Eco-wines that taste so good your guests will never know they’re saving the planet
(Illustration: Brian Rea)
I’m all for protecting the environment, but when it comes to wine, what I care about most is taste. Fortunately, there’s good news on the eco-friendly front. Like organics, biodynamic wines are free of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, but the eco-balanced regimen is even more stringent. One of biodynamic vintners’ main aims is to strengthen the soil and, therefore, the vines. They bury cows’ horns filled with compost material in the soil and take cues from lunar cycles for planting and pruning. The techniques might sound paganistic, but such meticulous attention often results in better tasting wine. I’ve also found that biodynamic wines offer unparalleled expressions of terroir. The best I’ve tasted was a famous Loire Valley chenin blanc made by French biodynamic proponent Nicolas Joly. The Coulée de Serrant is a sinewy, incredibly intense wine that radiates flint and oyster shell—there’s no question that it comes from chalk soil vineyards in a maritime climate on the banks of the broad Loire. Read the rest of this entry »
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