Beyond Organic Wine

Krista Scruggs - Zafa Wines, Regenerative History and Winemaking in Vermont

Krista Scruggs has a simple story. She followed her passion for winegrowing and winemaking to learn as much as she could.

But like the best stories it’s only simple on the surface. Beneath the surface, her life is connected to ancient lands and ancient seas that traveled and flowed around the world to become fertile islands of wild grapevines, and her life is connected to ancient people who were enslaved and taken around the world to build the history that she is now regenerating with counter-spells.

Krista has had the challenge and the opportunity of navigating the wine industry without many, if any, role models who share a similar story. When Krista acquired her property on Isle La Motte, Vermont, she became the 18^th Black farmer in the entire state of Vermont, and is one of the rare 1.4% of Black Americans who own land.

Because of this, she has been able to write a story that is unique, and uniquely beautiful, with new perspectives and deep connections. 

Enjoy!

https://zafawines.com/

Sponsor:

https://www.centralaswine.com/

Steve Matthiasson - How To Grow Wine Grapes Organically

It is my honor to have Steve Matthiasson as my guest for this episode… and what I have recorded for you is a comprehensive instructional on how to farm grapes organically. Steve uses his over 25 years of professional experience as a viticulturalist to take us through an entire year of farming a vineyard.

This episode is not so much an interview as a master class.

Steve Matthiasson is a 6 time James Beard Award Nominee for his winemaking. He has been named Winemaker of the Year twice, by two different publications.  Steve literally wrote the manual on sustainable winegrowing in California.

And Steve is a farmer first. He built a wine business in Napa as a punk rock farmer outsider who believes in farming organically to make wine as a fresh, expressive, and food friendly agricultural product. He makes Napa Cab that is 13% alcohol, and whole-cluster fermented Ribolla Gialla, and many other wines that stand in contrast to most of what you expect from Napa Valley wines. His accolades as a winemaker belie the fact that his wines simply capture the enormous amount of time and attention and care that he gives to the vineyards he farms. 

We go deep, and it gets technical. So if you aren’t that interested in the real, detailed, how-to of farming grapes, you may be a bit overwhelmed. But if you have any interest in learning the how’s, when’s, and what’s of winegrowing, this is an amazing and invaluable episode. Get out some paper. You will want to take notes.

And if you want to learn more about this amazing guy and his organic approach to wine, please check out the other great interviews with him on the podcasts “I’ll Drink To That” with Levi Dalton, or “The Grape Nation” – Steve Matthiasson’s knowledge about and passion for wine is as immense as his generosity of spirit, and your life will only be improved by knowing him and his wines better.

James Endicott - Vinocity Selections & How To Use Wine To Solve Climate Change

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Organic Wine Podcast featuring James Endicott of Vinocity Selections. I’m your host and creator, coming to you from Los Angeles, Adam Huss.

James created Vinocity Selections with his partners to leverage wine to tackle climate change by revolutionizing the supply chain. Vinocity Selections is a wine importing, distribution, and retail hub all in one. The Vinocity Selections website – vinocityselections.com – makes it clear that this company begins with agriculture, specifically viticulture that is “beyond organic.” It makes the bold claim that: “Agriculture is the climate solution. Wine is our first step.”  And James accomplishes this by curating and promoting a client list of wine producers who make wine from regeneratively farmed vineyards as a first step. The big problems he is trying to solve, and that are relevant to everyone in wine, is how to create a supply chain that protects and enhances the good work these producers are doing in the vineyard.

I think you’ll really enjoy this conversation because James cares so deeply about the problems he’s trying to solve, and we went deep into some of the big questions facing the wine industry.  

Also, I want to give a special thanks to Lisa Bauer of Yamakiri wines. She introduced me to James, and this episode wouldn’t have been possible without her generous spirit. You can hear my interview with Lisa on episode 24.

https://www.vinocityselections.com/

Sponsor:

https://centralaswine.com/

Nathan Stuart - Tablas Creek Wine Shepherd, How Using Animals Makes Better Wine

My guest for this episode is Nathan Stuart, and he’s got one of the rarest and coolest jobs in wine. He’s the in house shepherd for Tablas Creek Winery.

If you don’t know Tablas Creek, suffice it to say that if you had to pick the greatest wineries in the US, by almost any measure Tablas Creek would be in top 5 on that list. Tablas Creek introduced many of the Rhone varieties of grapes to the US, and were among the first to popularize them. They are the only winery to have imported and cultivated all of the grape varieties of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

And in addition to that, Tablas Creek has been biodynamic for years and recently became the first winery in the world to become Regenerative Organic Certified. They are like an incubator winery for holistic ideas about how farming can be improved to create healthier vines that are more integrated into the natural landscape so that the wine is as good as it possibly can be.

Nathan’s role as the shepherd is integral to this vision. More than that, he helps explain why animals are essential to not only regenerating vineyard soil health, but if properly managed they can be the key to saving the health of the planet.

Nathan takes us back in time to when the buffalo roamed in immense herds, to understand how plants, soil, and animals all evolved symbiotically together. He tells about how we’ve now begun to integrate these principles into the best farming practices today to reduce carbon emissions, improve soil health, and save money, and he gives us a vision of the future in which vineyards are actually built to accommodate and maximize the presence and influence of animals.

https://tablascreek.com/

Sponsor:

https://centralaswine.com/

Ann Thomas - Western Reserve Distillers, Organic Distillery

Ann Thomas is the cofounder of Wester Reserve Distillers, a craft distillery located just outside of Cleveland and Ohio’s only certified organic distillery. With her husband and son, Ann makes a full array of award winning spirits from all organic ingredients, including local organic non-GMO, heritage seed stock grains for their whiskies, gins, and vodka, organic Louisiana molasses for their rum, and organic agave for their tequila which they can’t call tequila because it isn’t made in Mexico.

No, this episode isn't about wine, but the reason I wanted to highlight what Ann and her family are doing with Western Reserve Distillers is because I think it’s extremely important to get across a simple idea about organic agriculture: I’ve found that People often don’t care whether their spirits are made with organic ingredients. I think that’s because we tend to think about everything as it relates to us personally. So we think about organic concerns from a standpoint of what we put into our body, rather than what organic means for the world. But the simple idea that I want to get across with this episode is this, and really it’s the mission for this podcast: Organic is not as much about what we put into our bodies as it is about what we put into the world. Your purchase of your favorite bourbon or vodka supports an entire agricultural system and supply chain that involves millions of acres of land and waterways. Take corn for example, which is used in bourbon and other whiskies. It  accounts for over 91 million acres of farmland in the US, most of which is grown conventionally with chemical herbicides and pesticides and fertilizers. Corn alone accounts for millions of tons of hazardous chemicals being dumped into our environment. If you are not buying organic spirits, you are helping to create and support that system.

So I wanted to introduce you to one of a handful of spirits companies that is giving you an option to defund the destruction of our environment, including a bourbon that beat Pappy Van Winkle as best bourbon in the world. Ultimately, of course, it will be healthier for you too because you’ll get to live in a cleaner world.

I know you’ll enjoy meeting Ann Thomas as much as I did, and I hope the great work she and her family are doing with Western Reserve Distillers makes you think twice the next time you reach for your favorite spirit.

https://www.westernreservedistillers.com/

Sponsor:

https://centralaswine.com/

Belen Arredondo & Lindsay Williams - South LA Wine Club & LAtina Garagiste

Wine and winemaking are having a renaissance in Los Angeles. And Lindsay Williams and Belen Arredondo are making sure that South Central is part of that renaissance.

Lindsay is a doctor of nursing, a frontline worker during the pandemic, and the founder of the South LA Wine club. Belen is a South LA garagiste, literally making a ton of wine in her garage, and joined Lindsay as a co-operator of the South LA Wine Club.  Together they are working to bring good wine, with equity and diversity of choice, to their community. I would bet lots of money that this is just the beginning of many big, bright, and beautiful wine projects that these two create and work on both independently and together.

For Lindsay and Belen wine is about connection, and the passion and compassion that they bring to helping others connect with each other through wine is inspiring. Their stories will convince you that there is a beautiful – and delicious – future for wine in our neighborhood, and yours.

https://www.southlawineclub.com/

@ThisLAtinaBelen

@southlawineclub

Sponsor:

https://centralaswine.com/

Lisa Bauer - Yamakiri Wines & Sineater Ciders, Never Let A Grape Go To Waste

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This is an important mantra and one that we’ve all heard and applied in some small or large way at home. But for my guest for this episode, this was more than a good idea – it was her career, and it led to her starting her winery.

Lisa Bauer is the owner of Yamakiri – a winery she started when she discovered a feral sauvignon blanc vineyard full of grapes that were going to waste.

That vineyard couldn’t have been discovered by a better person. Lisa had recently retired from a career in recycling and had a viticultultural philosophy inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka. After retiring she had bought land and moved to the Yorkville Highlands AVA of Mendocino County. Her desire to let nothing go to waste started her on a path to figure out what to do with those savignon blanc grapes… and led to a chain of events that resulted in her winery and her cidery called Sineater Ciders.

With Yamakiri and Sineater she continues to make use of that feral vineyard, which she allows to remain “wild,” as well as grapes and fruit from other organic and biodynamic vineyards and orchards.

I had a blast getting to know Lisa a little bit, and I hope you do too. She’s funny, smart, and inspiring, and really forged her own path in wine by following her organic values and her desire to let nothing go to waste.

http://www.yamakiriwines.com/

Sponsor:

https://centralaswine.com/

Craig Camp - Troon Vineyard in Applegate Valley Oregon, Biodynamic & Organic

Today we take a trip to the country to meet Craig Camp, the General Manager of Troon Vineyard in the Applegate Valley AVA of Southwest Oregon. Troon is a certified organic and biodynamic winery and estate vineyard that focuses on blends made from the grapes of Southern France, which seem to do extremely well in this northern area with a hot Mediterranean climate.

Craig was brought in to regenerate every aspect of Troon, and we had a very enjoyable conversation about everything that is happening there that he has helped implement. From soil testing and replanting and staff education to sheep dogs to organic vegetable gardens and more, even from the outside it’s exciting to hear about what he’s doing, and you can hear the excitement in the way he talks about it.

Craig has a personal story in regards to wine that I can relate to as well. He fell in love with wine far away from where it was grown, and over the course of his life and several career changes, he worked backwards toward an understanding of how the finest wine begins in a healthy, probiotic soil.

http://www.troonvineyard.com/

https://winecampblog.com/

Sponsor:

https://centralaswine.com/

Herrmann York Winery - Making Unique Wine in Southern California

This episode highlights one of the new winemaking teams that are part of the Southern California Wine Rennaissance.

Herrmann York is the brand new winery that is a partnership of three young gents: Dustin Herrmann, Garrett York, and Taylor York. They all originate and make wine from a part of California that is often both over-looked and unfairly maligned as a wine growing region: southern, specifically inland, California. The high desert.

They are using their intelligence, passion, and loyalty to their corner of the world to prove that delicate, interesting, and delicious wines can be made in the desert.

Hearing them talk about how they are doing this is a colorful journey through this climate and its extremes, the grapes that thrive there, and the creativity they are using to craft wines that actually haven’t been made before.

https://www.herrmannyork.wine/

@herrmannyorkwine

Matt Niess - North American Press, Native & Hybrid Grapes and Cider

Matt Niess discusses his winery slash cidery, North American Press, which is a California winery dedicated to native & hybrid grapes, heirloom apples, and native ingredients.

Matt forages wild grapes to blend with heirloom apples to make cider. He farms and makes wine from a small Baco Noir vineyard on the Sonoma Coast that is own-rooted in clay, below the fog line, and is not tilled NOR SPRAYED. And he’s convincing vineyard owners to let him foot the bill to plant an array of hybrid grapes in valuable vineyard land.

All of this takes a fair bit of courage. Matt is risking his livelihood on grapes and ideas that California has ignored and even shunned for over a century. He’s asking difficult questions, and he’s bravely willing to face the consequences of the unknown. Even doing this podcast was an act of courage for Matt, as you’ll find out.

Matt is willing to face these risks because the truth is that he isn’t just making wine, he’s on a mission to eliminate prejudice.  Matt is breaking down prejudice against non-european grapes and wine flavors, prejudice against native plants and foods, and prejudice against the ways and wisdom of native peoples whose knowledge of the natural world may hold answers to some of the most urgent issues we’re facing today.

Once you’ve talked to Matt, it’s hard to talk about terroir or a sense of place in wine grown in California and North America in general without asking the questions he’s asking. And it’s become increasingly clear that asking these questions is necessary if we want to preserve biodiversity, get rid of our dependence on chemicals, survive extreme weather, and improve food security.