August Wine Club: Farming for the Future
Responsible farming is all about growers making choices with an eye to what comes next for the planet, for people, and for their own businesses, too. The way commercial agriculture has evolved is all about maximizing crops and products for the purposes of feeding folks or making money. And that could be fine for some crops! But wine doesn’t have to be made that way, and it shouldn’t be.
At GoodWine, we believe in keeping the soil healthy now and into the future; minimizing the use of pesticides and herbicides, which are bad for the environment and can cut down on biodiversity; and using less energy and water to reduce the carbon footprint. All of these steps can be taken to help ensure that wine can be made from now into the future. Plus, it feels great to support wines that help lead the way toward a better climate in wine—and in other industries, too!
This month’s wines include two fresh organic whites and and a special orange Vermouth. Including vermouth is a first for the club! This herbal beauty is made from hybrid grapes and ingredients that come from the area in California where it’s made.
Are you enjoying the wines or have feedback to share so we can make sure you’re getting what you’re excited to drink? Shoot me a note or message me on Instagram at @getgoodwine! I’d love to chat. And for past months’ write-ups, just click here.
The Wines
First we have a crisp and refreshing Sauvignon Blanc made by Vanessa Wong and Nick Peay, also of Peay wines. (You may have had Peay’s Pinot Noir before if you’re a Pinot Noir fan—it’s super good!)
Not able to grow Sauvignon Blanc on their own, Vanessa and Nick bought fruit from Bob Hopkins, whom they met at an integrated pest management class. (Integrated Pest Management is a practice where farmers use helpful animals or insects instead of chemicals to control harmful pests. It’s what made me interested in sustainable wine in the first place a decade ago!) Cep wines are certified organic, and they even use solar energy, too! Love that.
— Cep Hopkins Ranch Russian River Sauvignon Blanc 2023
Katharina Wechsler from Germany’s Reinhessen made our next wine, a unique and tasty Riesling. Katherina comes from a winemaking family, but when she took over in 2017, she decided to put her own stamp on her family’s legacy. She achieved an organic certification for her vineyards in 2021 and started biodynamic practices for the express purpose of increasing the grapes’ immunity to climate pressures and to fungus, too. This wine comes from four of her sites (lovely description here), and the playfulness of her approach really makes her project one I’d like to visit! Prost!
— Katharina Wechsler, Trocken Riesling 2021
We’re experimenting a bit this month by including a vermouth! Toss some ice in a glass, and you’ve got a great apéritif. In terms of the GoodWine mission, this wine is made from the Symphony grape, which is a hybrid grape that is a crossing of Garnacha and Muscat. In a big benefit, these two grapes are heat resistant and have imparted (or even enhanced!) the Symphony grape’s heat/drought resistance. As temperatures continue to rise and water scarcity continues to get more scarce in California, using grapes that take heat well and need less water is an inherently more sustainable thing to do than forcing a cool-climate grape to grow in a warm place.
Plus, all of the botanicals used are also native to California (hence the name). Local sagebrush Artemesia Californica, for instance, is a genetic cousin of wormwood found in traditional vermouth. Using domestic ingredients cuts down on the carbon footprint that transporting international ingredients would otherwise create. Cheers!