Weekly Wine: Going Organic

I'm one of those people that, until recently, has been kinda of the opinion that if you're in a supermarket and there's an 'organic' option, it just means it's more expensive and will make your fridge look sort of a twat.

It wasn't until I had a tasting with wine guru extroardinaire Adolfo Hurtado from Cono Sur in Chile that I realised how crucial and positive this whole organic malarkey really is. Organic wine is absolutely no exception.

The quality of soils and vines are totally key to the style of the finished wine, (it's all part of the 'terroir' thing as the French call it, but that's a whole other kettle of fish) so it's important to cultivate them without all of that icky stuff. The pesticides and chemicals can be replaced with much more exciting things.

Growers can plant roses at the end of the vineyard rows, because they display the signs of disease before the vines do so they can act as early warning systems, and some pests can be counter-acted in a natural, fascinating way: For instance, little red spider mites causing your plants jip? No worries. Just send in some little black spiders to eat the little red devils. Problem solved. It blows my mind.

This is just the tip of a very shiny, up-and-coming iceberg, but basically organic wine is a cause worth supporting. Chances are, if the growers are brave enough and care enough to go organic, you can be sure their wine is going to be more than interesting.

Have a look around the shelves the next time you're browsing for bottles - all good wine merchants sell organic wines now, and they're not as pricey as you think...

Yalumba Organic Viognier, £8.54 per bottle, Waitrose Wine

Unsurprisingly, Waitrose really do have a good selection of the organic stuff. The one that really knocks my socks off is this exclusive offering from Aussie Super-Gods Yalumba. Delicately aromatic with gorgeous texture and refreshing balance. For less than a tenner, this is pretty special.

Emiliana Organic Vineyards Syrah Reserva, £7.59 per bottle if you buy six, Tesco Wine

Yes, Tesco do some rather good organic vino too. This Chilean Syrah from Emiliana has been brilliantly reviewed by the wine buffs and it's a perfectly peppery steak wine. Beefy body and chunky fruitiness make this a foodie winner for me.

Bonterra Vineyards Chardonnay, £10.99 per bottle, Majestic

For one of the country's leading wine merchants, Majestic have a somewhat disappointing selection of the organic stuff. They do, however, feature this Californian beauty from Bonterra, a producer that believes organically grown wines 'simply taste better'. Ideal if you like your Chardonnay with that buttery roundness from careful ageing in oak, this is packed with complexity.

Bergerac, Tour des Gendres 2010, £7.50 per bottle, The Wine Society

I like the diversity of The Wine Society's organic list, and also how they've managed to find some really intriguing examples from the (ordinarily) rather less innovative Old World. Luc de Conti makes this Bergerac Rouge with a Bordeaux style in mind, so not only is this organic and under £8, it's a good alternative to those pricier Clarets. This is smooth, soft and fruity.

Are you a firm believer in going organic? Hit me up with your fave organic bottles in the comments, or tell us all about it on Twitter or Facebook.

Image from Stefan Lubiana Wines's photostream under the Creative Commons License.

Weekly Wine: Join our Club

If, after reading the title to this post, you aren't now singing the Club advert song, then I feel I've failed.

Anyway, I've been waxing lyrical about wine for the last few months and nearly every week I urge you to explore, and to try something new. Discovery is super fun, especially when it gets you tipsy, but sometimes we can't be bothered to walk up and down the shelves for half an hour wondering what on earth to try next. Wouldn't it be nice to have a team of experts to pick the most interesting bottles for you?

Enter: the fuss-free wine club.

There's plenty of them about; in fact, most of the wine merchants worth their sulphites will offer some kind of hassle-free service where you get sent a case of tasty new treats every few months or so. Here are some of the best options available to you:

Laithwaites

Laithwaites and the Sunday Times Wine Club are one and the same, and they offer a dizzying range of options and smashing flexibility.

You can receive a case every eight or twelve weeks, be it red, white or mixed, and the one unique feature they have is a rose case too (I'm going to make full use of that one when the sun finally decides to show up.)

They let you know what you're going to get in advance, and another mega awesome plus is that if you don't fancy the look of one of the bottles you can ask them to swap it for something else before the case turns up. You can also skip or change a case, and I really love the themed cases they've come up with: I massively heart the Big Red Experience option for winter nights, and they've even got a super spesh selection by wine God Hugh Johnson himself.

You might have guessed already but this is one of my favourite schemes on the market. The only down-side is I don't think the wines themselves are always top dog in terms of wow-factor, but they're not a bad bunch of bottles.

Naked Wines

Naked Wines' Wine Angels scheme keep things simple: you squirrel away £20 a month and in return they give you at least 25% off the wine you choose. Why? Because your £20 monthly investment supports small wine producers in the creation of shiny new, exciting vino. This means you get to feel all ethical as you slurp.

They don't choose the wines you order for you, but they're mega-friendly and sociable over there so they'll always help you make your choice, and the fact they source wines from independent producers means you know you'll discover things you wouldn't necessarily find on supermarket shelves: great for those of us that like wine to be an adventure as well as a pleasure.

The Wine Society

Wine Without Fuss is probably the most flexible scheme I've found. While most clubs just bung you a case every twelve weeks, at TWS you just pick which months of the year you fancy receiving your wine and you can chop and change whenever you fancy. The wines are always delicious and hand-picked by a Buying team with more Master of Wine qualifications than you can shake a stick at.

The only downside is you can't change individual wines in the case before it arrives - and you don't find out what you're getting until it appears at your front door - but the element of surprise is rarely disappointing.

This is the club that recently came top of the Which? review, but you do have to join as a member for £40 before you can start getting your paws on the good stuff.

The Others

The rest of the schemes out there follow a similar theme: Marks and Spencers and Virgin Wines both do three-monthly packages along the same kind of lines so if you like to keep things simple they're a safe and reliable, albeit not that exciting, bet. I much prefer to keep things interesting, and the three schemes I've mentioned above seem to be the best if you want to conquer new regions and be a bit snazzy and different.

Tell us about your wine club loves and loathes in the comments, or have a good old chinwag about it on our Twitter and Facebook pages. Or send me wine. I like wine.

Image taken from JonathanChanUK's photostream under the Creative Commons License