Organic Wine Tasting in NYC

One of my favorite summer activities is visiting local wineries and choosing a bottle of my favorite wine from the available tastings and spending the rest of the day outdoors, sipping away at the chosen wine, on the grounds on which the wine was born, and with close friends and loved ones…aaaah, makes me crave the summer that’s slowly creeping up behind us! Until the Summer decides to roll around, I had the pleasure of participating in a wine tasting that happened not at a vineyard, but at Vero Midtown in NYC, a fun restaurant and wine bar about two hours from the beautiful North Fork vineyards on Long Island that I like to frequent in the Summers.

I was a little hesitant about this NYC tasting only because it would mean I would have to trade my preferred outdoor wine-sipping vineyard setting for the hustle and bustle of NYC, but like almost everything else in NYC, I had a quite a unique experience. I was impressed on two different levels in comparison to my wine tasting experiences on different vineyards; one, I was truly impressed by the knowledge level of the Sommelier, Kelsi Shelton, and two, they had chosen Organic and Byodynamic wines to be the centerpiece of their fun Saturday afternoon class offering.

Based on my experiences, there’s only so much one can learn from the Sommeliers found behind the busy wine tasting scene of the vineyards I’ve personally visited. I’m no wine tasting connoisseur, but I’ve visited my share of vineyards on both coasts of this great country and never learned as much as this class had to share. After six glasses of wine offered at the tasting, I still retained the information and here are some of the main points I wanted to share with you:
1. USDA organic wine certification is one of the strictest wine certification processes in the world. For example, in Europe, their law allows sulfites to be used in the wine making process; in the U.S., the use of sulfites or sulfur dioxide (preservative) is strictly prohibited.
2. The difference between Organic Certified Wine versus strictly USDA Organic Certified Wines is that both are pesticide and chemical free, but Certified Organic Wines can have naturally occurring sulfites, up to 20 parts per million, whereas USDA Organic Certified Wines can not contain any sulfites whatsoever. So, those of you who experience allergic reactions when drinking regular or organic certified wine, try a USDA organic certified wine because it might be sulfites causing discomfort with every sip.
3. There are very few USDA certified organic wines in the United States. Here are just a few: Frey Vineyards, Coates Vineyards, and La Rocca Vineyards.
4. If you ever have trouble picking from a long list of wines, here’s an interesting tip to help meet your taste preferences; if you’re looking for a sweeter wine, look for wines coming from warmer regions, since fruits ripening in warmer regions ripen faster and the more ripe they are, the sweeter they are.

Ok, well I guess my memory didn’t soak up as much as I thought it did while I was sipping on the 6 tastings served at the VERO NYC event, but I do remember my favorite of the six tastings offered at the class – Domaine Pichot Vouvray Domaine Le Peu De La Moriette from Loire Valley, France. No, that’s not English and Yes, I feel awful about not having picked a U.S. cultivated wine, but I can’t control my taste buds!!! I do feel better about my non-local choice after reading about a study posted on drvino.com. The study claims that it is more carbon efficient for East Coast wine drinkers to consume wine that has been imported because of the benefits from the efficiencies of container shipping and decreased truck time that would be required to ship wine from California, which is where 90% of American wine comes from.

Whether your next wine tasting is indoors or outdoors, imported or not, I hope you keep it organic!