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Drink to your health By Jessica Yadegaran CONTRA COSTA TIMES Wed, Apr. 05, 2006 "Wine is just a way to preserve the grape," explains third-generation Sonoma winemaker Tony Coturri, who's been certified organic for 27 years. "It just happens to have a nice effect."... Most organic wineries are small, often estate-bottled vineyards where the work is done by hand. They vary in their practices, but the foundation and goal is always the same: to produce pure, clean grapes that need little manipulation. Creating biodiversity on the vineyard prevents the need for Band-Aid -- "It's May, time to spray" -- remedies. Ultimately, they say, this is how to find the true expression of the land. "We add absolutely nothing to our grapes," Coturri says. "The natural yeast carries the terroir. That's where the beautiful elements of earthiness come in." Planting support crops and inviting critters to do the dirty work helps keep Coturri's soil healthy. So does replenishing it with all the rich goodies it reaped -- seeds, skins, stems are all ploughed back into the soil. Once the grapes are off the vines, they're crushed slowly to avoid cutting stems, crushing seeds or macerating the grapes. Fermentation is done in open tanks and aging in oak barrels. No concentrates are added for extra sweetness; no oak chips. Bottling is done by hand. The bottom line, Coturri explains, is that pesticides and chemical fertilizers might kill the bad stuff, but they also kill microbes vital to the vines. Think of it like this: "We're doing the same thing to our bodies by overprescribing antibiotics that kill the good bacteria in the stomach," Coturri tells me. "It's a spiral that's closing down on our culture." The taste So what if organic wines are more healthful -- what's most important to me is: Do they taste good? Turns out, much better than they used to. "For decades, organic wines were on the mediocre to undrinkable side because of the lack of sulfur dioxide," Wilfred Wong, cellarmaster for BevMo, explains to me. "But over the last decade, the movement to grow organically but employ sound winemaking techniques has resulted in wines of premium to super-premium quality." Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco hosts monthly winemaker dinners featuring organic wines. Executive chef Eric Tucker gets giddy talking about the porcinis he's paired with Preston, Coturri, Sobon and Quivira wines. "They are more immediate and complex, powerful reds with a broad flavor and yeasty qualities in the nose," Tucker says. "In my opinion, there's a lot you can do with wines like that."... |
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