This was the first independent guide about wines produced from organic and biodynamic grapes. When The Organic Wine Guide was published the press (especially in Britain) was full of stories about mad cow disease ('BSE'), GM crops and the industrialization of our food and drink. Organic wine had seemingly suddenly become relevant. The environmental group Friends of the Earth asked me to write this book because over the previous four years I had been contributing articles on green issues to leading wine magazines like Decanter and Wine.
As I said at the time "Winemakers are very good at telling us how many months the wine has spent in oak barrels and how great the vintage was, but they are more reticent when it comes to admitting what sprays are used on the vines and whether the residues end up in the wine."
The book begins by explaining how organic winegrowing differs from conventional ('chemical') winegrowing. The main part of the book profiles several hundred organic wine producers worldwide, listing the wines they produce together with stockists and prices. The final part of the book explains biodynamic winegrowing plus how wines suitable for vegetarians and vegans are made. I began writing the book whilst living in the Sherry region of Spain, and finished it living on a biodynamic vineyard in northern California.
In the foreword to The Organic Wine Guide, BBC Radio Four and London Evening Standard wine critic Andrew Jefford wrote:
"A sceptic by nature, Monty Waldin is the ideal guide: he has worked in vineyards and wineries in both hemispheres; he knows at first-hand, as few other journalists do, the kind of compromises and ruses which go on there... My own belief is that organic cultivation is the hard and difficult goal for which all those involved in agriculture should strive; in the long run, it is best for human health, best for human taste buds, and the only option for a future in which we cease to exploit and deplete our environmental patrimony. Wine producers, it is true, have been laggardly in addressing these issues, and why? Because drinkers, browbeaten by wine's complexities, do not demand a quality organic alternative in the same way that we are now doing for bread, for vegetables, for fruit and for meat. I like to imagine a future in which all good wine will be organic. Use this book, support the world's most skilled organic and biodynamic wine growers, and it may happen."
Awards
Champagne Lanson Awards, Wine Guide of the Year