Might I be doing anything about organic wine for Organic September, a reader asked the other day. Hmmm, well, possibly, but to be honest, I’m not totally convinced. Too many wines labelled organic taste no different from conventional wines, which shouldn’t really come as a surprise, because the certification relates only to what goes on in the vineyard. It doesn’t stop winemakers using identikit commercial yeasts or adding significant amounts of sulphur, tartaric acid, enzymes, tannin or any of the other bags of tricks available to them. No wonder many producers don’t feel it’s an advantage to register as organic.
Still, I do realise there’s a demand for organic wines (I don’t want to pour unnecessary chemicals down my throat, either), so where do you go to find them, especially when even specialists such as Vintage Roots don’t always have the interesting wines you might expect? I really want to like Wild Thing Sauvignon Blanc (£7.85; 12% abv), from La Mancha, for example, not least because a donation from the sale price goes to the Born Free Foundation to aid conservation, but it’s just a bit, well, dull. The subtle, soave-ish Lugana Catulliano 2014 (12% abv) at £11.50 is much more appealing; or, for those keen to avoid added sulphur, try Jean Claude Mas’s Cuvée Secrète (£9.75; 14% abv), a lush, full-bodied blend of merlot and cabernet franc from the Languedoc.
Better hunting grounds are independent shops and wine bars that specialise in smaller producers, where I often find the wines I most enjoy just happen to be organic or biodynamic. The other day I came across The Wine Tasting Shop in Balham, south-west London, which offers 20 wines by the glass at any one time. On my visit, these included a pair of delicious Italian whites, both of which are available online from buonvino.co.uk: the crisp Ciu Ciu Pecorino 2013 (£12; 13.5% abv), from the Marche, and the characterful Verdicchio Conscio Accadia 2014 (£13.50; 12.5% abv) – they’re the sort of food-friendly whites Italians do so effortlessly well.
Likewise, in Buchanans, a gem of a cheese shop in Bayswater, west London (the posh part, near where Tony Blair lives), I found a fabulously juicy, organic Rhône red called Ferme Théolas (13% abv) from Mas Théo, a producer in the immensely hard-to-remember Grignan-Les-Adhémar appellation that used to be called the much simpler Côteaux du Tricastin. It’s on sale to drink in the shop at £14, but you can buy the 2012 vintage from The Sampler for £8.01. It’s spot on with good brie.
- This autumn, Fiona Beckett is running a series of monthly wine classes in London with Honey & Co – go to matchingfoodandwine.com for details.
