Brangelina Bringing Organic Wine to a Glass Near YouFebruary 20th, 2013 - Jill Ettinger
Hollywood A-listers and dynamic do-it-all husband and wife team, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, have given fans another reason to love them—the duo has released their first organic wine from their 1000-acre wine estate in Provence, France. Read More:Brangelina Bringing Organic Wine to a Glass Near YouSo…How About A Beer? Napa Valley is Running Out of Wine GrapesDecember 19th, 2012 - Jill Ettinger
Napa Valley, California, the nation’s premier wine-producing area and one of the top wine regions in the world, is running out of grapevines, according to the Huffington Post. Read More:So…How About A Beer? Napa Valley is Running Out of Wine GrapesTurn Organic Wine into an Elegant SauceSeptember 6th, 2010 - Barbara Feiner
Drinking organic wine: a pleasurable way to help protect your heart. Cooking with organic wine: a quick way to add sophistication to any dish. One of the easiest, but underutilized, ways to glaze meat, fish and seafood, salads and veggies, and desserts is to make a wine reduction sauce. As the name implies, you’re simmering wine over a low heat until it reduces by half and becomes syrupy: Read More:Turn Organic Wine into an Elegant SauceDo Certified Organic Wines Contain Sulfites?December 14th, 2009 - Laura Klein
The National Organic Program (NOP), has set the same standards for wine as it has for food. USDA certification is strict. It guarantees that grapes are grown without synthetic pesticides or chemicals; and the wine is processed without added sulfites or sulfur dioxide. Bottom line, you can’t add preservatives to certified organic food products or wines. And sulfites are considered by the USDA a preservative. Certified organic wines, can have naturally occurring sulfites (all wines contain naturally occurring sulfites as a byproduct of the fermentation process), but the total sulfite level must be less than 20 parts per million. So for the for those who are super-sensitive to sulfites (asthma sufferers, for example), certified organic wines are the way to go. If sulfites are added to the wine and the total count of sulfites in the wine is taken above 10 parts per million, it must make the statement, “Contains Sulfites.” There are four wineries in California that take the additional step of processing their wine without added sulfites and are certified organic. They are Frey Vineyards, Coates Vineyards in Orleans, La Rocca Vineyards in Forest Ranch, and Organic Wine Works. If you want to buy organic wines that don’t contain added sulfites, my top tip is to read the label. The ingredients and process used to make the wine will determine the label it carries. Check out our articles and videos on organic wines: Red Organic Wine Tasting – Episode 19 Wine and Cheese Tasting – Episode 23 Organic Vines for Better Wines Interviews with Two Italian Organic Winemakers A Very Napa HolidayDecember 10th, 2009 - Barbara Feiner
Christmas in Napa Valley, Calif., is a wine-centric time. The new vintage has already been crushed and pressed, and bottles are making their way to holiday tables everywhere. “This is my favorite time of the year in Napa,” says Colin Crowley, executive chef at Terlato Wines International. “The pace has slowed down, and everyone turns their attention to celebrating the bounty of the season in a very relaxed, yet elegant, way.” December dining in Napa “is about classic recipes with contemporary updates that give the food an exciting, enticing vibrancy,” he says. Here is Chef Crowley’s recipe for a five-star entrée that pairs beautifully with a chardonnay. All of the ingredients should be available at your local natural and organic food store. Halibut with Tomatoes, Capers and OlivesFor the Fish
For the Tomatoes
Recipe and photo courtesy of Terlato Wines International Read More:A Very Napa HolidayBoxed Wine Helps New York Restaurant Go GreenOctober 12th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
Boxed wine is usually reserved for NASCAR rallies and hanging out behind Wal-Mart, but since Manhattan restaurant Sojourn switched to wine stored in a bag, packaged in a box, and served out of a barrel, they’ve saved a bundle on shipping costs and cut down the amount of bottles and packaging they go through. The bag-box-barrel wine has saved Sojourn $30 to $40 per case of wine and the savings are passed on to their customers. At Sojourn a glass of Pinot costs $9 to $11, it can go for $16 at other restaurants. Cheap and green, very cool. And just look, Sojourn is no Arby’s, switching to boxed wine has done little to tarnish their chic reputation. I want some wine out of a barrel stat! Via Green Inc. Organic Wine – Crush and Fermentation – DIY wine making.August 17th, 2009 - John Klein
We measured the grapes and found they had a sugar level of 24 to 25 which would give them a potential alcohol of 12.5% which is right where we want it, these organic grapes were picked at just the right time by Charlie Barra of Barra of Mendocino to have this perfect sugar level. We also measured the acidity which came out to .76 and the pH 3.3 to 3.4 as well as the relative gravity which was 1.092 to 1.096 which were all desirable measurements. That night I started the yeast in 50% juice and 50% water and added the yeast to the grapes ever waiting patiently in the trash cans the next morning. This process of fermenting the grape juice with crashed wine berries is known as maceration, during this process the red wine acquirers its structure and color. As a general rule of thumb, the longer the juice and grape solids are in contact, the more tannin and color that will be extracted, and the more full-bodied and colored a red wine will be. Maceration can take from 3 to 21 days but there is a lot to get into for the ease of this wine we macerated the wine till the yeast fermented all or most of the sugar which for this wine was 9 days. While the wine is fermenting in the trash cans the yeast will raise the solid grape parts to the top, thus you need to punch down the solid grape parts, you can easily do this with an oversize spoon or paddle all you’re doing is just pushing the solid grape mass down into the grape juice. I love punching down the grapes for it releases amazing aromatic smells of a winery, you truly know you’re making wine at this point. The fermentation process will vary based on the temperature that the grapes are at. I measured the grapes specific gravity percentage of alcohol and temperature on a daily basis to know when we would be ready to press the grapes. For this organic zinfandel it took nine days till it was ready to be pressed. If you want to read the first part of the series : Organic Wine – A Tasting – DIY wine making.You may also be interested in these other articles about wine: Interviews with Two Italian Organic Winemakers Healthy Alcohol Consumption May Reduce Heart Attack RiskOctober 24th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
Yesterday’s Archives of Internal Medicine reported that men with healthy lifestyles who drink moderate amounts of alcohol may have a lower risk of heart attack, compared with those who drink heavily or not at all. Previous studies have confirmed this finding. Researchers suspect these individuals have increased levels of HDL (“good” cholesterol”) in their blood. But because there are many risks associated with heavy drinking, physicians do not typically recommend that patients begin consuming alcohol to reduce their heart disease risk. Instead, they focus on other proven lifestyle interventions, including diet and exercise. These habits, however, are not mutually exclusive, according to Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal and his colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “For individuals who exercise, abstain from smoking, maintain optimal weight and adhere to an appropriate diet, there may be few other standard lifestyle interventions to lower risk,” they write. “Whether alcohol intake is related to a lower risk for myocardial infarction [heart attack] in such individuals is unknown.” The 8,867 men in Dr. Mukamal’s study had healthy lifestyles, defined as not smoking, having a body mass index (BMI) of less than 25, getting at least 30 minutes of exercise per day and eating a healthful diet, including large amounts of fruits, vegetables, fish and polyunsaturated fats, with low amounts of trans-fats and red meat. Between 1986 and 2002, 106 of the men studied had heart attacks. This included eight of the 1,282 who drank 15 to 29.9 grams of alcohol per day (about two drinks). This group had the lowest risk for heart attack; those who did not drink at all had the highest. “There is a complicated mix of risks and benefits attributed to moderate drinking in observational studies, and the individual and societal complications of heavy drinking are well known,” the authors conclude. “It is easy to understand why clinical guidelines encourage physicians and patients to concentrate on seemingly more innocuous interventions, despite the relative paucity of effective, straightforward and generalizable methods for encouraging regular physical activity, weight reduction and abstinence from smoking in clinical practice. Our results suggest that moderate drinking could be viewed as a complement, rather than an alternative, to these other lifestyle interventions, a viewpoint espoused by some authors.” Organic Vines for Better Wines A Great Reason to Buy Organic WineJuly 27th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
Light to moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages may protect your heart and extend your life, according to the latest research from the Institute on Aging at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Older adults who consume one to seven alcoholic beverages a week may live longer and have a reduced risk for cardiac events than those who do not drink, according to Dr. Cinzia Maraldi and her colleagues, whose study was published in the July 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. First, the caveat: Alcohol may worsen some chronic diseases, and the overall effect of drinking on survival is not clear. But several studies have shown that alcohol may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and heart failure and contribute to a lower death rate. Light to moderate alcohol intake has been shown to reduce levels of C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, two compounds that circulate in the blood due to inflammation. Researchers have therefore suspected that the mechanism linking alcohol to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease may be related to inflammation. The researchers studied almost 2,500 older adults without heart disease, grouping them by the number of alcoholic beverages they consumed in a typical week over the last year. Those who drank lightly to moderately (one to seven drinks a week) had a 26% lower risk of death overall and an almost 30% lower risk of cardiac incidents than those who never or seldom drank alcoholic beverages. In contrast, heavy drinkers (more than seven drinks per week) were more likely to die or experience a cardiac event than those who never or seldom drank alcoholic beverages. Alcohol’s anti-inflammatory properties alone do not explain the reduced risk of death or cardiovascular disease associated with light to moderate drinking, the authors note. Alcohol may have cellular or molecular effects that reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, or it may interact with genetic factors to produce a protective effect. In addition, the health effects of alcohol may not be the same for everyone, the authors caution. “The net benefit of light to moderate alcohol consumption may vary as a function of sex, race and background cardiovascular risk,” they conclude. “From this point of view, recommendations on alcohol consumption should be based, as any medical advice, on a careful evaluation of an individual’s risks and benefits, in the context of adequate treatment and control of established cardiovascular risk factors.” Read More:A Great Reason to Buy Organic WineOrganic Wine Pairings: American ClassicsMay 24th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
Burgers Deli Sandwiches Photo courtesy of the Wine Market Council Read More:Organic Wine Pairings: American Classics |
As you start developing a trained green, consumer eye and become a savvy label reader, you’ll notice in the wine world there are quite a few wines that are “made with organic grapes,” and few carry the USDA’s certified organic seal. Certified organic wines are a rare find on store shelves. So what’s the difference between these two wine labels? I get this question all the time and here’s your answer.
Having acquired 500 pounds of organic grapes we were now ready to crush and de-stem the grapes. Fortunately we had access to a crusher-stemmer which makes this process easy. Once the grapes had been crushed and de-stemmed we divided them equally between three clean trash cans. Here they will go through maceration and fermentation.
One of the top medical stories dominating press coverage this week focuses on men who drink moderately and their lower risk of heart attacks. It’s a topic 
Enjoy an evening cocktail or glass of organic wine with dinner?
Over the last two days, we’ve looked at wine pairings for organic 
