{"id":5215,"date":"2013-02-20T13:03:55","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T13:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5215"},"modified":"2013-02-28T11:01:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T11:01:27","slug":"organic-biodynamic-wines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/02\/organic-biodynamic-wines\/","title":{"rendered":"Organic & biodynamic wines at Lea & Sandeman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Organic-&-Bio-Dynamic-banner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In these days of concern for our planet and concern for our own inner well-being we are quite used to seeking out cruelty-free meat from reputable butchers, fish from sustainable sources and reassuringly specky fruit and veg from farmers\u2019 markets.\u00a0 It is inevitable that the same concerns will start to inform people\u2019s choice of wines, and this is expressed in the demand for organic wine.<\/p>\n

As one, unhelpfully, asks when presented with a request for organic wine \u2013 what isn\u2019t organic about a good bottle of wine?\u00a0 You need some grapes and the best grapes you can get will be grown as naturally as possible, add some yeast (although, increasingly these days, you use the yeast that\u2019s already helpfully growing on the grape skin) and wine comes out the other end.\u00a0 In essence it\u2019s quite simple.\u00a0 In fact, the nearer you stick to that over-simplified wine-making process, the better your wine will be, which is why we say that the all the best wines are more or less organic.<\/p>\n

But, of course, it\u2019s not quite as simple as that.\u00a0 There are all manner of vineyard treatments, a surprising amount of which are not outlawed in organic viticulture, and processes in the winery to protect the must and the finished wine.\u00a0 So, imbibers have a right to ponder the constitution of their evening tipple.<\/p>\n

\"Sulphur<\/a><\/p>\n

The number one bogie-man \u201cadditive\u201d of concern these days is sulphur dioxide.\u00a0 \u201cContains Sulphites\u201d it says on every bottle of wine on our shelves.\u00a0 Sounds dangerous and scientific and not terribly good for your delicate innards.\u00a0 Sulphur dioxide has been used for centuries (literally centuries – the Romans knew all about it) as an anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial agent.\u00a0 The irony, in this age when we worry so much about it, is that the amounts used today are so much smaller than they\u2019ve ever been \u2013 we now have men in white coats accurately calculating the precise minimum amount we need rather than some brawny peasant just chucking in handfuls of the stuff.\u00a0 It\u2019s perfectly allowable in any organic regime because it is next to impossible to make a stable bottle of wine without it.<\/p>\n

Back to \u201cOrganic Wine\u201d \u2013 all certification schemes concern themselves only with organic viticulture \u2013 that is, the vineyard itself.\u00a0 Of course, the health of one\u2019s vineyard is a vital factor in the production of good wine, but it is worth remembering that the word \u201corganic\u201d on the label offers no guarantees of good practice in the winery.\u00a0 Indeed, we much prefer the guarantee of dealing with small, quality-conscious producers that we know well.\u00a0 We tend to eschew wines labelled as \u201corganic\u201d believing that value, quality and taste are more important than carrying marketable wording on the label.\u00a0 And small may be the key.\u00a0 If you are running an enormous, factory-sized winery, shipping in grapes from hundreds of miles away and pumping wines from enormous stainless-steel tank to enormous stainless-steel tank, not to mention the need to produce a consistent product over tens of thousands of cases of wine, there will be more need to intervene in the natural process.\u00a0 Smaller producers, whose grapes come from their immediate surroundings, whose wineries are compact and who can produce a diverse and interesting range can afford to intervene less.<\/p>\n

Many of our producers practice what the French call La Lutte Raisonn\u00e9e<\/i> \u2013 the reasoned struggle.\u00a0 It is, essentially, mostly organic except for when circumstances dictate otherwise.\u00a0 If you think about it, that\u2019s how most of us healthy types live \u2013 we eat healthy food, we exercise, we swallow various complimentary potions to keep ourselves pure and cleansed but, if we get sick, off to the Doctors\u2019 we go and spend a week or so popping some \u201cunnatural\u201d pills until the infection clears up.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same with a vineyard \u2013 grow all sorts of cover crops, only use natural treatments, replace your tractor with horses, but if the vines get diseased fetch in the vine doctor with a quick burst of something restorative.<\/p>\n

But there are those that do go the whole hog and make their wines organically.\u00a0 Not to obtain any certification, or as a selling point in itself.\u00a0 Indeed, none have any official certification of organicness, or seek it, and none bear the word on the label.\u00a0 This is all in the pursuit of making better wine.\u00a0 Consult this list here<\/a> to browse from our organic\/biodynamic selection.<\/p>\n

\"Pommard<\/a><\/p>\n

Beyond organic viticulture is the stricter world of biodynamics.\u00a0 Biodynamic farming was developed by Rudolf Steiner and concerns itself with a holistic approach to the health of the soil.\u00a0 For as much as some of the methodology seems slightly eccentric, it is impossible to follow a biodynamic regime without taking scrupulous care of your vineyard and, so, the results have been encouraging and the practices continue to spread.\u00a0 Ch Pontet-Canet<\/a> recently became the first classed-growth property in Bordeaux to convert to biodynamic viticulture; it is gaining ground in Burgundy, check out the wines of Domaines Comte Armand<\/a> and Chandon de Briailles<\/a>; we also have the excellent biodynamic wines of Marcel Deiss<\/a> in Alsace, Poggerino<\/a> in Tuscany and Rippon<\/a> in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In these days of concern for our planet and concern for our own inner well-being we are quite used to seeking out cruelty-free meat from reputable butchers, fish from sustainable sources and reassuringly specky fruit and veg from farmers\u2019 markets.\u00a0 It is inevitable that the same concerns will start to inform people\u2019s choice of wines, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[248,247],"class_list":["post-5215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organic-biodynamic-wines","tag-biodynamic","tag-organic"],"contentshake_article_id":"","yoast_head":"\nOrganic & biodynamic wines at Lea & Sandeman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In these days of concern for our planet and concern for our own inner well-being we are quite used to seeking out cruelty-free meat from 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