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Organic Wine News
February 2009



In This Issue
Winn-Dixie Partnership
Award Winning Wines
Sites We Love
Organic Wine in the News
Our Portfolio in the News
Meet the WineMaker-Bodegas Iranzo
Winn-Dixie Partnership
Winn Dixie

Natural Merchants' USDA certified organic wines are now available in select Winn-Dixie stores throughout the state of Florida.  All wines in the program are priced under $20 per bottle.

Winn-Dixie Wine Rack

The organic wines are featured in a wooden floor display in select Winn-Dixie locations throughout Florida. Winn-Dixie will be offering its customers educational information on organic wines and include Tasting Notes, Pairings and Ratings for each of the featured selections.
 
Wines selected from Natural Merchants Selections' portfolio include those from:
  • Bodegas Iranzo - Spain's Oldest Estate Bottled Winery
  • Agrinatura - Italy's number-one organic producer
  • Chateau Raymond - Bordeaux's largest producer of organic wines
  • La Cantina Pizzolato - Italy's number-one selling organic wines
As more consumers integrate wine into their everyday organic lifestyles, they'll be searching for a variety of quality, affordable wines made with organically grown grapes. The Winn-Dixie partnership allows us a broader reach to those consumers.

"This is another opportunity for us to offer our shoppers the products they have previously only found in specialty stores," said Robin Miller, Winn-Dixie's director of communications.  "It's all about offering our customers a fresh and local shopping experience every time they visit our stores."

Organic wines will continue to be on trend for 2009. According to WineCountry.com, "In an era in which concern over global warming has reached a crescendo, sustainable and organic winegrowing practices are more important - and more appreciated - than ever before.  Their efforts will pay dividends for years to come, and are already showing up in the bottle."


Read about the partnership here:

New organic wine program at select Winn Dixie stores
Orlando Sentinel


South Florida Gourmet News

Drinks Media Wire

Trading Markets

 
Award-Winning Wines
BTI logo


Our fine organic wines continue to receive accolades in the BTI World Wine Championships.

air label
86-Highly Recommended
Silver Medal & Best Buy
air (Portugal) NV Antonio Lopes Ribeiro, Alentejo

Ruby black color. Aromas of cherry pie, roasted tomato, sandalwood incense and clove follow through on a soft, brisk entry to a dryish light-to-medium body with tart black cherry skin and cedar notes. Finishes with a crisp baked apple and spice cake fade.

VERTVS Temp Crianza
88-Highly Recommended
Silver Medal

VERTVS 2004 Tempranillo Crianza

Garnet color. Creamy pistachio nougat, chocolate mint, cherry, and pepper jelly aromas follow through on a soft, supple entry to a dryish medium body with tangy blackberry and sweet tomato notes. Finishes with a refreshing chocolate covered citrus peel, wet stone, and chewy tannin fade. A nice food wine to pair with sausages and chops.


VERTVS Cab/Temp
84-Recommended
Bronze Medal

VERTVS 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon-Tempranillo

Deep ruby black color. Aromas of baked cherries, cinnamon spiced nuts, and pork fat follow through on a round entry to a dry medium body with dusty mineral and tart blackberry notes. Finishes with a touch of brown apple, soot, and nutskins on the firm tannic fade.


VERTVS Tempranillo 06
81-Recommended
Bronze Medal

VERTVS 2007 Tempranillo

Deep ruby black color. Smoky crispy bacon fat, stewed okra, cherry coulis, and faint rubber eraser aromas follow through on a brisk, entry to a sweet and sour light to medium body with pickle, nut, and cinnamon notes. Finishes n a chewy tannin fade with singed tree bark, peppercorn, and slate notes. An edgy, smoky red to pair with grilled venison.


http://www.naturalmerchants.com/lagarde-red.htm
82-Recommended
Bronze Medal
L De Lagarde 2007 Bordeaux Rouge

Garnet violet color. Dried leaf, berry stem, and sweet spice aromas follow through on a brisk entry to a austerely dry light-to-medium body with dusty flavors, berry seeds, and a charred pepper accents. Quick, chalky, green tomato of vine fade with hard tannins. (tasted on Nov-24-2008)
Sites We Love


Randy Caparoso
DenverExaminer.com-Organic Wine Match of the Day

Randy Caparoso is an award winning Denver-based wine journalist and restaurant wine consultant. Believing that wine is a food like a rose is a rose, he writes about the best and latest wines for the foods we love to eat most.
 
Amy Atwood
MyDailyWine.com
Taking the junk out of your juice. Wine news and reviews from California, with an Organic bent. Amy Atwood is a dedicated explorer of wine, food, sake, new places and people.

Vinography.com
A complete list of wine blogs
 
How to Choose Organic Wines
A video primer.
Greetings!

Natural Merchants LogoEvery year, around this time, as the fresh new young wines from the harvest are making their debuts, we are out there spanning the globe to secure the best organic wines available. This year is no different with visits to France, Germany, Spain, etc. in this last month.

Whether it is buying up the organic harvest of a single winery or an entire region we are out there securing the best sources of this precious limited commodity. We hope you will enjoy our latest finds and look forward to an opportunity to share them with you.


As always, we look forward to your feedback and suggestions.
 
Sincerely,
Agrinatura Chardonnay 
Edward Field
Natural Merchants
Organic Wine in the News
 
Interesting tidbits about organic wines

grapes
The Skeptic's Guide to Biodynamic Wine
The average wine consumer has no idea what it means for a wine to be organic. ...

Search for 2009 trends reveals grains of truth and buckwheat
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, WI-USA
They are artisan or micro-distilled liquors, culinary cocktails (concoctions created to complement specific foods) and organic wine. ...

Organic wine has come a long way
The Oxford Times - Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK
Yet, there they were, selling their new range of wines to a comparatively humble organic wine merchant and I found the tables dramatically turned. ...

Under the scope: Fermenting on organic purchases
McGill Daily - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
But what is organic wine, and why should consumers fork over extra cash for a certification sticker? The processes of making organic wine and regular wine ...

How to Have a Green Wedding
Perfect Wedding Guide
Some caterers offer organically grown food, including organic beer and wine. The per person food cost may be a bit higher, but you will be serving your guests fresh, pesticide-free food.
Wines from Our Fine Organic Portfolio in the News

Organic wine match of the day: Pizzolato Prosecco, shrimp & nail polish
Denver Examiner
Man, I feel like a woman. It never did feel right whenever I got to that line in Shania Twain's song. But what the hey: it's a catchy thing, and so is the Pizzolato Prosecco IG7 (about $13) - a light, easy, mildly ...

Living the dream, organic wines from Natural Merchants
My Daily Wine
The folks at Natural Merchants have a pretty good gig. ... Kudos to Natural Merchants! Their vision has become a successful reality. ...

Organic wine & food matching
Culinary Wine & Food Adventures
Sometimes we forget how old the fine arts - like literature, wine judging, and great winemaking - really are. There are written records from the court of King Pedro I of Castilla in Spain, for instance, dating Bodegas Iranzo back to 1335...

Tarantas Cava Brut
Drink What You Like
This particular sparkler would make a great dinner party aperitif or light sipping wine for vegging at home eating take out.

Organic wine match of the day: Vertvs Tempranillo & Hawaiian beef stew
Examiner.com - USA
Evidently, the family of Iranzo Perez-Duque is still going strong after over six hundred years, as our organic wine of the day - Bodegas Iranzo's 2003 Iranzo's 2003 Vertvs Tempranillo Crianza (about $14) - is as bright, rose petal fresh, raisiny ripe and ...

Meet the WineMaker-
 
Bodegas Iranzo Logo
 
Bodegas Iranzo, with vintners from the Iranzo Perez-Duque family, produces the Oldest Estate Bottled Wines in Spain. The first recorded written evidence of the vineyard Ca�ada Honda Estate owned by the Iranzo Perez-Duque family dates back to 1335 as granted by King Pedro I of Castilla.  Bodegas Iranzo is the only vineyard in Europe located in a National Reserve Park.


Estate FrontEstate Back

The present house of the Iranzo P�rez-Duque family in Requena was built in 1794, and is classified as a Cultural Heritage site by the Valencia Regional Government.
 
Vines and Olive TreesVERTVS Label

Since 1994 Bodegas Iranzo has exclusively produced wine from organically grown grapes making the winery one of the oldest-established vineyards in Spain to apply this European Organic regulation. Bodegas Iranzo is one of the first bodegas in Spain to be certified EU organic and the FIRST bodega in Spain to receive USDA National Organic Program certification.

This traditional artisan wine making craft passed on for family generations combined with the exclusive organic agriculture and wine making process results in obtaining the finest of Organic Spanish Red Wines.
 
Vineyards Environmental Protection-A Commitment to Organic Farming
For the Iranzo Perez-Duque family, the practice of organic farming reflects a wider view of the management of natural resources which has led it, since the 1950s, to reforest over 30 hectares with native woodland species.
 
The family has also promoted the establishment of concepts such as a Flora Micro-Reserve and a Biological Station prohibiting hunting, which have made the Ca�ada Honda estate the largest environmentally protected area in the Valencian Community.
 
VineyardThe Vineyard
The present vineyard was designed and laid out in 1983 with a view to achieving two di
stinct but complemen-tary objectives: the production of wines of the finest quality; and total respect for the environment. The volume of wine produced takes second place to both these objectives.  
Iranzo Family
The Vintage
Francisco Gabald�n, the company's enologist who is also the Professor of Enology at the Oldest School of Enology in Spain, carefully monitors the degree of ripeness on each of the parcels into which the estate is divided, in order to decide the optimum moment to begin harvesting each one.


CellarBarrel room

The Winery & Cellars
The buildings housing the winery and cellars were built between 1916 and 1929. They have been declared Cultural Heritage sites by the Valencian Government.
 
Sensitive restoration and redevelopment of the buildings began in 1997, incorporating the latest winem
aking technology without altering the original architectural lines.

BarrelsVERTVS
Aging
Wines destined for aging in wood remain in Bordeaux barrels not more than 3 years old for periods varying from 4 to 16 months.

Their final grading as Aged in Wood, Crianza or Reserva depends on how long they remain in the barrel. The wines continue to age in the b
ottle until they reach optimum quality.

Contact us for more information about the wines of Bodegas Iranzo:[email protected].
About Natural Merchants
 
Natural Merchants, LLC is one of North America's leading Importers and Distributors of the finest natural and organic foods and wines direct from the European and Mediterranean regions.
 
The Natural Merchants Selections program highlights more than 150 carefully selected wines from Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Portugal, grown in unique organic terroir, each vineyard producing clean, fresh superior wines that are both good for the earth and tantalizing for the palate.
 
Selections from our portfolio of organic wines can be found in natural retail stores and accessed through traditional U.S. wine distributors across the country.
 
We look forward to hearing from you to help with all of your organic wine needs.
 
North American OfficeNM Logo
Rich Wright
2001 Foothill Blvd., 2C
Grants Pass, OR 97526, USA
Tel: 1.866.324.5333
        1.541.582.6200
Fax: 1.541.582.6211
[email protected]

European Office
Pilar Merono
C/Carmen 10, 1� Izq.
30201 Cartagena SPAIN
Tel: +34.968.32.15.11
Fax: + 34.968.32.15.50
          + 34.902.51.90.09