The Wine

The white is a blend of 60 percent Sauvignon Blanc, 20 percent Semillon, and 20 percent Muscadelle. It's a white you could drink alone, as a cocktail or with dinner. I served a guest, who is not a big white drinker, this wine with roasted pork chops and roasted herbed potatoes and he loved it!

This is easy drinking wine with enough complexity to satisfy any wine drinker. The Semillon and Muscadelle give the wine a super soft palate feel. The alcohol content is a low 12 percent. At $16, you won't find a white that drinks any easier with this much palate pleasing presence.

Casina Di Cornia 2005 Chianti Classico Reserva - This winery was my very first stop during my recent trip to the Millesime Bio in Montpellier, France. I met Julien Luginbuhl who just returned to his family wine-making business within the last year.

I love Chianti but find the quality so uneven with dollops of Merlot and uneven acid in many of the wines you find on U.S. shelves. The Cornia Classico Reserva was big bold dark cherry with balanced acid and a satisfying finish that didn't over power the fruit.

I love the fact the family uses Sangiovese and the old Italian varietal Canaiolo for the wine - NO Merlot. Being a Classico and a Reserva moves the price up a bit to the mid-$20 range, but it's worth the price. Casina Di Cornia has been producing its wines with organically grown grapes for more than a decade.

I would challenge any wine drinker to taste either of these wines, both highly recommended, and not appreciate the fact that no pesticides, no herbicides or other chemicals - and only minimum sulfur - go into the production process.

The fair takes place every year in January in the heart of the South of France, a wine region of France where wine production is currently booming and market interest is ever growing. It offers a huge range of wines made from organically grown grapes from more than 580 wineries from Argentina, Austria, Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Germany, Italiy, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, USA... all the well-known names in the organic wine world are at Millésime Bio! This year over 800 wines (600 exhibitors) will be showcased from 10 different countries across the world.

In 1993, the first official congregation of the Millesime Bio took place. It was and continues to be organized and planned by the Languedoc-Roussillon Inter-professional Association of Organic Wines, (more commonly recognized and known as AIVB-LR). Their original goal was to promote their products - wines made from organically grown grapes - and to feature new vintages for their buyers. The event has grown exponentially, but the friendly and democratic spirit remains.

This yearly convention is not only a competition that pits organically grown wines against one another to see which wine takes home the much coveted gold medal but is an excellent networking platform for businesses in the wine industry. In the last twelve years, the annual visitor count has multiplied tenfold. The end count for the visitors and exhibitors at the 1998 Millesime Bio was approximately equal, a mere 125. This year the 2012 Millesime Bio has 560 registered exhibitors and over 1,300 expected visitors, a clear rise since 1998 and up over 15% just since 2010.

Specifically, the Millesime Bio brings an annual, unique venue for international exhibition of organically grown wines. It offers some of the most up-to-date political, legal and business-oriented seminars discussing organic wine laws and trade, a strict professional atmosphere by reservation, an inexpensive method for networking and learning inside the organic wine industry, conferences on the organic wine market as well as its analysis, prominent keynote speakers from the front lines of the organic mission and a friendly atmosphere where this can all take place.

The attendee composition at the 2012 Millesime Bio this year will be (in descending order of composition): Wine retailers, Wine Importers, Wine Merchants, Wine HORECA*, Wine Exporters, Wine Wholesalers, Internet (online stores, affiliates, journalists, bloggers, press and wine trade, etc. online), Wine Brokers, General Retailers, Organic Retailers, Supermarket and Grocery. Of these constituents, Wine Retailers and Wine Importers represent over 50% of all of these categories while Organic Retailers and Supermarkets and Grocery comprise less than 5%.

^{*HORECA is an industry term for establishments in the food service sector that prepare and serve a product, in this case: wine. The term “HORECA” comes from the abbreviation by first syllable of the words “Hotel, Restaurants (and) Cafes”.}

When you go pick up a bottle of organic wine to accompany your organic meal, part of your problem may be in not knowing exactly what an organic wine is. With all these terms getting thrown around like ecofriendly, "NSA", sustainable, green, natural, truly organic, etc., who could blame you? Having founded The Organic Wine Company in 1980, I am certainly one of the elders of the organic wine movement. I have been actively involved in the developments of organic wine standards and even I am frustrated and confused, so I can imagine that you are just about ready to throw in the towel and walk away from the whole idea. So, let me offer some pointers for you based on thirty years of observation and experience in this industry.

What is really critical for all of us in choosing an organic wine is to make sure that they’re made with 100% certified organically grown grapes. That’s the key. Inspect the label and be sure that an agency has certified the vineyard’s organic practices. Do not be content with vague terms. (Terms like sustainable, natural, and green can be misleading.) When it comes to your health, the workers, and our planet’s longevity 100% certified organic grapes should be your number one criterion. The rest, in my opinion, is well-meant misinformation, poor science or straight up propaganda for commercial purposes.

If you wish to buy wines that promote the health of our planet and every creature on it (including yourself,) then the clear choice is a wine made from third-party certified 100% organically grown grapes. The rule of thumb is that if it doesn’t say it on the label, don’t buy it. Organic wine, like organic carrot or orange juice, is made from grapes grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. The two types of wines typically bundled in this category are “Wines Made With 100% Organic Grapes” and “No Sulfite Added Wines.” Wines made with 100% organic grapes are made with just that and an additional preservative (elemental sulfur dioxide,) so the wine has structure enough to last the journey to your table. No Sulfite Added wines (or NSA wines) are produced without this naturally occurring preservative and are made by only a handful of winemakers in the United States.

We want to bring to your family table highly drinkable, affordable wines, with structure, character and personality. Wines that are reflective of their terroir (a deep and mostly untranslatable word describing the soil and land in which the grapes are grown.) Wines that are pleasurable to your palate and that promote the health of your body, the workers and our planet. I am extremely proud to say that our portfolio represents the work of many passionate, deserving wine makers from around the world and include vegan and biodynamic wines.

Sincerely,      
      
Veronique Raskin                        

Cutting to the chase, you may or may not realize this, but we, the certified organic wine makers of old, are currently caught between the "N.S.A." (No Sulfite Added) winemakers and the "sustainable" winemakers, which sit all the way on the other side of that pendulum, obeying no third party verified standards that I'm aware of. To simplify, on one hand we have the nothing-goes crowd and on the other we have the anything-goes crowd. It's sort of like being caught between the Baptist Church and the Flower Children- you know what I mean, no insult meant to either of these groups.

I like to think of myself and my company as someone who tries to follow the Golden Rule, I do my homework and I weigh my decisions carefully for collateral benefits and damages.The golden path is precisely where the wines that we have chosen to import since 1980 and the movement that we have pioneered lies: right in the middle on that Golden Path. This is not a matter of political or financial convenience, but a matter of deliberate conscious choice. Currently however, our style of organic wines manages the extraordinary feat to be at once "not pure" enough (by NSA standards) to deserve to be called organic and get the USDA Seal of approval and "too pure" by sustainable standards. This is a pretty remarkable accomplishment.

To add or not to add sulfites into a wine that's then called "organic" is indeed the question. Commercial and noncommercial entities have taken positions on this (non) issue, largely based on misinformation not facts. Based on the results, it is hard to feel respect for these entities. Indeed, after five decades of dedicated organic farming and of obeying the rules, we, makers of wine made with third party certified organic grapes, we are being squeezed out of the game. On very arguable grounds our wines are only allowed the lesser label " made with organic grapes." We the elders, are being treated like useless, aging parents. We are the have-beens of the movement while never really having "been" in the first place! It is quite a tour de force, as we say in French, I didn't realize that something or someone could be at once ignored, opposed and diluted... I thought that this happened sequentially to trailblazers.... But no, I found out that this can also happen simultaneously, it sure has with us.

I find this situation offensive, harmful to everyone and disrespectful to the pillars of organic viticulture, the mensches on whose shoulders we now all stand, incredibly courageous people who, as far back as 1965, decided to convert their small 20 acre family property to organic farming practices. Keep in mind that at that time, going organic wasn't sexy, cool or lucrative. To the contrary, it was very risky: financially, socially and otherwise. These guys are real pioneers, the unsung heroes of our industry and they are currently being disregarded and disrespected by the labeling practices and by the new crowd which includes the Holier-Than-Thous, corporate hypocrites, well meaning but misinformed bureaucrats and nuevo-greens.... that evident disrespect is annoying and plain wrong. Honor Thy Parents, It says, and there are many good reasons for that. One of them being that it's hard to honor yourself, if you do not honor where you come from.

Rather than merely expecting divine justice, I decided to take matters into my own hands and went searching for writers who would be interested in exploring the truth behind the hype, the sulfite hysteria and all manners of myth alive and well in our industry. "The Truth shall make us free."

Miraculously, we were able to arrange for one serious old-school reporter to attend the leading show when it comes to organic wines, the Millesime Bio 2012. (For more information on the Millesime Bio 2012, which we have been attending personally for years, please read the article below by Spencer.) Wine journalist Howard Hewitt, based in the Midwest, will be there next week sending pictures and reporting live via social media.

Thank you so much for your support. I have spent a lot of time on the phone with you all over the past few weeks . Your comments and encouragement touch my heart and give me strength.

Keep telling your friends that we exist!

Merci and à bientôt,
Veronique Raskin

Not only does this new VIP Wine Club offer 100% free shipping to your door, it also provides additional tasting notes, regular personal phone calls and individualized customer care. We begin by crafting a tasting profile that meets your needs and allows us to identify exactly what you like and from there we have a good idea what wines to select for your dinner table.

You will receive two bottles of six different types of wine monthly-- no charge for membership or beyond the cost of wine. This club will allow you always to have elegant, organically grown wines on hand along with the information to learn about or share with friends to accomodate them. With two bottles of each wine you can cellar your favorites or have extra to share with friends!