Arnold Waldstein's Blog

Wine tells a tale of taste and place and people.

Nothing tells that story better, more individually and with more depth of passion then artisanal vineyards making great organic wine.

Is organic healthier? Certainly.

Is it better for the environment? Without a doubt.

Is it just the right thing to do? No question.

But this is not why we love it…

Wine is neither a cause, nor a medicine, nor an ethical act. But it is truly amazing, replete with passion, oozing stories and one of life’s great taste and storied pleasures.

What does organic have to do with any of this?

Organic wine is more than a choice to reject industrialized farming. It is a decision to focus on discovering the unique taste of each place. And with the decision, comes the concentration on the vineyard more than the cave, the characteristics of the place more than the chemistry of manipulating flavor.

An art critic, I believe talking about Brancusi, said that a truly great sculpture finds the image in the stone with the least number of chisel strokes. Great organic winemakers are sculptures doing just that with the land and the grape. Not painters starting with a blank canvas. The finished piece of sculpture is that unique taste of place in the bottle.

I’m not downplaying the very real complexities of defining and legislating organic, natural and biodynamic. The food industry is still in turmoil over this after a decade. I have ideas on this that I will share in another post, but first things first is to understand the ‘why’ for a market before getting stuck in the ‘how’ of it.

And taste and a deeper connection with the place and winemaker are the ‘why’ of organic wine to me…and I believe for the mass market as well.

Wine made in a natural way, in concert with the place is just more alive in the glass. More accessible and personal, more individualistic and more unique. That is not to say that all organic wine is good…far from it. All wine is neither equal nor good. Nor is all of anything.

An organic approach to wine turns the concept of regional terroir on its head. Certainly there are characteristics of Napa or Calistoga or Etna or Arbois, but in an artisanal world of natural winemaking, each place is unique, each vineyard a micro terroir in its own right.

Don’t take my word for this…taste it yourself.

Spend some time tasting both the Poulsard and the Trousseau from Evelyne and Pascal Clairet and their tiny vineyard, Domaine de la Tournelle in Arbois. You’ll find a fingerprint of taste that resides in the land itself across the differences in the grape.

Try the magnificent Trousseaus of Jacques Puffeney and Michel Gahier in Arbois. Tiny vineyards, adjacent to each other, each using an organic approach to tending the same grape varietal, yet each of these wines is uniquely different. This is the land speaking through the grape directly to us!

And the list of my most cherished organic vineyards, like dots on my world map of great taste goes through Spain, Italy, France, the Canary Islands and on and on.

So…what am I really trying to say?

Organic is the right way….in everyway, in life. There is no argument here as responsible informed people. But the real thing that matters and the point for vineyards and wine shops and wine drinkers…is that organic wine brings to your glass a taste, depth, richness and delight that has freshness, crispness and an overall sense of itself that is special.

Think about your local farmer’s market. When I head out to shop on Saturday, I ask each vendor the same question..”Do you spray or use synthetic fertilizer?” If no, I try it. If it tastes great, I’ll be back to buy more. I buy it and buy it again because it tastes great. I won’t buy it if it is sprayed…but I won’t return if it is not a taste delight.

Organic wines are invariably fresh and crisp and aromatic and unique to each spot…and vivacious at their best. They are not overextracted nor coerced into a preconceived taste mold. They are all about the vineyard.

When I started drinking the wines of Jacques Puffeney, he was referred to as the preeminent vigneron in Arbois. The definition of a vigneron as a winemaker who focuses on the importance of the land and vineyard over the craft of the cave, is I think, the key component of a natural and organic approach to winemaking.

I’m a fan of the organic wine iconoclast Salvo Foti of I Vigneri fame in the Mt. Etna area of Sicily. He believes that wine has its own composition that is created by the grape, the vine, the vineyard, the climatic conditions and the individual (vineyard worker and winemaker). I buy this. It doesn’t mean a total hands-off approach in the cave but it does mean that they are farmers first, curators of the process, second. Again, a true vigneron.

I am neither a purist nor an organic fundamentalist nor an orthodox biodynamic zealot. Sure, I certainly believe that natural food and wine is better for us and for the ecosystems of the world we are responsible for. Who doesn’t? But I start with what I like on my palate and I move on from there.

Great wine…organic or not is my passion and yes, the thought of opening my last bottle of 1990 Ugolaia Lisini Brunello di Montalcino that will melt my body and brain with pleasure…supersedes anything about how it was made. I’m human…obviously.

But when I go to my local wine shop, out to dinner with friends, or travel around the world to visit and taste…I’m drawn to the small artisanal organic wines and vineyards that embrace taste and passion for place first.

I relish the clarity that their dedication and passion for shepherding the vineyard with the goal of uncovering its natural taste brings to their wine, the wine world at large…and to my glass.

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My thanks to the team at Chambers Street Wines in Tribeca, NYC.

Especially Christopher Barnes and Sophie Barrett for leading me to incredible organic wines to taste. They may not agree with my conclusions in this post, but they are the best guides one could hope for.

I’m a big fan of Evelyne and Pascal Clairet and their tiny vineyard, Domaine de la Tournelle, in the center of Arbois on the eastern border of France.

In the foothills of the Alps, they make quietly wonderful wine from the region’s indigenous grapes–Poulsard, Trousseau and Savagnin—and they’ve created a unique footprint of taste…quite delicious…and freshly their own when compared to the other top winemakers in Arbois.

Here’s what amazes me.

Arbois is a tiny place. High altitude vineyards and a cool foothills climate. Indigenous grapes are grown and mostly natural methods used. One would think that this creates a sameness of taste like one might describe a Napa Cabernet. Not so.

I’ve tasted many of the Trousseau and Poulsard wines from a handful of winemakers in Arbois. And while certainly the varietal and the winemaker drive the category…the place and the vineyards themselves seem to be the fingerprint of taste. It’s like a neighborhood that produces a number of musicians, each with a sense of place but with their own unique rhythm.

Terroir, that sense of place, vineyard to vineyard, is remarkably distinct and palpable here. Maybe it’s the natural approach to letting the wine takes its own form or these indigenous grapes themselves…I think its all of these under the signature of the vineyard and the plot of land itself.

This ’07 Trousseau de Corvees is light and alive in the glass, strongly floral in its bouquet. It is all berries on the nose and layered minerality on the palate. So very different from the Trousseau of Jacques Puffeney or Michel Gahier or Philippe Bornard.

Interestingly, when I tasted the Clairet’s Poulsard a while back, I found the overall character of the wine from the same vineyard reminiscent in some strange way to this Trousseau. The Clairet’s have a light touch, a crisp freshness that comes from an organic and a studied approach to letting the place define itself. For 20 years they have been working to let the vines find their own taste…and to my palate with a great deal of success.

If you are new to Arbois wines, I suggest you try the ’07 Tournelle Trouseau de Corvees as a counterpoint to other Trousseau wines from Arbois. They are all colors from the same rainbow and make the tasting process an interesting and nuanced experience.

I’m very optimistic that you’ll find Trousseau a taste that pleases…and each one of these wines will find a place on your wine rack. All affordable. All crisp and wonderful and natural. All a pleasure to drink.

Give this bottle of Tournelle ‘07 Arbois Trousseau des Corvees a try. It’s fresh and interesting and memorable with a taste that lingers.

From Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa, NYC for $30 a bottle.

I’m an unabashed Arbois enthusiast.

Ever since I uncorked a bottle of Philippe Bornard’s Pupillin de Gringlet, my palate, my enthusiasm and my cellar of Trousseau has been expanding dramatically. There is something special and innately familiar about the wines from this sleepy, off-the-grid region on the eastern border of France, near Switzerland.

Until recently, I’ve been focused on the Trousseau varietal. Then I was introduced to Stephane Tissot and this remarkably bright and refreshing and rich bottle of old vines Poulsard, the lightest of the reds from the region after Trousseau and Pinot Noir. This bottle is well…a dream and quite wonderful.

Never tasted Poulsard before? No matter. Don’t understand biodynamic wines? Not necessary. Don’t care about anything but taste…a non-wine geek? Perfect, prepare to be blown away.

Natural wine makers come in all shapes, from the lunatic fringe to the academic. I’m drawn to taste as the arbiter of value and natural as simply the guidelines to discover terroir. Stephane Tissot is the epitome of this approach.

Born into the wine world of Arbois on his parents vineyard, Domaine Andre et Mireille Tissot, he traveled the world to understand where he wanted to take his craft and his interest in biodynamic farming until he took over his family plots in Arbois and Cotes du Arbois in the Jura wine region.

His vineyards are 100% organic and biodynamically farmed since 1999 with Demeter certification. No fertilizers. No pesticides. Hand harvesting in small baskets. Indigenous grapes and yeasts and no added sulfur. Yields are kept at rigorously low levels—Stephane plants 12,000 rather than 6,000 vines per acre to let the grapes and the wine extract every mineral that the soil has to offer.

Technical. Impossibly rigid technique but unbelievably remarkable and accessible wine.

This Poulsard tastes clean and fresh…and the smell and the flavors are crisp, like a straight-from-the-garden-salad. There is a light richness to this wine, smooth tannins with ripe fruit, replete with berries but easy on the palate. Honestly, slightly chilled in a large goblet to relish in the color and aroma on a warm afternoon…Perfect!

I tasted the Tissot ’06 alongside the Arbois ’06 Poulsard “M” form Jacque Puffeney, the master of Arbois and the ’04 Ploussard de Monteiller from Evelyn and Pascal Clairet. Both remarkable Ploussards from great winemakers.

The “M” from Pufffeney was more mineral, deeply focused and layered. The Clairet’s Plousard was much lighter, salmon colored, wildly floral with faint fruit undertones. I like both of these wines very much…but the Tissot is more approachable and fulfilling and for the newbie to Poulsard, I would start with the Tissot then try the others.

It is remarkable that three organic Ploussards from the tiny village of Arbois in a quiet spot in eastern France can be so uniquely different…and wonderful. These winemakers understand terroir…from one vineyard and hillside to the next. They are not manufacturing a taste to define the grape, they are discovering it.

I strongly recommend this Poulsard from Tissot. At $20 a bottle, this will better your day, broaden your palate and open up a passion for these great wines from the Jura.

Available from Chambers Street Wines. Ask for Sophie Barrett, the Jura Queen, for info and recommendations.

There is a freshness and crisp honesty to the taste of a great natural bottle of wine. At its best… under the care of a talented winemaker, something pure is coaxed from the grape and the wine becomes a signature of a particular place.

This is certainly true for Juan Antonio Ponce and this bottle of Bobal.

After generations of growing high altitude grapes in the Manchuela region of Spain, east of La Mancha and north of Jumilla, Juan Ponce started making wine from select family plots of ancient Bobal vines in 2005. The results have been remarkable.

Bobal is an obscure grape, high in tannins and acidity, usually low in alcohol and most often blended into house wines. Mostly unknown, this is my first experience with it as it rarely is carried and almost never highlighted in quality wine shops…until Ponce, that is.

Juan Ponce is known locally as the ‘prophet of Bobal’ because almost single-handedly he has found uniqueness in this grape and brought international attention to Manchuela and his wine.

After a formal education in winemaking and time as an apprentice and student of the biodynamic wineries in France, then 5 years as a winemaker in Rioja, he decided to return home, focus on Bobal, the Manchuela terroir and his family vineyards of old vines.

I really like this winemaker and his approach.

Terroir to Juan Ponce, starts with the ground and the vine…not with an idea of a taste or a concept of the finished wine itself. He believes in micro-terroir, in the plot-by-plot uniqueness and addresses each small plot separately…vinified individually, different barrel types for different plots, unique harvest schedules and overall an approach seeking to discover the cycles of the vines where they grow.

Biodynamic in the vineyard. Traditional methods of growing and harvesting. Natural yeast. And natural in the cave as well.

The ’08 La Casilla is made from 30-70 year old vines, grown in chalky soil. It’s challenging to describe the Bodal grape, as it’s a completely new taste to me. But this bottle of rich and complex red wine is quite unique from anything I’ve drunk from Spain…rippled with a mineral character and infused with a gentle touch of fruit.

I found La Casilla dark and strong but still fresh and vivacious. It is great with food…. olives or cheese or a plate of whole wheat pasta. Or with something off the grill.

Organic. Full bodied. Approachable. A meal’s perfect complement.

Available from Chambers Street Wines for $18 a bottle.

Thanks to my wine guide, Chris Barnes @ Chambers Street for nudging me to taste this.

Ribeira Sacra is an adventure in terroir…varied and unique and surprising from one hillside to another.

This northwestern corner of Spain is a landscape of remote extremes. Too steep for modern machinery and too harsh for modern varietals, it has been abandoned for generations but unchanged since the Romans terraced and planted it some 2000 years ago to make wines for their armies marching to the sea.

Today, a new generation of winemakers have taken over tending the hillsides and cliffs and are making remarkable wine, as individual and spectacular as the landscape itself.

The Dominio do Bibei vineyard is my first experience with the Quiroga-Bibei subregion, the most southern of the five wine growing regions in Ribeira Sacra. The Bibei hillsides are impossibly steep, from 55 to 100% grades, arid and hot and challenging to farm. The earth is clay and slate and rock hard and a microclimate considerably different from the other areas of Ribeira Sacra. Many, if not most of the ancient vineyards here were abandoned for a generation or more.

Javier Dominguez, armed with vision, patience and funding, is the force behind the Dominio do Bibei vineyard. With his wife, he set out to rebuild an ancient vineyard on this mountain side in the Bibei Valley that had been deserted for a decade but had scattered plantings of ancient vines, many of them over 100 years old.

Dominguez wanted to create wine that spoke of the hillside and valley he built his vineyard on. His approach to discovering terroir was to interfere with the vines to the most minimal amount possible. Everything in the winery is done naturally with gravity fed processes, natural yeasts, and fermentation in carved stone or cement ‘foudres’ or tanks. He was looking for a subtler, mineral taste from the Mencia grape that let the fruit sink to the background and the mineral and acidity carry the lighter tannin flavors.

Congratulations Javier….this is a great bottle of wine. An aficionado’s dream!

The Lalama ’06 Ribiera Sacra is a blend of 85% Mencia and equal parts of Garnacha, Brancellao, and Mouraton made from a mixture of vines as young as 15 years and as old as 100. This is a traditional blend for Ribiera Sacra but Javier added one modern touch, fermenting the grapes separately then blending them all together. In the past, the vines were grown and harvested and fermented together.

This Mencia blend is spicy and light, remarkably medium bodied, savory with a gentle balance between the spice and citrus. Even with a high alcohol content, it tastes fresh and aerated and ready to drink.

This bottle is quite luscious…weightless and aromatic and fulfilling. Really a great wine with food and cheese. Certain to surprise and satisfy at any dinner party.

Available at $36 a bottle from Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa NYC and online wine merchants.

Check out posts on other wines from Ribeira Sacra here and here and here.

I love the story behind a bottle of wine.

I quickly forget names, but I can visualize the taste of the wine with the story of the winemaker and the place…forever. The person and the taste are reminiscent of each other.

But with Michel Gahier, and this interesting bottle of organic Trousseau from the Jura region of France, we have only a faint fingerprint of information about the person and less details about the wine. The random photo above from a traveler in Arbois is all I could locate.

What do we know about Michel Gahier and his wine?

Not much. Folklore has it that he is the neighbor of the famous Pope of Arbois, Jacque’s Puffeney, in the small town of Montagney-les-Asures in the Jura region on the eastern border of France. Having an adjacent vineyard and the Pope’s tutelage, has obviously been enough to create a market for his wine and magically get it from the windy country roads of the Jura on the eastern border of central France…to my local wine shop in NYC.

I’m a big fan of Jacque’s Puffeney and his organic and almost perfect Trousseaus are weightless, elegant but remarkably full-bodied.

This bottle of ’07 Trousseau Grands Vergers from Michel Gahier, holds similar qualities to Puffeney’s Trousseaus, most likely from the hillside itself, but is unique. It is tangier, more full with berries and much firmer. Also a bit brighter, a bit more tightly wound and strongly mineral on the palate as it finishes.

Incredible really. As I’ve been looking for information on Gahier, I keep tasting this bottle and doing comparisons with Puffeney and Philippe Bornard and sharpening my palate. Maybe knowing a bit less about the person has sharpened my taste…if not my imagination

At $28 a bottle, similar pricing to Puffeney, this is a must try for the Arbois aficionado if you can find it.

Available from Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa, NYC.

Another huge thanks to Sophie Barrett, the Taste Princess of Jura (and buyer for Chambers Street Wines), for guiding me through this remote corner of France.

I’m a big fan of Beaujolais…and nothing speaks to early spring and lighter fare more than a bottle of rich and layered organic Beaujolais from the hands of a master winemaker.

The Morgan Gang of Five are the winemakers who have transformed the world’s image of Beaujolais through their remarkable organic wines. They are Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, Jean-Paul Thevenet and Georges Descombes. As a group, they are responsible for bringing credibility and recognition to Beaujolais as a distinct wine region of its own, rather than simply the southern-most part of Burgundy. And they’ve brought a doubting wine world to an appreciation of the Gamay grape as a legitimate cousin of the Burgundian Pinot Noir.

Damien Coquelet, the winemaker behind this luscious bottle of Coquelet 2008 Chiroubles Vielles Vignes, is the 21-year old step son of George’s Descombes. If this bottle is any indication, he promises to become a sixth member to this knightly roundtable of taste and his father’s heir apparent.  There is little information on Damien and no picture of him was available. However, we do know that the old vine Gamay grapes from which this bottle is vinified are from his father’s prize vineyards in Chiroubles.

First, some demystification of the label as this one, even in the complex confusion of French wine labels needs an interpreter.

I’ll start at the top:

• Chiroubles. One of the 12 Beaujolais Crus (basically village appellations) where the vineyards are at some of the highest altitudes among the Cru Beaujolais. Chiroubles Crus are known for their delicate and rich bouquets.
• Vieilles vignes. Old Vines. Vines can grow for up to 120 years. 40+-year-old vines are old and concentrated and rich. Great Beaujolais come from these ancient vines.
• D. Coquelet. That’s Damien Coquelet, the winemaker, step son of Georges Descombes.
• Vermont 69901 Villie-Morgan. That is the physical address of the vineyard.

Label hieroglyphics aside, this is a remarkable bottle of wine. It represents the best of Chiroubles and the epitome of Beaujolais. Earthy. Complex. Strongly aromatic.

In the glass, this wine drinks pure with a velvety smooth mouth. Juicy with just enough acidity to carry the depth of flavor.

At $26 a bottle, this is a great value and not to be missed.

Available from Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa, NYC.

I think of wine iconoclast Salvo Foti as Don I Vigneri of the Mt. Etna area of Sicily.

He is the leader of the natural wine movement in this volcanic, southeastern corner of Sicily. While extreme in some respects (racking and bottling under a lunar cycle), he is a pure spirit of natural viniculture and if you want to understand Sicilian winemaking in the Etna DOC, start with Salvo Foti.

Foti is the organizer and leader of the I Vigneri project, named after a Vintner’s Guild founded in 1435 to align the small vineyards in Sicily around the cultivation of the Alberello bush vine. 500 years later, the intent of the project is the same.

I Vigneri is an agricultural collective dedicated to indigenous grapes, natural cultivation and an obsessive attachment to the terroir of Etna. Today it provides the economic incentive for local wine experts and trades people to continue to work in the trade, keeping the skills intact. We of course are the beneficiaries of this.

Foti believes that wine has its own composition that is created by the grape, the vine, the vineyard, the climatic conditions and the individual (vineyard worker and winemaker). In his own words “It’s important that there is harmony and respect for each variable to make a wine that truly sings”.

Salvo Foti’s own label is called I Vigneri as well. And to be expected, the process is as natural and ageless as Mt. Etna itself. No fertilizers or pesticides. Hand cultivation and harvesting. No added yeasts. Unfiltered. Few sulfites.

The ’06 Etna Rosso Il Vigneri is a blend of Nerellos Mascalese and Nerellos Cappuccio. Comparisons to Biondi’s Outis make sense as the blend is similar, Foti consults to Biondi and the vineyards are adjacent.

This bottle is unique from all of the other indigenous grape blends I’ve tasted from Etna. It’s like a rustic cheese or dinner at a local inn in some corner of Italy. Like strong country fare, just pulled from the ground, spiced to bring out natural strengths in taste and strong by nature.

The wine is juicy, fruit forward with strong and tannins. Not overpowering but not for the light tasting palate. This is wine of the place…as unencumbered and as representative and as local as it gets.

I put a way a few bottles of this as a baseline for the Etna DOC. If you want to understand what wine without the modifications of time and modern culture and new techniques, grown on the steep slopes of an active volcano tastes like…this is it.

And it’s a pleasure.

Available from Chambers Street Wines for $32 a bottle.

Evelyn and Pascal Clairet founded the Domaine de la Tournelle winery in the Village of Arbois in the Jura region of France in 1991. A sleepier and more off-the-grid place for viniculture on the eastern border of France in the foothills of the Alps would have been hard to find.

That is changing…and quickly. Through the terroir-driven, organic and unique wines being created by Jacques Puffeney, Philippe Bornard, the Clairets and others, the wine world is paying close attention. And I’m personally the lucky beneficiary of this.

I like this vineyard.

Evelyn and Pascal have a studied and aggressive approach to biodynamic farming and natural winemaking, and are focused on taking their small 15-acre estate and discovering the qualities of the indigenous grapes of the region.

On their website, they clearly list the detailed notes for each vintage. It is like going to a restaurant and seeing the recipe. You may not be a cook, but seeing the purity of the ingredients, the careful stewardship of the process, and a Farmer’s Almanac-like attention to the results brings you in touch with the process and adds weight to your thoughts on the characteristics of the wine.

The Ploussard grape is the lightest of the red grapes grown in Arbois, behind Trousseau and Pinot Noir. As far as I can tell, Ploussard is uniquely local and not grown anywhere else. It is often typified as an inexpensive Pinot Noir replacement, or a blending red, but this is most definately not my experience with Ploussard as represented in this bottle from the Clairets.

The ’04 Ploussard de Monteiller wine is pale, almost Salmon in color, and light to medium bodied. But it is remarkably floral. Out of this slightly colored wine, come a deep bouquet and rich flavors.

This is a spring and summer wine and for me, a perfect choice over Rose. It’s elegant, sippable and a natural match for late spring and summer afternoons hanging out and picking at a plate of fruit and cheese. I’m puzzled actually that I like this bottle. It’s so light and fresh and easy.. but it has a lot of character with bright acidity and real body around the alcohol.

At $28 a bottle this seems just right.

Available from Chambers Street Wines and a growing number of online wine sites.

My thanks to Sophie Barrett, the Jura wine-buyer at Chambers Street Wines for saying ‘Try this’ to the wines from the Jura.

Olivier Riviere the winemaker, is young, mostly unknown and new to the wine world. Watch out! This winemaker is a star in the making.

Olivier is from the Cognac region of France, studied enology in Montagne St-Emillion, and is devoted to biodynamic vineyard techniques and natural winemaking with a focus on unsulfured wines.

This bottle is named Gabacho, the derogatory Spanish term for border jumper, namely French folks coming to Spain, namely Olivier himself.

If you have any preconceptions of wine from Rioja and Tempranillo, it is time to throw them away. Gabacho is a blend of 50% Tempranillo, 35% Garnacha, and 15% Graciano and is well…distinctly its own bottle in every way. And a great one at that.

Olivier focuses on terroir, old vines (the Tempranillo vines are 75 years old) and altitude. He believes that the cool night air purifies the acidity in the grapes and lets the taste be both rich and structured. Sounds like a handshake between Spanish and French wine cultures to me.

It’s a great bottle at $22. It’s a great bottle period.

Fruit forward and balanced. A medly of grape tastes and a really exciting blend of rich and subtle, wow and restrained, forward and structure. Bottled talent and taste here.

It is really difficult to find this bottle. But bookmark his name and keep an open eye. If there were wine futures for Olivier, I’d buy today.

My thanks to my wine guide and mentor, Christopher Barnes @ Chambers Street Wines for sending me home with this great bottle.