A reminder at Tawse Winery One of the first wines I tasted when I arrived in Niagara-on-the-Lake for TasteCamp 2011 was a riesling. Its crushing acidity very nearly made ceviche out of my tongue. Now before I start to sound like a certain wine critic, I should point out that I cut my wine teeth on Finger Lakes riesling. I like acidity, but I like balance better. An Acid Balancing Act Back to Niagara, where titratable acidity (TA) in rieslings regularly reaches double digits on the grams per liter scale (for Canadians, that's grams per litre). I made it a…
Posts Written ByTom Mansell
A Feather in Their Caps: Experimenting with closures at Paumanok
By Tom Mansell, Science Editor In our annual wines of the year tasting, the NYCR staff tasted many, many delicious wines. One of the big winners of the day was Paumanok Vineyards, whose wines swept the three Long Island categories in which they were nominated — Merlot, White Wine and Ice/Dessert Wine). Interestingly, all three of the winning wines (and a fourth wine that was also nominated in the white category) were bottled under screwcap closures. All of the submitted wines showed interesting and in some cases unique aromas and flavors, often bordering on exotic and tropical. The Wines The NYCR tasting…
The Science of Biodynamics, Part 6: Organic Vinifera in the Finger Lakes
Irish Spring soap used to deter deer in Silver Thread Vineyard By Tom Mansell, Science Editor This series has provoked important conversations about biodynamics, organic growing, and sustainability. Organic grapegrowing should definitely be a part of this discussion, so just as I interviewed Alice Wise regarding organic viticulture in Long Island, the following is a profile of Richard Figiel and Silver Thread Vineyard in the Finger Lakes. If you weren't looking for it specifically, you might not even know it was there. A small sign on Route 414, the Seneca Lake Wine Trail East, indicates that there is a Silver Thread Vineyard, but…
The Science of Biodynamics, Part 5: Field Spray Preparations: Stirring Controversy
By Tom Mansell We now come to some of the most famous and well-known preparations in biodynamics, the field sprays. Cow manure or silica fermented in the ground in cow horns is practically the very symbol of biodynamics. These preparations are highly representative of the movement, but what, if anything, do they do? Field spray preparations Preparation Main Component Fermented in… Proposed function (Steiner) Proposed function (JPI) 500 Cow manure Horn of a cow "We preserve in the horn the forces it was accustomed to exert within the cow itself, namely the property of raying back whatever is life-giving and…
The Science of Biodynamics, Part 4: Hidden Alchemy in Compost
Yarrow flowers matured in a stag's bladder — Preparation 502 By Tom Mansell All images courtesy of The Millton Vineyard, Poverty Bay, NZ. "For there is a hidden alchemy in the organic process." – Rudolf Steiner, Agriculture At the heart of biodynamic farming are the famous preparations. In this post and the next post, we'll look at the contents of the preparations and their proposed effects and mechanisms or lack thereof. This week's post will focus on the preparations added to biodynamic compost. Compost Preparations Preparation Main Component Fermented in… Proposed function (Steiner) Proposed function (Josephine Porter Institute website) 502…
The Science of Biodynamics, Part 3: Organic Viticulture in Long Island
An earthworm heads back into the soil (source: schizoform on Flickr) I think we can all agree that sustainability in viticulture is important. I mentioned in my first post that our discussion about the science of biodynamics cannot leave out organic viticulture. I asked Alice Wise, viticulturist at the Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center (LIHREC) about some of the nuts and bolts of organic viticulture in Long Island. NYCR: What are the primary challenges of organic viticulture in regions like Long Island? AW: The goal is economically viable yields of high quality fruit – no matter what the…
The Science of Biodynamics, Part 2: Moonstones OR Gravitas Vos Liberabit
The phases of a lunar eclipse, by tizianoj at Flickr A key tenet of biodynamics is the influence of celestial bodies (e.g., the sun, moon, and planets) on agriculture. While no one will deny the influence of the sun, it's not clear exactly what the moon might be doing to affect grapegrowing and winemaking. Take the case of Aleš Kristančič of Movia in Slovenia. Thanks to glowing reviews and a high-profile section of Sergio Esposito's book Passon On the Vine, Movia has gained cult status for wine consumers. Kristančič is a very popular speaker around the world and is consulted…
The Science of Biodynamics, Part 1: Ground Rules
Back when I was first getting into wine, I was shopping at Red Feet Wine Market, an Ithaca boutique wine shop. I noticed that some of their shelftalkers had little stickers (seen above) with the letters "O", "S"or "B". Having lived in Ithaca for a bit, I soon gathered that "S" stood for "sustainable" and "O" stood for organic. I had no idea what "B" stood for. "Biodynamic," owner Dewi Rainey informed me. "It's like organic plus." Intriguing. She went on to explain that in addition to being 100% organic, grapes are farmed according to an astrological calendar and how…
A Different Side of the Finger Lakes Wine Festival: The VIP Experience
By Tom Mansell, Science Editor Photos courtesy of Brian Reider Last year, I went to my first Finger Lakes Wine Festival with high expectations. It was going to be an opportunity for me to taste wines from Finger Lakes wineries I'd never or rarely visited. I'd also be able to taste wines from Niagara and the Hudson Valley, too. That Saturday, the festival was a teeming mass of people. Hot, sweaty and cramped under the tents in 90+ degree heat and tasting wines sitting in ice-cold water baths was not at all what I had in mind. Sunday was perfectly…
Pumped Up With Petrol: TDN and Riesling
By Tom Mansell, Science Editor At TasteCamp, bloggers were generously treated to many library selections of riesling. Peter Bell guided us through two vertical tastings of Fox Run Vineyards rieslings (one pictured at right), of the dry and semi-dry persuasion. Bob Madill poured a library flight at Sheldrake Point Vineyard, and the Tierce brothers poured three years of Fox Run, Anthony Road, and Red Newt rieslings (and their collaborative effort, Tierce Riesling). The oldest variations poured for the masses dated back to 2001. One character in particular that stands out in many aged rieslings from around the world is…