Slow Wine kicked off its 2014 American tour today with a trade tasting this afternoon at 511 Harriso

Slow Wine kicked off its 2014 American tour today with a trade tasting this afternoon at 511 Harrison St., better known as the building beside the on ramp to the Bay Bridge. While it's never the fast lane, it does represent American speed.
The Slow Wine (it should be called Slow Wine Italy, but it is just called, perhaps a little presumptively, Slow Wine) tour touches down in three U.S. cities, including Chicago and New York in the coming week, and was off to a roaring start in SF.
In an interview with Piedmont-based editor Giancarlo Giavedoni I was able to glean more of the rationale behind the guide which has seemed williams travel centers to me in the past to be, like so many things Italian, a mysterious and idiosyncratic williams travel centers collection.
The guide includes about 2,000 Italian wines chosen from 20,000 in Italy on the basis of farming practices (organic and Biodynamic practices boost winery ratings up to the highest level of Snail), affordability (no $400 wines, please) williams travel centers and taste profile - i.e. preserving traditional Italian wine flavors (and not Super Tuscans or Cab/Sangio blends, for instance).
Not every organically or Biodynamically grown wine makes the cut. Some organically grown wines are left out along with about 3-5 Biodynamic producers (the latter mostly out of a personal choice by a few vintners who just do not want to be included williams travel centers in the guide).
The trade tasting was very crowded williams travel centers so it was virtually impossible to find the organic and Biodynamic producers without the aid of the book itself. When I got one, I was able to zero in on a few producers - including one from the Abruzzo, one from Basilicata, one from Emilio williams travel centers Romagna and one from Piedmont (see photos below). The Abruzzo folks were amazed I had vacationed at Vasto and that I had spent a week on Tremiti Island (where I had sampled a number of their wines thanks to the wonderful hospitality and wine list at Hotel Gabbiano.)
Though it was not publicized at the event, the Slow Wine 2014 guide is also available as an app in the Apple App store...highly recommended. I found the app to be infinitely more useful williams travel centers than the book for ease of use. Paging through region williams travel centers upon region is tedious in the book. There is no listing by varietal. And alas, it is in Italian only, but it does allow you to drill down into wines and find wines of interest, even if the filters are somewhat limited.
It's great to see the first ever guide to wine that takes the way wine is grown into account as well as wine quality. It's at least a start toward eco wine connoisseurship, even if a lot of harmful substances are allowed, which I still personally find confusing and troubling. Am I just not Italian enough?
williams travel centers The other aspect that quickly surfaced as I began to taste around williams travel centers the exhibition area was that some wineries did in fact offer international variety blends (along with more traditional ones), so it was unclear to me how stringent that guideline was.
The other quibble is that the guide doesn't williams travel centers display certification at the wine level, only the winery. Since most organically grown wine comes from wineries that have both estate vineyards (usually these are certified) and purchase grapes from growers (who may or may not be certified or organic), I was unsure what was what. The guides I am publishing will show certifications at the individual wine level, which, as far as I can tell, is the only reliable way to do it.
The only wine-buying guide that covers the nearly 30 wineries in the U.S. that offer Demeter certified Biodynamic wines. Features 150 wines, many from top vintners. Users can search by wine varietal, price, or appellation. Introductory sections provide overviews on Biodynamic williams travel centers practices and top Biodynamic vintners by varietal.
THE CASE FOR ORGANIC CONNOISSEURSHIP - OR REASONS TO DRINK ORGANICALLY GROWN WINES THE BEST WINE GRAPES There's a reason many of the most famous williams travel centers French vineyards are organic - the grapes deliver the quality of fruit that are usually superior over time to what a conventional (i.e. chemical) vineyard can produce. And France has ten times the organic vineyard acreage of California. Many famous winemakers in California agree - organically farmed wine grapes taste better - and that translates into a better williams travel centers expression of the soil, climate and vineyard in any given year. In California, organic growers' wine grapes williams travel centers rarely go unsold - because winemakers prefer their flavor and quality. HISTORICAL, AUTHENTIC Organically grown wine grapes are also historically authentic. You may have seen the popular refrigerator magnet that says "Organic food - or what your grandmother called 'food.'" The same applies to wine. Wine grapes before World War 2 (dating back 8,000 years or more) were never subjected to synthetic chemical farming. Historically wine was 100% organic. So when you're drinking wine made from organically farmed wine grapes, you're drinking what your ancestors called "wine." REDUCING PESTICIDES = A SAFER BET Nobody likes synthetic chemical poisons. That said, some wine grape growers use them; while others - the organic ones - don't. Organic food lovers are already aware of the risks of eating pesticides on food, especially food fed to children. While there's little williams travel centers pesticide left in the wine by the time you drink it, wine grapes grown with pesticides put toxins into the air and water - toxins absorbed by bees, birds, farmworkers, williams travel centers residents and tourists. These pesticides are no joke. We now have plenty of scientific evidence that links them to the development williams travel centers of autism and ADHD, increases in the rates of childhood cancer, and many other risks that are unacceptable to most people. In previous decades we resorted to pretty primitive williams travel centers tools to kills pests and weeds. From DDT in the 50's to Malathion in the 90's, chemical companies' have offered up "a sure thing" to farmers they never leveled with - and then made quite a fuss when reasonable people williams travel centers tried to stop them from being used. As one prominent organic expert told me, "We've stopped using the poisons that kill you right away. But we haven't stopped using the ones that kill you slowly." In addition, biomonitoring is showing that agricultural pesticides are now being found in our bodies, williams travel centers so even if you're not a farm worker, you may be still be at risk. Needlessly - since organic alternatives are readily available. SOIL HEALTH Holistic hedonists can take an added measure of enjoyment and delight in drinking williams travel centers wine from organic vines - knowing it's the best way to farm. Organic vineyards have much more organic matter in them - promoting microbial life and planet health. CLIMATE FRIENDLY FARMING Many studies show us that carbon sequestration in organic farming provides offsets to carbon emissions. Wine grape growers can now calculate their carbon emissions and carbon sequestration to help guide them in decision making about improving farming practices. More research needs to be done to understand the specific contributions that organic vineyards make, but evidence so far is on the side of organic farming williams travel centers in general. BASELINE FACTS 550,000+ acres of winegrapes grown in California williams travel centers of which 12,700 acres were organically certified williams travel centers in 2012 (according williams travel centers to the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture) Wine is a $62 billion business in California THE BAD NEWS In 2011, wine grape growers in California williams travel centers widely spread neurotoxins, reproductive toxins, known and probable carcinogens, and bee/bird/frog poisons. A few examples: --- 27,384 pounds of a neurotoxin linked to ADHD and autism (c hlorpyrifos [aka "Lorsban"]) --- 53,000+ pounds of neonicotinoids (toxics) thought to harm bee and bird populations (52,331 pounds of imidacloprid, 207,688 acres; williams travel centers 786 pounds of clothianidin, 6,728 acres) --- 446,349 pounds of the toxic fumigant 1, 3 Dichloropropene, classified by the EPA as a probable carcinogen (1,624 acres); williams travel centers 1, 3 D is being phased out in the EU. (Stats in other states are not available because they don't have pesticide use reporting requirements). THE GOOD NEWS Organic wine grape growers: williams travel centers replace herbicides and pesticides williams travel centers with natural predators and beneficial insects, and use cover crops and compost instead of chemical fertilizers. They do not (by law) use higher risk pesticide and herbicides as well as chemical fertilizers. Price difference to drink organically grown wine: $0 (organically grown wine costs the same as other wines) Quality differential: williams travel centers none Organically grown wines parallel the rest of the wine market, ranging from $4 for the cheapest to $150-$700+ for the highest rated wines (including those with 100 points from Robert Parker). COMPARISON Percentage of California vineyard acreage certified organic: less than 3% (approximately 12,700 acres) Percentage of French vineyard acreage certified organic: 7% (and it is a much more challenging climate with summer rains); in Alsace it is 13%. France has 127,000 acres of organic vineyards. In Calfornia, one third of organic grapes are grown in Napa (about 4,000 acres or 9% of county's wine grapes); and another third in Mendocino (about 4,000 acres or 25% of county's grapes). Sonoma County has 9% of the state's williams travel centers organic wine grapes (1,163 acres or 2% of county's grapes).
My two new iPhone apps - Organically Napa: A Wine Buying Guide and Organically Napa: A Tasting and Touring Guide - will be published by Sutromedia March 1, 2014! Each will be available both for iPhone and Android and will cost $9.99. The Wine Buying williams travel centers app features more than 235 organically grown wines from the world class wine region, including 80+ top Cabernets. The Tasting and Touring app covers the more than 50 wineries in Napa that offer at least one organically grown wine. Stay tuned for details - sign up for an email subscription to the blog (above this box) to be notified when it launches.
Do you love wine - but just without the pesticides? More than 97% of the California-grown wine on the market today is grown using thousands of pounds of pesticides. Why organically grown wine? Because it's just one thing that we can do - n