Organic + Biodynamic Wine

James Suckling 93 Points |  Perfumed aromas of dried roses, red berry fruit and licorice pull you in. Darker mocha notes, too. Medium-bodied yet deep, with dark minerals and spices accompanying the fresh berry fruit. Fine and tight tannins. From biodynamically grown grapes with Respekt certification. Drink or hold.

The Blaufränkisch grapes come from vineyards characterised by limestone and slate in and around Jois am Leithagebirge. The grapes were harvested from mid to late September. After manual harvesting and sorting, the Blaufränkisch was fermented spontaneously in wooden fermentation racks and, after slow pressing in a basket press, aged in used Tonneaux.

On the palate, the wine appears juicy with lots of fresh cherry and pomegranate juice, with plums and lightly roasted herbs. At the same time, this is a Blaufränkisch with a mineral fresh and cool side, a lively acidity and a remarkable inner tension. Here, too, you find the slightly earthy and tart with a fine tannin. This is intense, transparent, clear and fresh wine that quickly builds up drinkability. Winemaker Description.

Expert Ratings

Antonio Galloni writes:  The 2020 Chianti Classico is fabulous. Bright, floral and effusive, the 2020 is striking right out of the gate. Crushed flowers, mint, spice and blood orange all race out of the glass. A wine of vibrancy and nuance, impresses with its exceptional beauty and overall harmony. It's an absolutely stellar wine from Montesecondo.  Drinking 2022 -2030.  - Vinous 93

Walter Speller writes:  Lustrous crimson. At first subdued then opens up to crushed raspberries with savoury hints. Vibrant fruit with lots of acidity but really filled out across the palate. Long and with lots of crunch.   San Casciano. 90% Sangiovese, 5% Canaiolo, 5% Colorino. Certified organic.  Drinking 2022 - 2028.  - Jancis Robinson 17.5

Monica Larner writes:  The Montesecondo 2020 Chianti Classico is redolent of bright cherry and wild blueberry. It presents those pretty fruit tones with attractive intensity. This blend of 90% Sangiovese with Canaiolo and Colorino feels sweet and soft, but the ripeness is spot-on with no jammy sensations or heaviness. That contained quality of fruit, even in a hot vintage such as this, is one of the ace cards in Chianti Classico's hand. Aged in oak and cement, the wine ends with tart cherry and lasting freshness.  Drinking 2022 -2028.  - Robert Parker Wine Advocate 91

Michaela Morris writes:  Montesecondo crafts just one Chianti Classico from two parcels in San Casciano. It ferments spontaneously, sees minimal sulphur additions and is aged in a combination of cement vats and medium-sized used oak casks. The 2020 starts discreetly, with forest brush and mint adding dimension to red currant and black raspberry. This is more savoury than sweet though, and it's the powdery, textured palate that really captivates. Fresh and tangy with nuances of orange peel, this sneaky wine isn't flamboyant but is very tasty.  - Decanter 92

 Raffaele Mosca writes:  Montesecondo is part of an increasingly large group of small wineries that choose to pursue a minimalist approach: avoiding yeast addition, choosing concrete over oak, and using very little sulphur. This 2020 Chianti Classico offers aromas of blood orange, laurel, cassis and a hint of game. The palate is bright and savoury, with crunchy red fruit, juicy tannins, invigorating acidity and a mouthwatering saline tang.  Drinking 2023 -2028.  Decanter 93

Winemaker Notes:

Montesecondo comprises two separate properties: both are biodynamically farmed and both lie in San Casciano in Val di Pesa at the northern edge of the Chianti Classico zone. The original family vineyard, generally referred to as "Montesecondo" or "Cerbaiai", is lower-altitude, warmer, gently cloped and with heavier clay soils near the town of Cerbaia; it is mainly Sangiovese with some co-planted Canaiolo and Colorino. The second part, referred to as "Vignano" for the name of its tiny hamlet, features parcels that are cooler, hillier, rich in limestone, up at 450 meters and north-facing. The Chianti is a blend of both parts of the estate, with proportions varying by vintage.

The bunches are hand-harvested and mainly destemmed but with the berries left whole. They are fermented spontaneously with indigenous yeasts and without sulfur in concrete tanks. Maceration lasts around 12 days and there are no extractive techniques, only a submerged cap or cappello sommerso. The wine is aged partly in 15-hectoliter foudres and partly in concrete for up to one and half years. It is bottled with a small amount of sulfur and without fining or filtering and is released in the late spring two years after the vintage.

Blend: 90% Sangiovese, 10% Canaiolo & Colorino

Winemaker Notes

Occhipinti SP68 Bianco is a dry, organic and biodynamic white wine made with the Albanello and Moscato de Alejandría varieties and produced by Arianna Occhipinti, in Sicily, Italy.

"The name of a road, for a wine that is a journey", is the perfect and forceful description that Arianna Occhipinti gives to her Occhipinti SP68 Bianco, a wine that refers to the Strada Provinciale 68 as a tribute to all those peasants who have travelled along this road from the countryside for three thousand years, first with amphoras and then with barrels containing the fruit of their labour, fatigue and joy, and the aroma of their land.

In the middle of Strada Provinciale 68, in Vittoria, Sicily, we also find the Arianna Occhipinti winery where this Occhipinti SP68 Bianco was created. The wine is made with grapes that come from vineyards with an average age of 15 years, located 280 metres above sea level and composed of soils of red sand and limestone, which are cultivated according to the principles of organic agriculture and biodynamics.

The plots are cultivated without employing chemicals, and the grapes are harvested by hand and fermented with their native yeasts. The must remains in contact with the skins for 15 days. The wine is aged for 6 months in cement tanks and finally bottled unfiltered.

Occhipinti SP68 Bianco is a terroir wine born out of respect for the land and the vineyard, and reflects the philosophy of Arianna Occhipinti who states the following: "If the work in the vineyard is performed with care, the passage to the winery becomes simpler and requires fewer interventions. Winemaker Description. 

Critic Notes

Eric Guido writes:  The 2023 Bianco SP68 is distinctly savory, as wild herbs and wet concrete give way to crushed nectarines. This is soothingly round and supple with a spicy tinge of ginger up front, leading to tart orchard fruits and a cascade of salty minerals. The 2023 finishes vividly fresh yet still potent, leaving hints of green melon and lime zest that linger on and on. Allow the Bianco SP68 some time to open in the bottle to express its aromatics properly.  Drinking 2024 to 2027.  - Vinous 90

Winemaker Description

Made from Biodynamically grown certified organic grapes. Pale straw color with a green tinge. On the nose, cantaloupe, tropical fruits, passionfruit, key lime pie, and honeysuckle flowers. Granny Smith apple, gooseberry, pie crust and hazelnuts on the palate. Rich with raw acidity and evolving length. 

Expert Review

Our Professional Review

Bart Hopkins of 67Wine.com | Slightly richer and fleshier than village Chablis, more reminiscent of a premier cru, with an impressive balance of honeyed apple, stone and tropical fruits with underlying mineral notes that builds into a crescendo of harmonious complexity. Well-proportioned acidity holds everything together and the finish is remarkably long and seductive. Demeter certified Biodynamic.

Expert Review

Decanter Magazine 93 Points  "A very classy combination of the extra richness found in 2022, with zesty lime acidity and a distinctive, salty edge to finish. A great Chablis to drink as an accompaniment to food. Long, precise and very pure on the finish. Organic and from a different part of the Brocard operation in Préhy.

An approachable and tasty Bordeaux. Merlot is the dominant grape and Cabernet Sauvignon plays a supporting role, adding complexity. There are aromas and flavors of blackberry, blueberry, dark plum, black cherry, licorice, and cedar all with a beautifully persistent finish. Made with organically grown grapes.

- Rand Sieger, 67 Wine Buyer

Winemaker Description 

Refreshing twist on citrus vodka, Crop Meyer Lemon Vodka is bright and crisp - the perfect balance between the sweet and tart flavors of a Meyer lemon. Wonderful with club soda, or in a cosmo, Crop Meyer Lemon is versatile enough to compliment any cocktail.

Winemaker Description

70% Frappato/30% Nero d'Avola. From certified-organic estate vines, averaging 20+ years old and planted on chalky, sandy soils. The bunches are harvested by hand, destemmed and co-fermented spontaneously with native yeasts in concrete tanks. Maceration lasts approximately two weeks. The wine is aged in concrete tanks for 6 months and bottled unfiltered. Sulfur use is modest. "SP68" is the Strada Provinciale 68, the country road on which the Occhipinti winery and home vineyard lie.

SP68 is a road but also a young wine. Fresh and pleasant, with a delicate taste that brings with it the taste of the sun and the freshness of this land. Juicy flavors of strawberry, raspberry and wild herbs complimented by refreshing acidity and soft tannins.

Winemaker Description

Peay Vineyards is a first-generation family winery. Husband and wife, Nick Peay & Vanessa Wong, grow and make the wine and brother, Andy Peay, and his wife Ami, sell the wine and run the business.

All wines are made from grapes grown on our 53-acre estate vineyard located above a river gorge in the far northwestern corner of the Sonoma Coast, 4 miles from the Pacific Ocean at Sea Ranch. We sit in the chilly inversion layer with fog and wind from the Ocean maintaining cool temperatures with plenty of sunlight.

Winemaker Vanessa Wong left her position as winemaker at Peter Michael Winery in 2001 to launch Peay Vineyards. Formerly she worked at Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Domaine Jean Gros and Hirsch Winery.

We farm organically and maintain our licenses for fish friendly farming and integrated pest management. The health of our vineyard dictates these approaches to farming and making wine. We also run on bio-diesel at the vineyard and solar power at both the vineyard and winery.

Expert Ratings

Jeb Dunnuck 97 Points | The 2021 Pinot Noir Ama is dark ruby, with notes of red cherry and apple skin. The palate is full-bodied and has great structure, with a broad texture, ripe tannins and notes of dark cherry, tea leaf, and forest earth. It’s long on the palate and has a good finish. (2021). 

Robert Parker 94 Points | The 2021 Estate Pinot Noir Ama is powerful and perfumed this vintage. It offers aromas broody aromas of red and black cherries and aniseed with top notes of saline and citrus peel. The medium-bodied palate is chalky and refreshing with generous berry fruit and floral accents, and it has a long, spicy finish. (2021). 

Winemaker Description

Depaula Monastrell 2022 has intense aromas of red and black fruits, with herbal and mineral notes. 

The palate is full of fruit, with a juicy Mediterranean edge. A wine that mixes its elegance and pleasant flavors to create a very nice and easy to drink red wine. Winemaker Description. 

Winemaker Description

100% Cabernet Franc. Les Barnabés stands apart from Raffault's other main sites, Les Picasses and Les Peuilles, still in the Véron region but far to the west and downhill on a plain of alluvial soils near the Loire River.

The sandy, gravelly site yields a lighter style of Cabernet Franc more approachable with less aging compared to the other two. Like Picasses and Peuilles, Barnabés comes from fruit which is organically farmed, harvested by hand, destemmed but not crushed, and fermented in tank with native yeasts. The fermentation is at cooler temperatures and the aging in tank only, all to preserve the freshness and brightness of the fruit. It is the earliest release of the three reds.

Expert Review

Bart Hopkins 67Wine.com | A bright, energetic, beautifully focused red wine that makes food pairings an absolute pleasure. Juicy red fruits mingle with savory peppery complexity with supple tannins framed by classic minerality. Serve it lightly chilled and bring on the food!

Year’s Best US Chardonnay - Wine & Spirits Magazine

James Suckling 94 Points | Grilled pineapple, apricot, hawthorn, burnt lime and flint on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with bright acidity and a sleek, creamy texture. Balanced, fresh and long. Beautiful expression. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink now or hold. 

The 2019 'Dundee Hills Chardonnay' is a regional blend showcasing the best of the Dundee Hills AVA. Refined aromas of nectarines, honeysuckle, and bee pollen ascend from the glass, coalescing with notes of citrus peel. Layers upon layers of richness extend across the palate and crescendo to a seamless, persistent finish with lingering notes of lemon drop candy. 

This wine has the energy and drive to drink young or over the next decade. This wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered showing our commitment to minimal intervention winemaking. Winemaker Description. 

Charles Curtis MW writes:  A classic Aligoté that expresses the essence of the grape with profuse aromas of gooseberry, fresh tarragon and flint. The wine offers bright acidity, medium body and impressive length. The yield was down by an average of 75% this year, with only three bunches per vine, not the 10-12 that are customary, but this light fruit load ensured the grapes ripened to perfection.  Drinking 2022 - 2030  - Decanter 92

Alan Meadows writes:  A very aligoté nose features notes of bright citrus, green apple and a whiff of quinine character. There is both excellent richness and density to the vibrant middleweight flavors that exude a subtle salinity on the clean and quite dry but not really austere finale. This is a very good example and worth a look.  - Burghound

Winemaker Notes

Complex, lemon/apple fruit, savory, smoky, salty; Light to medium bodied, supple texture, racy acidity, saline finish. Winemaker Description. 

Winemaker Description

The wine has a wonderful velvety, lush flavor average completeness with creamy blackberry hues, abundant soft tannins and a pleasant aftertaste.

Wine with an unusually pleasant aroma with hints of cherries, plums, truffles, with liquorice and herbal notes.

Excellent steam to hot dishes of lamb, beef.

Expert Reviews

Rand Sieger 67Wine.com | Deep, dark, moody, and brooding aromas. Black cherry underscored by loads of licorice, mint, and tobacco.  Perfect for pairing with gamy cuts of meat, and flavorful stews.

Winemaker Description 

Color is Yellow Gold. Great aromatic intensity of quince and vanilla. Rich, well structured, with quince and stewed fruit flavours. Complexity linked to a good concentration. Very nice length in the mouth.

Winemaker Description

78% Pinot Noir, 22% Pinot Meunier; Cuvée Initiation is the newest addition to the Déhu lineup. Made from Pinot Noir and his signature variety Pinot Meunier, which Benoît planted using massale selection of Pommard clone from Burgundy. Oak vinification and ageing, unfined and unfiltered, low dosage. The wines is zippy and round with a persistent finish.

Winemaker Description

This riserva has a luminous ruby red color. Appealing aromas of dark cherries, plums, sweet spice, violets, vanilla and hints of dark chocolate and menthol emerge on the nose. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied but smooth with an almost creamy mouthfeel. Tannins are well integrated with the alcohol, and lead to a subtly sweet, silky finish.

Pair this wine with Korean short ribs, ragù sauces, gnocchi with roasted rabbit, and beef negimaki.

Expert Reviews

James Suckling 94 Points | A very beautiful and fresh riserva with blackcurrant, blackberry and dark-chocolate aromas and flavors with some almond. Medium-bodied with firm tannins and a fresh finish. From organically grown grapes. (2019).

Decanter 93 Points | The Bacci family bought this centuries-old estate in 1998, and Alberto Antonini has been the consulting enologist for almost as long. A selection of lots from the estate’s extensive vineyards in Castelnuovo Berardenga, the Riserva presents a particularly earthy nose of truffle, sweet damp earth and iron. On the palate, subtle black raspberry is inflected with tea and tobacco, and the oak is understated and sophisticated. What this may lack in sheer concentration, it makes up for in its fluid gait and assertiveness of structure. A natural with mushroom risotto. (2019).

Robert Parker 93 Points | A certified organic wine, the 2019 Chianti Classico Riserva Berardo offers bright aromas of dried cherry, forest berry, sweet spice and cinnamon. With fruit from beautiful Castelnuovo Berardenga on the southern side of the appellation, this wine shows medium-rich concentration and good texture with savory oak-driven elements. (2019). 

Winemaker Description

Bright pale ruby in color. Fresh aromas of red cherry, cranberry, strawberry, red plum with a delicate white pepper finish. A unique wine that highlights delicate fruits, finesse, and elegance. Trepat is the native variety of Conca de Barberà.

Expert Review

John Gilman 96 Points | This is my first taste of Domaine des Closiers top bottling, les Trezellières, which is made from a parcel of old vines and given fully two years aging in barrel, with somewhere between ten and twenty percent of the casks new. The 2019 les Trezellières is beautifully deep and refined aromatically, delivering scents of black cherries, cassis, Cuban cigar wrapper, a very complex base of soil, a touch of Cheval Blanc-like menthol, a gentle dollop of tree bark, cedar and a topnote of cigar smoke. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, elegant and rock solid at the core, with great focus and complex, superb soil undertow, fine-grained tannins and a very long, pure and classy finish.

The small percentage of new oak gives this wine more refinement than the les Coudraies bottling, but because it is no more than twenty percent new oak, the wood influence is far more subtle out of the blocks than in Clos Rougeard’s Le Bourg bottling, which is the closest comparison I can think of for this brilliant young Saumur Champigny. Give this beautiful wine plenty of time in the cellar to properly resolve its tannins and completely blossom! (2019). 

Winemaker Description

The house brand red is a blend of Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt and Pinot Noir, which is matured in large used wooden barrels. The Zweigelt brings fruit and charm, the Pinot Noir juiciness and the Blaufränkisch character and structure.

The Blaufränkisch also dominates the nose with dark aromas, ripe black cherries and plums, some eucalyptus and a slight smokiness of bacon. On the palate it starts fresh and animating, a fine and mellow tannin spreads directly on the tongue, again cherry and fine tannins.

The house brand stands for fresh drinking fun and goes well with stews and autumnal cuisine, for example with pumpkin.

Expert Reviews

James Suckling writes:  A spicy red with plenty of blue and red fruit, plus a touch of bell pepper. Generous and lively palate, with a very unusual interplay of youthful and slightly developed aromas and slightly sappy tannins, but they add freshness to this dada wine! This is a solera-type cuvee based on the 2020 vintage, with wines going back to 2012. A crazy blend of pinot noir, merlot and zweigelt. Drink now.  - James Suckling 92

Jancis Robinson writes:  Crimson. Pale rim. Good freshness and zest and absolutely ready to drink. Nice graininess. A wine with a story. Dry end but very distinctive.  50% Zweigelt, 20–25% Blaufränkisch, 20–25% Merlot and the remainder Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. Made using a solera-type system containing multiple vintages going back to 2012. The wine spends three weeks on the skins before moving to barrel.   Drinking 2023 - 2027  - Jancis Robinson 16

Expert Ratings

Burhound |  There is a whiff of exotic spice sitting atop the ripe aromas of black raspberry coulis, violet, orange peel and Asian-style tea. The caressing but solidly energetic middle weight plus flavors manage to be at once elegant yet powerful before culminating in an equally austere, compact and beautifully well-balanced finale. This beauty of a Champans is also going to need at least 7 to 8 years of patience and should be more than capable of rewarding 12 to 15.

Charles Curtis MW - Decanter |  Pronounced aromas of black plum and cassis, with notes of rose petal and liquorice. The texture is full-bodied and rich, with solid but silky tannins, while the extract and freshness carry this to a lingering finish. Marvellous. Among the leading appellations at d'Angerville, the vines are divided into two parcels that run the length of the vineyard. The grapes are destemmed and given a cold soak prior to fermentation and ageing in cask (10-15% new). Drinking Window 2025 - 2040.

Expert Review

The 2022 growing season was characterized by a warm, dry summer, with a little bit of rain at just the right time to keep the vines happy. Grapes were harvested both fully ripe and with all the acidity and minerality that make Loire whites sing. Baudry’s Chinon blanc is a perfect example: pale yellow, with citrus and quince notes, but also a nuttiness and a stony earthiness, like the smell of hot stones just after a summer rain, to balance the fruit. 

Winemaker Description

90 Points Wine Advocate | Aged for a year in large oak foudres and for another year in the bottle, the 2020 Zweigelt offers a pure, clear, fine, aromatic, tart and slightly floral as well as flinty bouquet of dark and concentrated cherries and hollyhock. Medium-bodied, round and juicy on the palate, this is a very elegant and aromatic, polished and energetic red with fine tannins and refreshing mineral acidity with fine salinity on the finish. Exceptional wine for 11.5 euros ex-cellar. 12.5% stated alcohol. Glass stopper. (July 2022)"

Pepi Umathum is one of Austria's best known producers. In the Burgenland growing district called Neusiedlersee (Lake Neusiedl), he counts as one of the great champions of the traditional Austrian grape varieties. His main holdings are Rotburger (Zweigelt), St Laurent and Blaufrankisch with a bit of Welschriesling, Roter Traminer, the extremely rare Gelber Traminer, and the unusual ancient Lindenblattriger (Harslevelu in Hungary). Pepi has embraced the intricacies and harmonies of biodynamic viticulture, and for most of his wines, which are all hand-harvested, he prefers to use large barrels of native Austrian oak, which underscores the clear fruit aromatics of the wines. Some of the high-toned single vineyard bottlings are matured in smaller oak barrels and barriques, and are first released three years after the vintage. Winemaker Description. 

Deeply tropical and inherently aromatic, the wine holds all the niceties of skin maceration without losing freshness. Tension is brought about by ripeness and lift on the palate without losing the fundamental operative of being delicious. The swiss army knife of skin contact wines.

The Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer were de-stemmed and fermented on the skins for 15 days, then pressed and finished both primary and secondary fermentation in neutral French oak. The Riesling came in five weeks later with a kiss of noble rot, and it went direct to press, and was fermented in stainless steel before being moved to neutral oak for secondary fermentation. Both lots were aged sur lie and only racked once for blending/bottling. 100% native yeast and the only addition was S02. Winemaker Description. 

Winemaker Description

One of California's original pinks!  Wild strawberry, peach, guava and rhubarb and a very discreet scent of white pepper with Cinsault furnishing the elegant candied cherry top note that chromatically sits atop its vitaceous conjugate. Mourvèdre, at its near homeopathic level, contributes a useful background earthy note.

Winemaker Description

There is no mistaking the New World style of this wine. Intense aromas of grapefruit, citrus, kiwi and fresh-cut grass greet the nose. As you drink, the crisp acidity gives this Sauvignon Blanc a fresh vibrancy enhanced by flavors of grapefruit, lime zest and sweet meadow grass, closing with flavors of melon and a pleasing tart finish.

Expert Review

Wine Enthusiast 92 Points | This vibrant wine is zesty with aromas of lemon curd, papaya, citrus blossoms, and green bell pepper on the nose. The flavors on the palate are white grapefruit, guava and lime zest, layered with dried fennel, sedimentary rock, and lemon cream. Great acidity gives the wine a dry mouthwatering finish. A great example of an industry leader producing wine with organic grapes and doing it with a neutral footprint. Pair with fried calamari. (2023). 

Oscar Garcia Lead Wine Sommelier 67Wine.com | Albarino Pedralonga exudes aromas of pear, kiwi and citrus with the unmistakable Atlantic ocean minerality.  Fine structure and medium-bodied. Perfect Albarino for any seafood dish.

From forty-year-old vines planted on grantic slopes ten miles from the Atlantic ocean in Pontevedra. Fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel with full malolactic fermentation, aged on the lees for twelve to eighteen months in vats. 2500 cases produced. Winemaker Description.