Natural Wines in the 21st Century
Columnist Matt Kramer espouses the virtues of "real" wine in an often artificial world
By Dana Nigro
Once again championing what he calls "wines of conviction," Wine Spectator columnist and regular Wine Experience speaker Matt Kramer turned his attention this year to convincing his audience-through both humor and a selection of stunning bottlings-that wines made from biodynamically or ultra-organically farmed vineyards are worth their attention.
The biodynamic movement originated in the early 1900s with Rudolf Steiner, who promoted a return to ancient forms of agriculture and ways of looking at the land. His approach encompasses everything from the belief that the moon has power over life forms to the use of "homeopathic" vineyard treatments involving various composts.
"I will be the first to confess I raise my eyebrows at some of this," said Kramer, referring to stories the audience has heard about burying cow horns filled with manure in the vineyard during the full moon. "You must make this treatment and stir clockwise or counterclockwise 500 times ... and do the hokey-pokey."
But he asked the audience to set aside its skepticism about biodynamics and similar agricultural approaches and ask: Why is this important to us today?
"We now are at a fork in the road. Very simply, we have and use, as winegrowers around the world and certainly in the United States, the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct wine," he said, speaking of tools such as reverse osmosis for filtering, spinning cones to remove alcohol and vacuum concentrators to take out water.
Biodynamic and organically grown wines, in contrast, are important because they "tell us what is real. If we lose sight of what is real in wine, if we wind up with wines that are deconstructed and reconstructed, we find ourselves untethered. There is no gravitational pull anymore. We and the wines we drink become grotesque," he said, comparing manipulated wines to a great beauty who had so much plastic surgery done as she aged that she was "now painful to look at."
Whether the non-scientific aspects of natural winegrowing work is not really important, Kramer said, calling them an "agricultural form of keeping kosher." There is so much risk and rigor involved in the vineyard work that growers need rituals to provide psychological and emotional sustenance. "These winemakers are basically saying they are prepared to be vulnerable, they are prepared to be susceptible to the rhythms of the earth."
The first "real" wine Kramer chose to show off the benefits of biodynamic farming was the Marcel Deiss Alsace Grand Cru Schoenenbourg 2001 (90 points on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale, $105 per bottle), an off-dry blend of Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer and Muscat. Jean-Michel Deiss, the current winemaker, became convinced in the late 1990s that biodynamic farming was the way to get the full expression of each site's terroir.
The Schoenenbourg showed a great density to its citrus peel, peach and mineral flavors, which Kramer attributed to the very low yields. "Can you taste the biodynamics? Of course not," he said. "But you can taste courage, you can taste low yields, you can taste a tenderness in the winemaking itself."
Extremely low yields are common to biodynamic vineyards, Kramer explained, as it is essential that the vines have the strength to resist mildew, fungus and other pests without the assistance of chemical treatments. But low yields come at a cost, he said, noting the wine's price tag.
The second wine, from California's Sierra Foothills, has more than farming techniques in its background to inspire eye-rolling. The Renaissance Cabernet Sauvignon North Yuba Vin de Terroir 1997 (not rated, $41) was created by a religious/philosophic group founded in the 1960s. The group's estate, designed to express its aesthetic views, encompasses a vineyard terraced into granitic soils at elevations of 1,800 feet to 2,200 feet. "They believe in allowing the voice of the land to express itself in the wine with as little intervention as possible," Kramer said, adding with a laugh, "I've never seen weeds like that!"
A far cry from the typical modern California Cabernet, the 100 percent varietal has a stony, minerally, austere quality that Kramer said reminded him of great red Bordeaux from the 1950s. Acknowledging its extremely tannic character, Kramer said the Renaissance needs to be drunk with lamb or steak and requires another 10 years to become more approachable. But he championed it as an expression of purity, saying, "It is vulnerable to place, completely transparent in its winemaking."
The final wine was a rare treat for the audience, as it came from Burgundy's renowned Domaine Leroy, whose wines routinely sell for a few hundred dollars a bottle. Owner Lalou Bize-Leroy is one of the wine industry's most passionate proponents of biodynamic farming, and her Volnay-Santenots du Milieu 1999 (not rated) is enough to convince any skeptic of the merits of the practice. Once a mountain climber, Bize-Leroy is always reaching for greater heights (even saying, when she was co-director of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, that its wines could be better, according to Kramer). Leroy's yields hover around 1 ton per acre, and she is devoted to ensuring that there is diverse life in her vineyard soil.
A rich, massive wine, the Volnay-Santenots du Milieu showed a deep nose of cherries and stones and had an incredibly dense mid-palate that Kramer said portends long life. "This is what rigor gives us. This is what vulnerability gives us.
"This is what is real," Kramer concluded. "This was not Photoshopped. It was not silicone- or collagen-injected. ... Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, we need that absolutely."
