We are getting more and more excited. It is a certain nervousness or anxiety that is building up. Next week we will launch our new book! What will people say?!
The book’s title is Wine and the Environment, Organic, Biodynamic, and Natural. And that is a pretty good summary of what it is about. Unfortunately it is only published in Swedish. At least for the moment. (Any interested publisher among our readers?)
Primarily the book tries to explain what all those concepts are about. What is, really, an organically grown wine? No sprays of poisons in the vineyard? Actually, organics spray too! More environmentally friendly? Yes, probably, but not necessarily. We also explain what the biodynamic winemakers do without focusing too much on the sometimes curious philosophy (that all too often is the focus in articles on biodynamics). Instead we talk about what the biodynamic winegrowers do in the vineyard and how they reason. And then we have the natural wines, sustainable, fair trade etc. We explain what it is without trying to “convert you to the true fait” for any of those things.
In the second half of the book we have a selection of growers that do this kind of wine growing and wine production. A personal selection.
Here is some more information about the book (currently only in Swedish).
This whole question of the environment and organics is an interesting debate. Of course “environmentally friendly” is better than noxious. But it is not always easy to say what is “best”.
Another way of looking at it is to say that it is the end result that is most important (difficult to deny actually): “I don’t bother that much if it is organic/biodynamic/natural/… or not as long as the wine tastes good”. In a way that is a reasoning that many winemakers have: “yes, I am organic, but I don’t put it on the label. I want the consumer to buy my wine because they like the taste of the wine, not because I have an organic certificate”. Good logic that too. But that will soon be over. Now, within the EU, if you are certified organic then you have to put it on the label.
Personally we are often rather agnostic: the most important thing is that the wine is delicious. At the same time today it is almost a given that wine producers do not use lots and lots of sprays in the vineyard over what is necessary (but it can still be quite a lot though!). But we can also see that more and more of the winemakers that we meet and that we visit on our tours are organic, or biodynamic, and make excellent wines. Is that because those practices are becoming more common? Absolutely. Is it because we have spent almost two years working on our book? That is no doubt true too!
Finally, we must give you a quick update on the wine tours. It is high time to register if you are interested in any of these wine tours:
- Bordeaux, 19-23 Sept
- Chile and Argentina, 4-19 Feb 2013
- South Africa, 1-11 March, 2013
Britt & Per
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief!
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[box type=”note”]This is just the introduction to the latest issue of the Brief. Subscribe to the BKWine Brief and you will get the whole edition in your mailbox next month.[/box]
