CityLife

Organic Wine Fortnight - our pick of the bunch

Wild Mountain Chardonnay

ORGANIC Fortnight is with us until September 20. Wines labelled as such, rubberstamped by the likes of the Soil Association, are guaranteed to be environmentally-friendly, eschewing pesticides and artificial fertilisers.

Like all foods, they give consumers the gut feeling they are healthier. Wine, though, whatever its provenance is still at the mercy of the quality of its fruit and its makers.

All the lack of spraying in the world won’t make up for botches in the vineyards and cellar.

Of course, some of the finest domaines in the world are organic, biodynamic even, without feeling the need for accreditation by some organisation.

Attractive prices

Organic and traditional practice go hand in hand. Between these and the sort of joyless organic wines that occupy a mini-ghetto on the supermarket shelves there has to be a range of characterful, artisan organic wines at attractive prices in a specialist shop.

Step forward Organico, whose stores in Staveley and Ambleside are field leaders with over 200 purely organic wines on offer.

For mail order check out the link right to discover some rare treats.

On a day when the heavens were opening with a vengeance in the Lakes, I purchased four wines from their Staveley Yard warehouse, the largest wholly organic wine shop in the country.

Out of three reds and one white, only one – a Beaujolais – didn’t hit the spot.

Real thirst-quencher

The stand-out, made ironically from the Beaujolais grape gamay, was La Madone 2007, Gamay Sur Volcan. As befits wine grown on volcanic soil in the Massif Centrale there is a certain smokiness on the nose.

Red, peppery fruit on the palate benefits from being lightly chilled to make a real thirst-quencher. Gorgeous stuff for £7.56.

Equally appealing, Sangervasio Rosso 2005 (£8.79) from Tuscany is an abundantly fruity mix of 70 per cent sangiovese and 30 per cent merlot, making it softer than the flagship reds from this Chianti estate.

Austria’s Geyerhof provides Organico with a range of biodynamic whites. On the evidence of Gruner Veltliner Rosensteig 2007, I’d like to do a horizontal tasting of all four of the estate’s wines from that sometimes awkward grape.

Pear and pineapple

After a herby nose it offers a spicy fresh pear and pineapple cocktail with a delicate but firm mouthfeel (£8.44).

Booths, whose supermarkets stretch from Cheshire to Cumbria (there is one just down the road from Staveley) are also doing Organic Fortnight proud with a range of more than 35 organic wines.

Two organic wines that are exclusive to Booths are the Domaine de Malavielle Charmille Blanc Vin de Pays d’Oc and the Domaine de Malavielle Charmille Rouge Vin de Pays d’Oc, priced at only £6.49.

The Charmille Blanc 2008 is a veritable roster of white grape types – blending chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, terret, chenin blanc and viognier. It is pleasingly honeyed with a streak of compensating acidity.

The Charmille Rouge 2007 uses an unusual grape variety called portan, blended with merlot and syrah.

Some old oak softens it and adds complexity to the ripe herby brambliness. Tamburlaine in New South Wales is the largest organically certified vineyard in Australia. Its Wild Mountain Chardonnay 2006 (pictured) is stocked by Booths at £7.99 per bottle. It’s a big Hunter Valley style chardonnay. Think peach, pineapple, clove and oak.

For more on Organic Fortnight 2009 visit link right.