For many people the whole organic thing, whether it’s certified or not, is a bit of a fad. But there are still plenty who live by it. Muddy Water can now be added to that list from the beginning of this month, with their 2011 Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir set to be their first wines that will have official organic certification.

So what’s the big whoop? Muddy Water have been producing their wines using organic principles since 2007.

“We could have simply gone down the path of marketing our wine as being produced using ‘organic principles’. But we knew we were already adopting many sustainable practices and with some changes to the way we did things could achieve full certification,”

Jane East, co-owner.

Muddy Water have chosen AsureQuality, an organic certifier known for its strict adherence to international standards, although the question remains does all this effort lead to better wines? Owners and husband and wife team, Jane and Mike East, obviously believe it does otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it. Muddy Water’s vineyard manager believes she has become a better viticulturist because of it.

“Going through this process has definitely made me a better viticulturist, as I need to spend more time managing the vines, anticipating potential issues and proactively taking steps to deal to issues early.”

Miranda Brown, Viticulturist.

Instead of using herbicides, weeds are controlled by cultivating under the vine. Flowers such as buckwheat and phacelia are planted to divert insects away from the vines and sulphur, seaweed, compost teas and biological fungicides were introduced to control disease. In the winery, the only addition is wild yeast to assist fermentation and there is minimal filtering, although they have been doing this for years before anyway.

Needless to say, Jane East is well aware of the marketing opportunities available by going certified organic. Muddy Water is now proudly part of New Zealand’s squeaky clean ‘green’ image. And why not? Good for them.

Many of us have noticed that the same wine can taste different when we try another bottle on a different day. It’s certainly happened me before. At times I may try a wine and think of it as pretty average, but if I taste another bottle of the same wine on a different day, it could be tickling my taste buds to high heaven.

One could write a book on this (in fact I’m sure it’s already been done). There are plenty of factors that can affect your tasting, and granted, a lot of the time you simply need a few sips to set your palate, but other times it may be to do with the mood that you are in, how well hydrated you are, or simply what you ate for dinner. An even more simple explanation would be that the bottle has been spoiled to a certain degree, perhaps from oxidation.

Watch the attached news report, filmed last year, for a more exotic theory.

According to the above report on Sky News (and another similar report on BBC), wine responds to the movements of the moon. The lunar calender uses the moon and stars to predict four types of days – fruit, flower, leaf and root. Fruit and flower days are said to be good days to enjoy a bottle of wine, whereas on leaf and root days the wine will not be drinking at its best.

A very interesting concept no doubt, and what is also very interesting is the thought that bio-dynamic wines taste better, as suggested in the video. I haven’t been convinced just yet, but expect to see more organic wines become available as winemakers continue to convert to the bio-dynamic method of cultivation.

You may even like to decide for yourself. Our superb lunar organic range from France, Moillard’s Domaine du Chateau d’Eau, will be on sale at €9.99 per bottle until the end of January.

The attached video features wine writer Jamie Goode. His entertaining wine blog can be found here.

To describe Viognier as the bridesmaid of the great whites doesn’t just hold a bitter truth, but a serious lesson in the dangers of the global fashioning and commoditisation of wine. As Chardonnay and then Sauvignon Blanc became international flavours of the times during the 1980s and 1990s, with every wine-producing country in the world jumping on board to produce their own versions or imitations of the great French wines, Viognier was on the verge of extinction.

Save for as little as eight hectares of the grape in the tiny Rhône appellation of Condrieu, there was no other Viognier in the world in the mid-1960s. It was the vitis vinifera victim of Darwin’s survival of the fittest – low and unpredictable yields, and an art in terms of picking at the right time, in a global market that was demanding consistent quality, reliable and quickly increasable quantities, and low prices, it just didn’t stand a chance.

Thankfully, as the world became more adventurous and inquisitive, Viognier found it’s gap in the market; somewhere between the universally appealing Chardonnay and Sauvignon, and the spicy, eccentric qualities of more acquired tastes such as Riesling and Gewürztraminer. Some credit California with spotting Viognier’s distinctive appeal and importing vines by the boat-load, but wine-makers in regional France were also planting with fervour throughout the 1980s.

Now Viognier is being grown in all corners of the wine-making world and that’s to our eternal benefit and good fortune, for there’s now fabulous value to be found in this gem of wine. On it’s own the wines are typically full-bodied, at times creamy depending on the level of oak treatment, with heady perfumes and distinctive aromas of dried apricot, honeysuckle, musk and spice. So, despite relatively low natural acidity, Viognier actually makes a great food partner, particularly for mildly spiced dishes, and especially for creamy spiced dishes such as korma or tikka masala.

And to think 20 years ago that this fashion queen was no more famous than vitis vinidodo.

Today, Moillard wines of France are showing us what we could have been missing. Their Lunar Organic Viognier from their Chateau d’Eau range is, as we found out quite recently, fantastic with any fish dish. We currently have €4 off this range when you buy two or more. So is Lunar Organic the next craze? Find out here.

Following on from our pre-Christmas post (Lunar Organic the Next Craze?) and the addition of the glorious new wines to our list, it’s fitting to look at a newbie that practices bio-dynamic farming. Not quite hocus pocus potions, monthly moon cycles or religious sacrifices, but a method that utilises the principles of organic farming.

Jean-Marc Brocard’s Vielle Vignes was pouring white wine on Concorde for around 10 years. He’s a man that truly believes that the quality of his wine comes from the uniqueness of the vineyard’s soil and geographical position, but it is his son, Julian, who has been the real advocate for bio-dynamic farming.

Bio-dynamics is a systems approach where the farm is viewed as a living whole, in which each farm activity will have a knock on effect upon natural processes within the vineyard. Here are just three examples of bio-dynamic techniques:

• Introduction of predators to vary grazing patterns and reduce pasture borne parasites
• Recycling of organic wastes, where possible, by large scale composting
• Use of bio-dynamic sprays to stimulate biological activity in the soil

The Brocard vineyards are proudly herbicide and pesticide-free, thanks to this natural policy. Furthermore the winemaking is carried out in full respect of the Chablis traditions with the use of stainless steel tanks, and to add a modern twist, use of the latest and most modern computerised vinification techniques.

Chablis wines take their world famous mineral and fresh character from the vine’s roots, which dig deep into the subsoil, consisting of limestone, clay and marine fossils. Many believe that only in Chablis can the Chardonnay grape produce wines of such finesse.

So do these bio-dynamic methods really make Brocard a more special Chablis than those that continue to use herbicides and pesticides?

With very limited external inputs and the recycling of animal waste, I believe the most tangible benefit of bio-dynamic farming is the low impact on the environment. It also provides an economical way of farming in which most of the costs are met at the time they are incurred, thus offering a solution to conflicts between economics and the environment.

As for the wine itself, there’s no doubt that the Brocard Petit Chablis is classic Chablis Chardonnay – deliciously pure, delicate with good fruit, minerality and the perfect balance. Whether that’s a result of bio-dynamic farming techniques or the Burgundy ‘terrior’ on which it is grown, that’s up to the consumer to decide. I would tend to believe that the soil and the winemaking has the last say, although I’m very open to the idea that organic wine adds a little something extra, even if it is just in my head. What it certainly won’t do is cause us any harm, and if it helps the environment in the process, then I’m all for it.

Try to imagine a long line. At one end is full-on, industrial wine making with fertilisers, fungicides and satellite images of carbon dioxide uptake rates. Yes, that’s right, the €5.99 slush on offer in the supermarket and kind of tastes like the wine you had last week. As you move along you find those who commit themselves to using fewer pesticides and so on. That’s usually called the “reasoned struggle” in France, or integrated pest control management (IPM) in the New World. A little further down the line is organic wine making – certified, regulated and approved, and a bit knit-your-own-yoghurt. And finally we reach the wonderful, whacky world of ‘lunar-organic’ wine making.

‘It’s a way of cultivating grapes that follows the code of practice of organic agriculture and also takes into account the phases of the moon’. As the ascending moon rises, the sap is drawn up through the soil. Similarly no ploughing, hoeing or earthing up occurs during the waning moon for fear of disturbing the soil. Vine treatments (organic or course) must be applied just before the full moon and new moon. All this is combined with ‘ancestral savoir-faire’ and some homoeopathic sprays to ensure the vines make the best grapes they can.

And here’s the rub. Scientifically a lot of this appears to be nonsense. Empirically a lot of it is very hard to test. But as with so many wines made like this, or using full blown bio-dynamics, the Moillard wines are very good, individual and distinctive. And science does at least agree that vineyard soil in places like Moillard are hotbeds of biodiversity and microbial life.

Recently Frank at Robert Francis Wine tasted the Moillard Pinot Noir of the Domaine du Chateau d’Eau range (see video), which are all lunar organic, scoring a very respectable 88/100. Can’t be bad to that for under a tenner on special.

Chateau d’Eau Pinot Noir

Chateau d’Eau Merlot

Chateau d’Eau Merlot Rose

Chateau d’Eau Sauvignon

Chateau d’Eau Viognier

Chateau d’Eau Chardonnay