Reprint article
Local Flavors Magazine, Wine & Chile Fiesta issueSeptember, 2009
Dear Patty,
You asked me to tell you and your readers how we at Café Pasqual’s have developed a wine list featuring only wines made from certified organically grown grapes, or if not certified, produced utilizing verifiably sustainable farming methods. We also examine as critically as possible the level and kind of chemical interventions practiced by the wineries we patronize. We prefer to buy from wineries that strive to minimize such interventions. This policy is commensurate with our requirements for all of Pasqual’s food purchases.
I grew up in northern California, specifically in Berkeley, Marin and Mendocino. I was privileged to enjoy the artisanal food and wines of this bountiful region. Excellent wine and food were exalted in my family’s home. My Mother’s father was a butcher by trade and owned and operated a to-the-carriage trade market in Sacramento in the first half of the last century. My father’s parents ran their own produce stall at The Housewives Market in Oakland and my paternal grandfather’s family had been vintners in the Moldov before emigrating to the US. It was no wonder that my parents insisted on only the most consciously raised food and wines for our health and enjoyment. My family gathered our comestibles food from all over the region. During my childhood we purchased our olive oil from a family of Italian olive growers in Napa.
We meandered down lanes in Sonoma and Napa to seek out wine from small, family owned vineyards whose old vines were cared for lovingly. These were small, heritage vintners who took pride in their wines. We went to the Teleme Jack cheese factory up the road from our house to gather and gawk at the cheese making process as we purchased this most marvelous of cheeses to serve on crusty sourdough bread. We’d scour the wild woodlands of Marin for porcini and chanterelle mushrooms to sautée, and add a splash of delicious wine to finish off their cooking. We even made our own vinegar from the dregs of wine served at our weekend parties. We understood where our food came from. We understood good practices yielded good food and wine. We understood that nourished soil made for nourishing results.
So it was with horror that I read sometime around 2000 a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle that pronounced something like “Millions of Pounds of Pesticides Used in Sonoma County This Year – Water Table Imperiled”. From the moment I read those words I knew that as a restaurateur I would refuse to participate with my Café’s purchasing choices in the despoiling of the soil, air, and ground water of Sonoma or Napa, Santa Barbara or Monterey, or of any other region of this country or of the world.
Sustainable Viticulture vs. The Market
The “green revolution” of the mid 20th century brought to sinister fruition the realignment of the idea of conventional agriculture as a natural growing event to one encouraging the extensive use of of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to maximize yields. This was due in part to the very human aspiration to feed more of us with less. Sadly, the profit motive has also loomed large in motivating this realignment. Such profiteering has reached a kind of evil apex as wine production has expanded worldwide.
In the recent past, large players in the wine and spirits market have targeted small, certified organic wineries for acquisition. After adding these boutiques to their portfolios in some cases they have expanded production volumes by orders of magnitude. What were once sustainably farmed vineyards become large industrial operations. After acquisition, these targeted “organic” wineries may be expanded to the point that no single estate can meet their production needs. No longer are the acquired boutique-brand wines made from estate grown grapes. Fruit is sourced from an increasingly large pool of contract growers, who are paid by the ton rather than encouraged to limit yields in order to protect fruit quality and maintain sustainable viticultural standards.
We know that maximizing yields in viticulture requires greater chemical intervention, and leads to inferior grapes. The question of yields in viticulture underlines the art of the vine, in which the grower stresses each vine to the extent that the fruit it produces is of high quality, but not to the extent that the vine is rendered unproductive or unsustainable into the future. Sadly, it seems that in certain circumstances such nuances are considered secondary to profit. Such questions of priorities reveal a philosophical struggle between winemaking and monopoly capitalism: to large commercial players, acquired wineries constitute brands, not wines.
Why does this matter?
The latest statistics available for Sonoma County’s yearly pesticide dumping count (2007) is 2,702,102 pounds, an incremental decrease from 1999 (3,734,767 lbs.). While this is encouraging, other areas such as Santa Cruz county, have experienced incremental increases over the same period. To investigate further, search chemical pesticide use by county in any given state. Or visit pesticidewatch.org for hair raising implications, and action recommendations.
As wine consumers, wine that is contaminated by chemical pesticides and/or fertilizers threatens our health. We would benefit immensely from refusing to be complicit in any way in our own poisoning.
It is relatively simple these days to determine who farms sustainably and responsibly. Winery websites often provide a published statement of viticultural standards and enological practices. Where this fails we at Café Pasqual’s ask our sales representatives a standard set of questions: how much production? estate grown and bottled? If grapes are sourced, from whom and from how many sources? What are the working relationships (i.e. contracts) between source growers and the winery? How are source growers paid? We note information not easily obtained (or not forthcoming at all) with appropriate skepticism.
We do our homework for our patrons and for ourselves. As much as we gaze, sniff, swirl. taste, and spit potential wines for our list, we also evaluate through study the growing practices of vineyards, and the vinification practices of each winery. We endeavor to stay current with ownership of wineries, and with trends in the wine business community. We avoid wineries who favor bulk production and sales, whose products occupy those ubiquitous supermarket end-cap displays. Such wineries typically utilize chemical interventions and other manipulative techniques to compensate for flaws, and to unitize artificially fruit sourced from dozens (sometimes hundreds) of growers.
How to Decide What To Buy
Read, study, questions, taste, make notes, subscribe, discuss, experiment, buy, repeat, and above all research. Examine critically the websites of your favorite wines: what are their growing practices, and how forthcoming are they with such information? Recognize that conditions may change through a vineyard’s sale or takeover. So stay current. What are their wine-making practices? How frequently and radically to they intervene at the vineyard and winery level? Do the viticulturalists utilize biodynamic agricultural practices? Make choices for your own body, your well being, your family’s health, and the environment. You can learn a lot just from noting the reception you get when you ask direct questions.
We encourage you to buy, or, or consume only wines that protect your own health and the health of our planet. As a consumer, let your choices reflect a will to husband resources responsibly, and to conserve our precious soil, air, and water. Wherever possible buy organic or biodynamic. Where this becomes impractical ask questions to determine whether a non-certified producer is farming and vinifying sustainably and responsibly. The absence of an organic or biodynamic certification does not necessarily mean that responsible practices are not being utilized. An environmentally and enologically responsible producer should not be penalized simply because s/he may not possess a (costly) certification. By the same token, treat skeptically certified wines that may have gotten away from responsible practices in the name of expanded production and profit. Do your homework; don’t get fooled. Buyer Beware.
Finally, whatever your personal attitude and responsibility toward the environment, wines produced through sustainable viticulture and environmentally responsible enology always make for better wines--better tasting, better with food, better for your body, our collective future and especially better for your soul.
In all sincerity,
Katharine Kagel, chef /owner, Café Pasqual’s
with Derek Werner, wine buyer, Café Pasqual’s
Reprint with permission from Local Flavors Magazine, Santa Fe, NM
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