In honor of Earth Day and the spirit of drinking responsibly, I recently attended a tasting at the Emeryville BevMo where organic, sustainable, and biodynamic wines made in California were featured. On the bus en route to this tasting, I was a bit unsure what to expect. Why? For starters, organic wines can often be, well, unpalatable. And biodynamic wines are seen by skeptics (of which there are many) as a superstitious European way of farming at best, and a science fiction level hoax at worst. Perhaps that is why the the two certified organic wines on our tasting list don’t even put that information on the bottle. All that being said, I was pleasantly surprised by the wines that we tasted, and quite impressed with BevMo’s commitment to sustainability. 2010 Frog’s Leap Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc – $17.99 The Frog’s Leap sauvignon blanc is a certified organic wine, an impressive [...]
When in the Nighttime IS the Right Time?
There are moonlight wine tastings in British supermarkets and a calendar advising when conditions are right for drinking certain varietals. Some folk swear by these practices … and others swear at them. So, should you start asking a bottle of wine, “What’s your sign?” The question really is this: how much truth, if any, is there to the belief that astrological signs affect what adult beverages you drink and, more specifically, how the ingredients are grown and made? Planting according to the phases of the moon is a practice as old as agriculture itself, but employing the same celestial portends as guidelines for tasting the fruit of the vine is much more recent. It’s generally based on biodynamics, a holistic agronomy system created by philosopher Rudolph Steiner in the late 1920’s. Adherents believe that not only the vines are impacted by phases of the moon but, even more surprising, that [...]
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