Organic wine match of the day: Kreydenweiss Gewurztraminer

2009 will be the year of the organic wine.  The world is turning greener, and during the past decade winegrowers have been moving towards responsible viticulture not just for reasons of health, environmental concerns and long term sustainability, but also because organically grown wines represent a purer taste of the grape and terroir.

Some of the world’s greatest, most coveted and correspondingly expensive wines – like those of France’s Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Napa Valley’s Rubicon Estate – are not just grown organically, but also according to biodynamic principles.  Biodynamics represent an even more intense approach to sustainable viticulture, incorporating specific homeopathic and spiritual guidelines. 

I’d estimate that about 5% of the wines now on the market, priced from $10 to $200-plus, are either certified organic or biodynamic, although this is not always indicated on the label.  For nearly twenty years, for instance, the immensely popular wines of Napa Valley’s Frog’s Leap have been grown organically, with nary a hint in the packaging.  Other wineries – like Frey, Paul Dolan, Bonterra and Ceàgo in California, and Maysara and Cooper Mountain in Oregon, among others – clearly indicate their sustainable, organic or biodynamic identities on the front or back labels.

Over the next few weeks the Denver Wine Examiner will feature an Organic Wine Match of the Day, beginning with the biodynamically grown, incredibly opulent, honeyed, viscous, full bodied 2007 Marc Kreydenweiss Kritt Gewürztraminer from Alsace, France (see YouTube below).

Few dry whites have the richness and body to match the aggressive, smoke and salt inundated taste of a bone-in ham shank coated with caramelized pineapple and mustard, and great Alsatian Gewürztraminers like that of Kreydenweiss have the goods.  A special match with for both the wine and ham is lush Auvergne style of potatoes called truffade; mashed in a skillet with bacon, chives, garlic and Gruyère.

Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss: Close to Home

WINE BASICS #1:  What makes wine wine? 

If left to its own devices, any batch of crushed grapes will turn itself into a beverage of somewhere between 7% to 15% alcohol, after which yeast cells either run out of sugar to convert (i.e. a “dry” wine) or else simply die off from inability to live at higher alcohol levels.  Where man, and artistry, enters the picture is in the selection of grape type, where and how the vine is cultivated, and what is done once the grapes are picked, fermented and aged (if at all) before being bottled and sold. 

We know, for instance, that grapes originating from the European family of grapes called Vitis vinifera make finer tasting wines than those made from one of the American families, such as Vitis labrusca.  Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon are examples of vinifera that are common in the lexicon of today’s wine lovers.