A World of Organic Wine

PREVIOUS TASTING ARCHIVE – OCTOBER 2023

Remember back in the 1990s when the choice of organic wine was confined to a few, often miserable bottles in the tiny organic section of your local supermarket?

Back then organic was far from mainstream. The narrow selection of products – incuding wine – was based not so much on quality, but on what the supermarkets could source to cater for a small number of ‘fringe’ customers.

All of that has changed so much in the past couple of decades. The world has woken up to the fact that routine spraying of synthetic insecticides and weedkillers was not good for us, or the planet.

Organic has gone mainstream with so much everyday produce now made following organic practices. Wine was an early adopter. Producers were aware that farming and winemaking needed to change. The switch to organic farming and production methods has been rapid and far reaching, including for many of the world’s top wine estates.

The Wines

A few enlightened retailers were there from the start however. Our supplier followed the organic trail way back in 1986. Not content to retail what was available in the UK, they drove their van across France in search of genuine quality. Today their list of organic and biodynamic wines spans the globe. That allows me to present this ‘World of Organic Wine’.

For our white wines, first stop on the tour is Chile, for a beautiful example of Gewurztraminer made in a rich but dry style. From there we travel across to Europe. From Spain, a wild ferment organic Verdejo from old vines, and from France, an award-winning Chardonnay, the ‘Cuvée Secrète’, which is also made with zero added sulphur.

Our reds trot the globe too, beginning in South Africa where Stellar Organics has made only organic certified wines since the start. In this case, another with no added sulphur. To Argentina and a Reserve Malbec of real quality from a French-owned estate in Mendoza. Finally, we land back in Europe, with a Montepulciano from Abruzzo in Italy. All six wines are certified organic.

How does it work?

Our supplier has reduced the price of this selection of six wines from £75.40 to just £69 for our tasting.  Please see below for delivery information and restrictions.

The tasting is split over two consecutive Thursday evenings. We’ll open three bottles per night, but they’ll drink well through the weekend  so nothing will be wasted. And remember: if you cannot join us live for any session, our ‘catch-up’ service allows you to taste along to the recordings at your leisure.

• Tasting tickets and wines are purchased separately
• The ticket price is per household, not per person
• The ticket covers both sessions
• After you purchase your ticket, you’ll see a link to buy the wines
• We’ll make a recording of each session in case you miss one
• You may attend without buying the wines.