Organic grapes make for a flavorful, inexpensive wine
Wineries are making the extra effort to certify their value-priced wine grapes as organic.
The modern agricultural norm involves boosting productivity with fertilizers and fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides, all of which are routine for the wine trade’s grape growing. But vintners have long known that reducing or eliminating the use of such chemicals in the vineyard increases wine quality. While the mechanisms are not fully understood, evidence suggests that maintaining the web of life that surrounds the vine — both above and below ground — plays a key role in developing desirable traits in wine, like complexity of flavor, resistance to oxidation, and a long, lingering finish.
Not all premium wines are made from certified organic grapes, but the finer the wine, the more likely it is to have been grown as naturally as possible since this approach makes significantly better wine. Sadly, the reverse is also true, in that shopping for wines by price tag alone will typically favor brands that farm more conventionally and less sustainably. Thankfully, a growing number of wineries are choosing to take on the extra effort and expense to certify their grapes as organic even for value-priced wines. Most of the affordable options are imports due to lower land and labor costs in other countries.
This trend is slowly coming to American vineyards, too, though, as with this bright, clean chardonnay from California. Roughly half is sourced from cool-climate vineyards in Mendocino County, the state’s leader in organic viticulture. It is made in a style that combines two parts barrel-fermented wine with one part fermented in stainless steel tanks as a means to strike a balance between rich, creamy texture and crisp, freshness of fruit. The result is a lovely flavorful wine that tastes of golden apples, poached pears, and orange blossoms.
Bonterra Chardonnay California
$10.99; 13.7% alcohol
PLCB Item #7395
Sale price through June 27 — regularly $14.99
Also available at:
Total Wine & More in Cherry Hill — $11.97
Hopewell Super Buy-Rite in Pennington, N.J. — $11.99
Total Wine & More in Wilmington — $13.99