They’re already pioneers in the practical use of renewable energy and organic growing. Couldn’t they become the model for sustainability that spreads to the cities?… nature to the grid. Producing healthy food and renewable solar, wind, and bio-energy that power the earth. These places could become some of the most spiritual, environmental, and profitable organizations in the world.

Biodynamic wine gets into the holistic approach to agriculture, which is a step beyond organic. It’s built on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner known as anthroposophy, which includes understanding “the ecological, the energetic, and the spiritual in nature.” Sometimes I feel insanely ideological about this type of stuff, especially bc I was into renewable energy before I ever even thought about wine, but for some reason I see the worlds merging together. There’s something real to this… something tangible that people can touch.

Image via Wikipedia

We know that the crises facing our world are calling for a transcendence in consciousness, but what does that mean? How do people touch that… how do they feel it? I believe wineries that incorporate these philosophies into their practice will create environments that inspire people. International winery tourism is already an astounding figure as is. What if they grew into biodynamic environments that help people feel enlightenment rather than just contemplate it as an intellectual idea. They taste the organic food that’s grown, they see the renewable energy that’s generated, they feel how they’re a part of a greater living system.

I’m still not feelin the word ‘wine’ tho… there’s just too much whining goin on in the world. I do like Elixir. Also, here’s something practical that a friend shared with me. It’s called Outstanding in the Field.

Read More: Our Sustainable Future

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Step in Sergio Esposito‘s Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine and Family in the Heart of Italy – which from the first page pulls one directly into the rental car of he and his brother Sal at the end of an epic 60 winery tour of Italy. Sergio, an Italian born New York wine retailer has embarked on a wine-buying tour of Italy with his brother who got him into the business in the fist place – and within the first pages of reading you are situated within a remarkable life, which I was utterly compelled by because suddenly the retailer I had been up against was given a face. I completely sympathise with the opening sentiments of having a job that on the surface sounds glamorous but in reality can be very gritty – however one quickly learns that Esposito has been doing this for 3 months every year for nearly 2 decades. From my part I was around the East Coast, Mid West and West Coast pushing wine to restaurants retailers and country-clubs tasting wine from 8:30 in the morning to 1am sometimes 6 days a week – and within two years I have more stories than I care to remember. For Sergio and his brother they’re diligently working through 10 wineries a day tasting through varietals and enduring long-drives in hot weather – often what sounds glamorous, and would seem like the setting for a series of Sideways style misadventures through a foreign country ends up being a lot more like work than anyone else could ever imagine. One has to take their hat off to such dedication even though amidst the work it is interspersed with tales of seductive winemakers daughters, raucous Italian weddings and personalities you’re unlikely to forget.

Passion on the Vine is an insight into a life less ordinary from one of the world’s leading wine consultants who can be found on the pages of the Wall Street Journal to the Times to the Wine Spectator itself. Esposito brings the innate raconteur nature of Italian New Yorkers, combined with a mellifluous writing style into a memoir that goes to the heart of what it means to be an epicurean. He illustrates so perfectly how passion, love and romance can go a long way to carrying someone throughout life. Ultimately this is a romance between one man and an entire region which will make you fall in love with Italy; and paints the picture of a dying breed – wine-men who actually love wine, men who excel in their jobs for more than money and people who add value not only to their families but pay their dues to those who have helped them over the years. Esposito’s is a poignant picture of optimism and love in a marketplace that is primarily having the life squeezed out of it by soulless critters.

Esposito re-introduced me to a feeling I nearly lost, and in his words I remembered a part of myself. When one is up against Little Penguin – it’s difficult to find the actual stories and vines and passion in a fuzzy cartoon character. There is no doubt that much of Western Philosophy was built on the back of wine-fueled sentiments; and from the foundation of Western culture there is no doubt that Italians built New York and have made the culture (together with the Irish) what it is today. Esposito, in a tale filled with adventure, comedy and energy has staked his claim to not only being a philosopher, a wine lover and a great New Yorker – but being an advocate and an inspiration to future wine millenials, showing that there’s no real substitute for loving what you do.

Cheerz.

Special thanks to Dianna Tingg from Italian Wine Merchants who has reached out to so many of us on the wine blogosphere, and has shared this wonderful book with us. It is a priveledge to have been given the opportunity to review such a great book.

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First of all, labels mean absolutely nothing, so when you go to buy wine don’t even look at the front label ignore it, there is more useful information on the back like a good importer. In this era of opulence and visually stimulated purchasing, Louis Vutton and Cadillac, take a more refined and dare I say classier approach. I am reminded of the movie Tommy Boy with the late great Chris Farley. Tommy is selling Callahan Break Pads; one of his retailers says there isn’t a guarantee on Callahan’s box. Tommy says you can put a guarantee on shit and its still shit, same thing with wine – creative picture means the winery spent all the money on a design and not the juice. Like a guarantee vs. the actual product. There can and often will be a cute picture on the bottle but the juice, more times than not, is still absolute Swill (a colloquialism used to describe wine not worth drinking).

Best quality indicator – a good importer. While there still are names in wine worth buying anytime you see them there are also many wineries out there that have sold the names to bigger corporations to take advantage of consumer’s name recognition. Cakebread is a great example of a wine that once was a great wine for a good buy and now its just expensive and not much to talk about, one can find better for half the price. Importers on the other hand like Robert Shadderdon, Kermit Lynch, John David Hendrick and Neil Rosenthal, use discretion when picking wines to promote and have built up a strong reputation based on their names.

In closing, to all those wine creators, make sure your brand is innovative, but when it comes down to it, build a rep for finding kick ass juice… easy enough

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Part 1 – The Pinotage Buzz
by
Peter F May

Kanonkop Estate’s 2004 Pinotage is causing an online buzz. Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV opened a bottle in his vidcast (Episode 218) on South African wines. He was so impressed that he featured four bottles of it in the following episode to experience the differences that opening times and decanting made.

He first tasted the bottle he’d opened 24 hours earlier which he used in the previous vidcast. Then he compared two Kanonkop 2004′s that he had opened 5 hours previously; one had been decanted while the other had been left in the bottle. The fourth was opened on camera and tasted immediately.

Gary said “I like this wine, beautiful red cabbage profile, oil & vinegar & olives. Bananas are jumping, (I Iove bananas), structured like Bordeaux, terroir driven, this is essential class Pinotage. Comes from granite soil, you’re getting some of this. It’s really polished, but young, need another three years. Now getting dark liquorice flavour, gets olive & smoky on finish. I highly recommend it, I’m giving it 91 points. If you like extremely well polished and intriguing wines, seek this bottle out.”

The word ‘estate’ has a legal meaning in South Africa; it tells us this wine was made from grapes grown only in vineyards owned by and surrounding the winery. That it was made, matured and bottled in the winery.

Kanonkop is a well respected winery on the road to Paarl, just north of Stellenbosch. From the road its vineyards stretching back to a clump of trees in which is the winery. Behind and to the sides of the winery are low hills covered in vines. At the entrance is a cannon. For the name Kanonkop means Cannon Hill and refers to guns placed on hills in olden times that were fired when ships were seen along the coast to alert farmers to load up their wagons with produce to take to the harbour. Sailing ships travelling down around the southern tip of Africa would stop at the harbour to take on fresh meat, fruit, vegetables and water. And wine. The reason the Cape was settled in the mid 1600s was to provision ships and wine was first made there in 1659 because it was known that wine prevented scurvy among sailors.

Kanonkop Estate was established in 1910 and now is considered one of the ‘first growths’ of South Africa. It makes only red wines, and just four of them. A flagship Cabernet dominated Bordeaux blend named ‘Paul Sauer’ after the second owner, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, a 100% Pinotage and a second label named Kadette which is a varying blend of Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Up till 1973 Kanonkop, as with most other vineyards, sold its grape to co-operatives. Since first making its own wines 35 years ago there have been only four winemakers, owner Jannie Krige, Jan “Boland” Coetzee (now owner of Vriesenhof Winery), Beyers Truter (now owner of Beyerskloof) and since 2002 Abrie Beeslaw.

Peter F May is the founder of The Pinotage Club – www.pinotage.org – an international cyber-based fan club for wines made from the Pinotage variety. Peter was awarded Honorary Membership of the producers Pinotage Association in 2004 and was a judge at the annual Pinotage Top 10 Competition in 2004 and 2005. Peter is a wine writer, educator and author. His book ‘Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape – odd wines from around the world‘ was published in summer 2006.

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One of the reasons that human beings find that wine and food go so well together, is because human beings used to drink wine with their food out of necessity. Secondly, wine and travel also go hand in hand, as people used to carry gourds of wine on journeys. Now let us get to the ‘New World.’ Many of the colonies belonging to Spain, Holland, Belgium, Germany and Britain were strategic outposts or refuelling stations along the trade-routes. When one is on a ship for months, it is impossible to keep water fresh in barrels. Though the Caribbean pirates may have solved the problem with rum, the Spaniards and the Dutch drank wine and fortified wine (brandy and port) to keep their thirst quenched whilst at high-seas. So, if we think about our ancestors, a rather apt image would be galleons of tipsy sailors, blindly navigating uncharted territories in the name of discovery and conquest, whilst getting progressively more enthused and courageous as they drank from their gourds, hence the term ‘Dutch courage.’

Jan van Riebeeck (South Africa’s equivalent of Columbus, except from Holland) is known to have planted vines he had been keeping on the journey on the very day he first landed on South African shores. In fact, many of the Spanish and Dutch sailors, though they left their wives at home until the second voyage, were sure to pack seedlings of grape vines on the first. In those days men survived months without a woman, but could barely go a day without wine. One can see evidence of this in New World vineyards, in that many wine producing regions are close to sea-ports (New York, San Francisco, Cape Town), and only later in the region’s history, do vineyards go more inland.

In my mind’s eye I sometimes envision myself and other wine-guys as a intrepid explorers, unsung hero of agriculture, straight from the colonies of the Old Empire, setting foot on American soil to flaunt fabulous produce and bring a taste of the world to your doorstep.

Going back to my days as a wine promoter, it was of course at the first appointment of the day when I was forced to taste my first glass of wine (retailers get suspicious when you appear to not be drinking your own product.) And true, even though one does their best to spit, it is impossible for the alcohol to not permeate into the body through the blood-rich tissue beneath the tongue. As the days progresses, the feeling of my sailing forefathers enters my body, and I feel like an intrepid explorer on the wild avenues of Manhattan, conquering restaurants with this mystical juice that comes with many tales of a foreign land.

Even though wine is no longer necessary to our survival, as Levi-Strauss would confirm, it has gone from having mythical status to entering the everyday vernacular, and from here on, wine is a part of our lives and engrained within our consciousness!

Perhaps I allow myself to get carried away on romantic flights of fancy that wax lyrical of what some people may see as no more than an alcoholic beverage. However, I wouldn’t be the only one to be seduced by the juice’s fancy, after all, over the ages red wine has proved to be a catalyst for poetry, imagination, philosophy, politics, civilization, culture and love.

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