam Vineyards, 2013 Three Sons (Organic Vineyard), Russian River Valley, $75
Red Blend
Medlock Ames, 2013 Snake Pit - Bell Mountain Estate (Organic Vineyard), Alexander Valley, $60 Zinfandel
Fogline Vineyards, 2013 Grist Vineyard (Dry Creek AVA), $38
OVERALL
According to the Press Democrat newspaper, which covers Sonoma County, 55 of the 80 wines that won gold medals were from wineries owned by one couple - Ken and Diane Wilson - who own Wilson, Matrix, Mazzocco, Pezzi King, Soda Rock and St. Anne's Crossing (none have any wines from organic vines).
For a complete list of all of the winners, see the full results here.
For us Northern California types, the heat at the National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa this year was absolutely sweltering but that did nothing to dilute the value of the presentations, where farmers and scientists gathered to share information and knowledge about the good, the bad and the ugly.
THE GOOD
Trendspotting - What's Hot: Plant Based Food
For the first time that I have ever seen, there was just about no line at the burger food stand - the longest food lines were at the food booth for Plant Based Food. I think this might be a trend? Certainly it's nice to see that Amy's offers an all veg, fast food, burger alternative drive through in Novato...and Sonoma-ans seem to be embracing unique gourmet foods made from plants.
In olden times (yesterday) we called such food vegetarian (or vegan, depending on the particulars). Today it's more chic to say plant based. Now you know.
The longest food lines were for the plant based cuisine.
Sonoma's great grain breads from Revolution
Wines from Biodynamic producers were on display at
the Demeter Lounge, which, as usual, provided comfy
couches and a shaded place to sip some cool Yerba Mate
and escape the heat
More Demeter certified wines...nice to see so many
all in place (outside of my house)
THE BAD
Carol Grieve of Food Integrity Now (podcast, which I have appeared on)
put together a panel of the all star scientific experts on Roundup (Glyphosate) and GMOs;
I will be writing a more in depth post in the coming weeks on the content the science
panel shared
The panel included Don Huber, retired Purdue University professor, and one
of the few in the academic establishment who has been constistently
tracking scientific research on the dangers of GMO foods
Retired USDA scientist Robert Kremer (now a professor at the University of Missouri in
soil microbiology) is an expert on the effects of glyphosate; he visited Napa last year
and mentioned that he saw the tell tale signs of Roundup's effects on
vine leaves (more on that in a future post). (We know Napa uses 30,000 pounds of
Roundup every year, according to California state data; Sonoma uses even more and
usage across the state on wine grapes amounts to 450,000 pounds per year.)
SOME MORE GOOD
Cannabis growers cultivating medical marijuana Biodyamically may soon be able to receive Demeter biodynamic certification. This could be a significant factor for those who use medical cannabis as serious medicine.
Currently there is a lot of testing for pesticides and other harmful substances in cannabis by distributors and edibles manufacturers, but no organic certification is available.
Back in the Demeter classroom, there was an in-depth panel on Biodynamic
cultivation of marijuana with several presenters
Colum Riley, of Malibu Compost (Biodynamic compost), and a farming consultant,
provided in-depth tips on Biodynamic medical cannabis cultivation
Time magazine (and other media) reported this week that Colorado, where recreational marijuana is legal, is currently receiving more tax revenues from marijuana taxes than from alcohol taxes. According to the report, Colorado's revenues from marijuana taxation this year were $70 million, compared to $42 million for alcohol taxation.
It's Sept. and that means the Wine Spectator's annual video contest is ON.
Check out the entries - and pay particular attention to two from organic producers in Spain and Italy (where 10 times as many vines are certified organic as in the U.S.).
