It was 10 years ago that I said “If we are going to make wine, we should make a good one.” That is when we hired Marco to be our farm manager and winemaker and we have been growing and improving ever since. In the year 2021 we will harvest grapes from our new vines. We have doubled the size of our vineyard and will include some new Italian grape varietals to expand our wine offerings.
VinNatur Blind Tasting Award
We have also gained some recognition from important organizations in our industry. One of these organizations is VinNatur, an association of natural winemakers. In a blind tasting in 2018, our 100% Supertuscan, Il Picchio, achieved the ranking of #3 Red Wine out of all the participating wineries.
Members may participate in their annual tasting and sales event which is open to importers, distributors, sommeliers, restaurant owners and wine journalists. An important part of this event is the blind tasting of participating wines by wine professionals.
We will be participating at their annual event again this year in April.
This association unites vineyard owners from around the world who support the production of wine in a natural manner, fully respecting the territory, the vines and nature’s cycle and limiting the use of toxic chemicals both in the vineyard and in the wine cellar. The association offers guidance, support, research and more visibility for the family of natural winemakers.
One of the most interesting events they organized was a "Winemakers Dinner" where all the participating winemakers brought their left-over wines from the day's tasting and shared their wines, experiences and knowledge.
Slow Wine Prize
Another commendation we received was from the Slow Wine Guide. Our Sangiovese blend, La Ghiandaia 2015 was awarded the Slow Wine Prize and included in the 2019 Slow Wine Guide. The first edition of the Slow Wine Guide to the Wines of Italy was published in 2010. With its publication, the editors not only abandoned the score-based formula that had dominated the field for more than 20 years but they also adopted a wholly new and innovative set of criteria. For the first time, the pioneering Italian wine critics looked not just to the quality of the wines, but they also took into consideration the wineries' sustainable farming practices and the winemakers' "Slowphilosophy," which continues to be increasingly important to consumers in wine and food world-wide.
We will be participating in two of their U.S. events in San Francisco and Portland.
SAN FRANCISCO - Monday, March 4, 2019
Pier 27 - The Embarcadero - 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
PORTLAND - Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Castaway, 1900 NW 18th Avenue, Portland - 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Organic Certification
In my last blog I talked about how we apply biodynamic and organic agricultural practices to our vineyard. It took some time for the European Union accreditation agency to study our land and give us organic certification, but all of our 2018 vintages and after will be certified organic. Our bottles will have the logo below to signify this achievement.
Click here to visit our Podere Erica Winery Website to learn more about our wines.
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