Arnold Waldstein's Blog

Natural wine is a simple yet powerful idea.

It’s the belief that an organic and non-interventionist approach to winemaking can create wine that expresses terroir in a truer fashion, is more interesting to the palate, more complimentary with food and, of course, healthier for the individual and the environment.

2011 was about figuring out whether this really rung true to me.

Whether this is a niche of consequence as well as interest. Whether when orchestrated in the hands of a master winemaker, it creates a product of quality as well as uniqueness. And whether we are entering an era where the economics of the artisanal winemaker combined with the reach of the web is a possible disruptor and game changer for the wine world.

Natural wine has been a passion of mine for a while now and this blog is an homage to the winemakers I respect the most.

Friends and neighbors are hard pressed to escape the tastings and stream of stories about the flavors and bouquets of Trousseaus and Poulsards from the magical vineyards of the Jura. The rich and layered Mencias and Garnachas produced from the ancient terraces hanging over the River Sil in Ribiera Sacra. The Frappatos and Nero D’Avolas grown in volcanic ash on the smoky slopes of Mt Etna in Sicily.

These deep natural pockets of organic and biodynamic winemaking, in 2011, became part of a much longer list of true natural winemaking legends in Friuli, Beaujolais, Manchuela, the Canary Islands, Champagne, the Loire Valley…everywhere they make wine.

There is always a short list of the best of the best, but this approach to winemaking has not only been happening quietly for generations in every winemaking region but is part of a global renaissance of a non-interventionist approach to making natural wine.

There are many like Jean Bourdy in the Jura who have been making wine on their family farms for scores of generations. And many more in areas like Ribeira Sacra, who are returning to ancestral terraces, cut by the Romans 2000 years ago, tended for generations then abandoned till just now.

But most important to me this year was getting to know a few of these winemakers as real people. My visits with Friulian iconoclast Fulvio Bressan especially in Trieste and Sandi Skerk in Carso were wildly exhilarating and provoking.

Attending tastings with natural wine rock stars like Philippe Bornard, Jean Bourdy Luis Rodriguez and Eric Texier was to understand the passion and humility of these individuals. They eschewed labels to a person yet spoke their own individual language that in concept, was common across all of them. These are individuals driven by intense emotions and their success is attributable to drive, self-belief and extraordinary skill.

The validity of natural winemaking doesn’t lie with its definition.

Artisanal, organic, biodynamic, sustainable and natural all bump into each other as parts of a new way of looking at an ancient tradition of winemaking. To some it’s tradition carried forth. To some a revolution of change. None of this speaks to quality but it does speak to a promise and an approach.

I wasted too much time this year arguing with wine journalists jockeying for definition and defensive of their own roles as taste makers in the hard-wired reality of the wine world today.

Labels on bottles are important certainly. Certification as assurance of credibility is critical. But these labels and certifications don’t create the reality, they codify it.

Our local shops and specialty importers are doing this job now, and well. Over time, this will move online and the category of natural or artisanal will be a first door on a search or referral funnel to finding what you like under this general contextual umbrella.

The response from the industry to the categories of natural and biodynamic is a bit too shrill to ignore. The percent of grapes grown organically or biodynamically is really small. The same with the overall revenue numbers of what is sold under this broad definition.

So…what’s going on?

Can a farmer like Christian Ducroux making wondrous no sulfer-added, 100% natural Beaujolais on his tiny 4-hectare vineyard on the hillside above the village of Regni-Durette in France really threaten the wine world?

Stangely, I think so.

Although Ducroux makes delicious wine of the highest quality, he does so in the most petite of vineyards, off the economic grid mostly with a lifestyle intent.

While there are huge variations in the definition of what constitutes natural—chaptalization, natural yeasts, filtration, sulfur not to mention vineyard practices–really wonderful wine that truly is an expression of terroir can be the result. When it’s in a goblet swirling rhythmically, it’s superfood for the soul, enthralling with bouquet, smile inducing and head nodding satisfaction when it all comes together.

This is where this gets interesting.

The most low tech (no tech actually), natural approach to making  wondrous wine is being made possible as business reality and a consumer connection by a platform of technical sophistication never before available.

The culture of the consumer has shifted on a global basis. It is not the exception to be eco-aware, health conscious, artisan supportive and curiously adventurous in seeking out new places, foods, cultures, people…and wine.

The social web has established the reality of the global local and the power of the niche to stand alone or as part of a marketplace. It has empowered the consumer, democratized information and distribution for industry after industry. It was made real the possibilities of marketplaces and given voice and commercial weight to the niche, the authentic and the unique.

I’ve blogged often about the wave of change that is sweeping our culture on how we find, purchase and consume our passions. Natural wine, defined as you will, artisanal at its very core, is part of this.

As I write this I’m sipping a truly wonderful glass of organic Malvasia from the Skerk Vineyard in Carso, Friuli, Italy. So rich and refreshing. Mineral. Vivacious. From Sandi’s cellar to my goblet. From my blog to your intent to taste I hope.

And I’m thinking of the old adage that says that the future is already here. It’s just a secret that only a few have discovered it.

To me, it’s already here and I’m living it.

Call it natural. Call it artisanal. Call it organic.

The market will decide but the connection between me in NYC and Sandi Skerk in Carso is quite real and tangible. I may have been attracted to Skerk because of his indigenous varietals, his natural approach and the magnificence of his cellar. But at the end of this string of filters, of categories, is the taste that binds.

This is a new culture of consumers demanding that the systems of discovery and distribution fit themselves to their wants. The wines are scattered in interesting pocket across the globe. The market, certainly in the states, is here.

The value chain between winemaker and consumer for natural wines is already present, like breadcrumbs scattered about. There is only that handshake between personal discovery and seamless commerce that is still wanting. And in my view, not for long.

 

A sense of place, grape, winemaker and culture are the magic of what we taste in a great wine.

The photo above is of a tiny plot of 80-year old Mencia grapes on this almost vertical slate cliff hanging just above the River Sil in Amandi in the Ribiera Sacra region of Northwestern Spain.

This vineyard was hand-terraced over 2000 years ago by the Romans to produce wine for their armies and for scores of generations, has produced wine for Ramon Losada’s family.

Ramon, the winemaker, with his assistant Gerardo Mendez, scramble over these steep terraces, moving grapes around in dumbwaiters. Sweltering in the sun, cooled by the roar of the river at their feet, they are making this wine to share with us.

This story is what I taste in this remarkable glass of 100% organic Mencia that I’m swirling in a huge goblet, evoking aromatic scents of the Galician landscape as I jot down these notes.

I’m a big fan of Ribeira Sacra (map of wine region). There is something about this isolated, obscure, landlocked region that is unique unto itself. Geographically and culturally with a common thread of passion toward these ancient vines and hillsides that permeates many of the wines I’ve tasted.

There’s historical gravity that has drawn winemakers like Ramon back to his ancestral vineyards to make wine naturally, by hand, with techniques that are not dissimilar to how they produced wine a thousand years ago on that very grouping of  terraces.

Ramon Losado is one of my favorite winemakers. He is a veterinarian by profession; winemaker by birthright. The D. Ventura brand is named after his grandfather who taught him winemaking and includes three small vineyards in Ribiera Sacra.

I reviewed his D. Ventura ’07 Pena Do Lobo Mencia last year and talked at length about the area, his family and his approach to winemaking in that post.

The Vina Caneiro Mencia is distinct, even though both vineyards are on the hillside above the River Sil. The Viña Caneiro vineyard (pictured at the top of this post) is seriously steeper and hangs on top of the river. This keeps it cooler and makes for a different microclimate than Pena Do Lobo. As well, Caneiro is Losa (pure slate) while Do Lobo is slate and granite.

Both sites are planted in 100% Mencia, grown organically and hand harvested to insure that each cluster is fully mature when harvested. Only indigenous yeast is used to start fermentation. None of the wines are filtered or cold stabilized.

The ’09 Vina Caneiro Ribeira Sacra Mencia is a bold wine with lots of zest.

Bright fruit, lively acidity and strong but silky tanins. The bouquet is layered and pervasive even through the lingering finish.

I tasted a few bottles of this over a week. I decanted it, and got more from the bottle in large goblets with a lot of air. Mencia is an intense grape. This wine with 14% alcohol has deep fruit flavors but remarkably, with graceful balance. It’s riper and more full bodied than the Pena Do Lobo, but still distinctly Burgundian in style.

This is a satisfying red wine, great with grilled food or with nibbles of cheese. I spent the week tasting raw sheep and goat’s cheese from Spain with it and it seemed a natural fit.

At $23 a bottle, this is a steal. A taste that satiates and intrigues. A complexity that is smooth yet firm. And organic and made by hand just for you.

I bought mine from Chambers Street Wines. If they are out of this one and you can’t find it online, the Pena Do Lobo is a bit simpler to source.

A huge thanks to Christopher Barnes, Spanish wine maven at Chambers Street and a good friend, who has brought these wondrous wines to lower Manhattan. It’s a labor of love for him. We are the beneficiary of his passion.

Juan Antonio Ponce is my trusted guide to the unusual…and the wonderful from Manchuela, Spain.

I first tasted his ’08 La Casilla Bobal last spring and was inspired with both the wonders of his wine and his approach to natural winemaking. I jumped at the chance to try his new offering, Manchuela Buena Pinta, a blend of Moravia Agria and Garnacha Tinta, two grapes that were completely unfamiliar to me.

Juan Ponce at 29 is a rising rock star of the Spanish wine world with his pulse on the natural rhythms of the Bobal grape. Viticulture and Manchuela are in his genes. Born into a grape growing family that has tended their high-altitude vineyards in Manchuela for generations, he returned home at the age of 23 after working with natural winemakers Olivier Riviera in Rioja and Marcel Lapierre in France to start a vineyard with his father on their generational and tiny plots of ancient Bobal vines.

The results of the Ponce family vineyard as I sip from the large goblet on my desk, are surprising, unusual and astounding.

Juan has managed to create clear, bright, layered, rich and very accessible wine from the tannic-ridden and highly acidic Bobal grape. He has been called the ‘prophet of Bobal’ but I prefer to think of him as a “Bobal and Manchuela whisperer”, working with micro-terroirs and grounded in a commitment to the core beliefs of biodynamics.

To Juan, terroir is all about individual microclimates–parcel-by-parcel, not vineyard-by-vineyard. He tends and picks and vinifies the grapes by each individual parcel, searching for the unique taste that starts with the soil and vine and the place itself. Whole clusters of grapes are hand harvested from each individual plot and are fermented separately before being combined to produce the cuvee.

While not certified biodynamic, he has a passionate dedication and a common sense understanding of the approach. When questioned about the logic behind a biodynamics, he stated simply that “If the moon is strong enough to influence the tides of the sea, why wouldn’t it affect something as equally natural as wine.” The superior qualities of his wines are a testament to the logic of his craft.

Only natural yeasts are used and partial carbonic maceration is employed in ancient foudres (open wood casks) to soothe the tannins inherent in these grapes.

I was emphatic about Ponce’s Bobal after I tasted it last year. I’m blown away by the Buena Pinta. This is something different altogether.

The ’09 Manchuela Buena Pinta bottling uncaps the unique characteristic of two obscure indigenous varietals. The bottle is 60% Garnacha Tinta (rumored to be from the last remaining parcel in his area) with 40% Moravia Agria, a local blending grape. This is the marriage of the ripe berries of the Garnacha with the herbal earthiness of the Moravia.

It’s hard to articulate the fingerprint from a non-interventionist winemaker like Ponce but the underlying freshness of this bottle and skeletal acidic structure with rippling fruit ties what he has mastered with Bobal to this Garnacha blend.

My friend and Spanish wine mentor, Christopher Barnes from Chambers Street Wines in New York talks about natural wines being alive in the glass. I agree but this wine is truly effervescent. Sparkling berry flavors, rich minerality and a bright herbaceous palate. Quite remarkable. Quite Delicious. Even more rare in a hot-climate wine with a rich grapes and high alcohol (14%) content. How you combine these elements to create something that is so light and springy and alive from a climate so hot, an altitude so high and from grapes so innately tannic and acidic?

The magic is in the bottle.

Juan Ponce is the native son of Mancheula and the ambassador for a completely new way to look at this region and its indigenous grapes. His wines speak to crisp honest purity that is permeated in a vivacious taste. He has created something that will please the world by discovering how to be uniquely itself.

Great with most all food; perfect with grilled meats and vegetables. Yet self-contained to hold its own as a complement to conversations and snacks. Or just to swirl and wonder and enjoy on its own

One of the pleasures of small producer artisanal wines is that they are each unique. One of the challenges is that the productions are low, thus sell out fast.

At $22 a bottle Ponce’s Buena Pinta is a must buy if you can find it. If you cannot, certainly drink one of his Bobals. All are reasonably priced. All I’ve tried are quite wonderful. Available from Chambers Street Wines online.

Watch this winemaker…and try these wines. If you like a luscious red with character, personality, zest and finesse, this is a winner.

This year, I decided to forget about pairing with food and bring just great and interesting Organic wines to share. More tasting and information exchange than dinner planning.

I’m a big fan of natural wines. At their best, they each taste unique, are alive in the glass and speak to the story of place and grape and winemaker. I shortlisted wines from mostly old vines that oozed a sense of place with deep minerality and berried fruit. And are readily available for under $20!

Then I threw them in a very large sack and schlepped them to the assembled Waldstein clan on subway and bus from downtown NYC to Central Jersey.

In tasting order.

Cote-de-Beaune Rapet ’09 Bourgogne En Bully

Something easy and almost familiar to start with. A lite high-elevation French Pinot Noir with pure fruit to open up the palate and lighten up the atmosphere. Perfect opener. Lovely little aromatic fun Pinot. A crowd pleaser.

Olivier Cousin Le Cousin’09 Rouge Vielles Vignes Grolleau

Completely new to this group and to most of us.  A really terrific Grolleau. And biodynamic as well. Tastes pure and rural and is reminiscent strangely of some Trousseau from Arbois. Unique. Almost effervescent.

Rich earthy dark berry taste from these 80 year-old Grolleau vines from the Loire Valley. A winner. The taste favorite.

Try this. It’s wonderful. I can guarantee that this one is being purchased this morning for holiday gifts.

Coudert (Clos de la Roilette) ’09 Fleurie Clos de la Roilette

Exceptional Beaujolais. From Fleurie and richer, deeper more layered than other Beujolais I’m familiar with. Mineral complexity that will get better as it ages although luscious today.

A great pairing with the meal even though that was not the overt intent. For $20, I put a case away for the holidays and ski vacations.

D. Ventura ’09 Viña do Burato

I’m a tireless fan of Ribeira Sacra and a follower of wine maker Ramon Losada. I brought this deep, concentrated and complex Mencia from 80 year-old wines from the terraces above the River Mino to satisfy the big red drinkers in the room.

Ramon is a rock star. He gets how to let the wine inherit the slate soils of Ribeira Sacra and portray a fresh honest vibrancy in a bold, medium bodied red. Great stuff with Turkey or just hanging around.

All the wines are available from Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa in the store or online.

For my personal view on “Why drink organic wine?” you might check out this post.

Happy holidays to everyone and a special thanks to the team at Chambers Street Wines for introducing me to these and many more incredible organic wines.

Wine tells a tale of taste and place and people.

Nothing tells that story better, more individually and with more depth of passion then artisanal vineyards making great organic wine.

Is organic healthier? Certainly.

Is it better for the environment? Without a doubt.

Is it just the right thing to do? No question.

But this is not why we love it…

Wine is neither a cause, nor a medicine, nor an ethical act. But it is truly amazing, replete with passion, oozing stories and one of life’s great taste and storied pleasures.

What does organic have to do with any of this?

Organic wine is more than a choice to reject industrialized farming. It is a decision to focus on discovering the unique taste of each place. And with the decision, comes the concentration on the vineyard more than the cave, the characteristics of the place more than the chemistry of manipulating flavor.

An art critic, I believe talking about Brancusi, said that a truly great sculpture finds the image in the stone with the least number of chisel strokes. Great organic winemakers are sculptures doing just that with the land and the grape. Not painters starting with a blank canvas. The finished piece of sculpture is that unique taste of place in the bottle.

I’m not downplaying the very real complexities of defining and legislating organic, natural and biodynamic. The food industry is still in turmoil over this after a decade. I have ideas on this that I will share in another post, but first things first is to understand the ‘why’ for a market before getting stuck in the ‘how’ of it.

And taste and a deeper connection with the place and winemaker are the ‘why’ of organic wine to me…and I believe for the mass market as well.

Wine made in a natural way, in concert with the place is just more alive in the glass. More accessible and personal, more individualistic and more unique. That is not to say that all organic wine is good…far from it. All wine is neither equal nor good. Nor is all of anything.

An organic approach to wine turns the concept of regional terroir on its head. Certainly there are characteristics of Napa or Calistoga or Etna or Arbois, but in an artisanal world of natural winemaking, each place is unique, each vineyard a micro terroir in its own right.

Don’t take my word for this…taste it yourself.

Spend some time tasting both the Poulsard and the Trousseau from Evelyne and Pascal Clairet and their tiny vineyard, Domaine de la Tournelle in Arbois. You’ll find a fingerprint of taste that resides in the land itself across the differences in the grape.

Try the magnificent Trousseaus of Jacques Puffeney and Michel Gahier in Arbois. Tiny vineyards, adjacent to each other, each using an organic approach to tending the same grape varietal, yet each of these wines is uniquely different. This is the land speaking through the grape directly to us!

And the list of my most cherished organic vineyards, like dots on my world map of great taste goes through Spain, Italy, France, the Canary Islands and on and on.

So…what am I really trying to say?

Organic is the right way….in everyway, in life. There is no argument here as responsible informed people. But the real thing that matters and the point for vineyards and wine shops and wine drinkers…is that organic wine brings to your glass a taste, depth, richness and delight that has freshness, crispness and an overall sense of itself that is special.

Think about your local farmer’s market. When I head out to shop on Saturday, I ask each vendor the same question..”Do you spray or use synthetic fertilizer?” If no, I try it. If it tastes great, I’ll be back to buy more. I buy it and buy it again because it tastes great. I won’t buy it if it is sprayed…but I won’t return if it is not a taste delight.

Organic wines are invariably fresh and crisp and aromatic and unique to each spot…and vivacious at their best. They are not overextracted nor coerced into a preconceived taste mold. They are all about the vineyard.

When I started drinking the wines of Jacques Puffeney, he was referred to as the preeminent vigneron in Arbois. The definition of a vigneron as a winemaker who focuses on the importance of the land and vineyard over the craft of the cave, is I think, the key component of a natural and organic approach to winemaking.

I’m a fan of the organic wine iconoclast Salvo Foti of I Vigneri fame in the Mt. Etna area of Sicily. He believes that wine has its own composition that is created by the grape, the vine, the vineyard, the climatic conditions and the individual (vineyard worker and winemaker). I buy this. It doesn’t mean a total hands-off approach in the cave but it does mean that they are farmers first, curators of the process, second. Again, a true vigneron.

I am neither a purist nor an organic fundamentalist nor an orthodox biodynamic zealot. Sure, I certainly believe that natural food and wine is better for us and for the ecosystems of the world we are responsible for. Who doesn’t? But I start with what I like on my palate and I move on from there.

Great wine…organic or not is my passion and yes, the thought of opening my last bottle of 1990 Ugolaia Lisini Brunello di Montalcino that will melt my body and brain with pleasure…supersedes anything about how it was made. I’m human…obviously.

But when I go to my local wine shop, out to dinner with friends, or travel around the world to visit and taste…I’m drawn to the small artisanal organic wines and vineyards that embrace taste and passion for place first.

I relish the clarity that their dedication and passion for shepherding the vineyard with the goal of uncovering its natural taste brings to their wine, the wine world at large…and to my glass.

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My thanks to the team at Chambers Street Wines in Tribeca, NYC.

Especially Christopher Barnes and Sophie Barrett for leading me to incredible organic wines to taste. They may not agree with my conclusions in this post, but they are the best guides one could hope for.