Parker: Green Wines Flag

[larry_schaffer]

Another vineyard/winery to include is Troon up in Oregon. Craig Camp is leading a similar campaign to what Tablas has done . . .

Cheers

[William_Kelley]

As William made clear, at this point, other than registering those that are certified, they are basing this on reviewers’ knowledge of the vineyards they review. This is bound to create obvious lacunae in that even well-known vineyards that, for one reason or another, don’t get noticed, will be left off. I’d be willing to give them time to do more research. I don’t read the Wine Advocate so I don’t really care that much, but I think the policy is a good one and it’s worth giving them a reasonable amount of time to develop a systematic method, or their reviewers to get around to doing this with all the wines they review, assuming that’s the plan. If it’s just what they happen to know at any given moment, then, I agree, it won’t be much.

For my money, unless biodynamic really covers something important to the environment that organic leaves out, I’d drop it. Many of its requirements are indeed environmentally friendly, but there’s a also a large amuont of voodoo and I don’t think one such encourage voodoo, especially given the rampant anti-science these days. I don’t mean to turn the thread toward this. The issues are well-known. I was just registering my sense of this particular category of certification.

You’re right, Jonathan: as new reviews are added to the database, they will be qualified with the certification, if applicable, for that particular wine (in Burgundy, for example, some certified organic wineries make wines from purchased uncertified fruit, so I say particular wine rather than winery). So I think that, a year from now, we will be pretty up to date with current releases. For the most part, it is not really practical to go back through all 450,000 wines in our database and add this data to every tasting note, but from now on, these filters will be added to all reviews where applicable.

The “eco distinction” award, by contrast, is really a special nomination to just a handful of wineries worldwide, at the discretion of the reviewer for those regions. It is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all the world’s meritorious wineries, just some that seemed worthy of special mention. And every year, there will be new nominations. So these two initiatives are really quite discreet: the one, aimed at adding information to our database as to whether a wine is certified organic or biodynamic; the other, to give some special recognition every year to wineries who are outstanding in this regard.

It’s the result of the better part of a year’s internal discussion and indeed debate, and we are hopeful that it will be a positive thing.

[Julian_Marshall]

I think it’s an excellent idea which other publications would do well to copy. I asked Vinous to do the same last year, to no avail. There are a growing number of consumers who prefer these wines and a growing number of wineries who are providing them. Obviously, if TWA covered the Loire it would be easy - most of the good wineries are at least organic!

[William_Kelley]

I think it’s an excellent idea which other publications would do well to copy. I asked Vinous to do the same last year, to no avail. There are a growing number of consumers who prefer these wines and a growing number of wineries who are providing them. Obviously, if TWA covered the Loire it would be easy - most of the good wineries are at least organic!

Thanks, Julian. I hope it’s a step in the right direction! There are obviously some downsides to simply going with certified producers, in that there are producers who are e.g. practicing organic but not certified who are much better farmers and stewards of their land than some who are certified organic. The “eco distinction” awards are intended in part a gesture towards mitigating that, in so far as reviewers can nominate wineries that aren’t certified: but obviously that means the reviewer has to know that producer’s vineyards quite intimately. One of my nominations, Bruno Lorenzon in Mercurey, isn’t certified any more, for example. There are also clearly some issues with certified organic practices, in particular with regard to copper accumulation in the soil. But as I say, I hope it’s a step in the right direction.

[Monica_Larner]

I think you have misunderstood this, folks. This initiative has two components: one is that we are adding whether a winery or a cuvée produced by a winery is certified organic or biodynamic. A filter has been added to our database so subscribers can search for such wines.

The other is that, for a very small number of wineries that are in some particular respect exemplary in their work in this regard, the reviewers have nominated them for an “Eco-Distinction” award, analogous to the green award Michelin has given out to restaurants. I nominated e.g. Leroy, Roederer, Larmandier-Bernier in my regions. Others include Eyrie in Oregon and Spottswoode in Napa. Every year, more will be nominated. I’m certainly familiar with the work that goes on in the vineyards and wineries of the wineries I nominated, and I know my colleagues are for theirs. While one can certainly think of other wineries that could have been (and indeed may be) nominated, I don’t think anyone will find any of the choices controversial.

Wineries don’t have to pay anything to be listed in either category.

I think it’s a great initiative. I hope it influences consumer decisions.

Now can you shame those that use heavy bottles too?!

I gave the Green Emblem award to three wineries in Italy, representing north, center and south: Alois Lageder, Salcheto and Tasca d’Almerita. As Dan M suggests, I’ve also been calling out heavy glass bottles in my reviews. I just put the information there in case the reader might want to know or find it interesting. I’ve been doing that for the past year or so.

Thanks @william for bringing greater clarity to this initiative.

Best,
Monica