24 October - Happy Vines

Maybe it's just a good feeling brought on by drinking good wine with good people, but for every mega-winery overcropping and centrifuging their dry little hearts out, there's a winery like Movia (on the Slovenian side of Collio) and a bunch of others, making beautiful wine from exceedingly happy vines. Ales and Vesna Kristancic make wine much the way the previous eight generations of Kristancics made wine -- biodynamically, before there was such a word. As far as they're concerned, it's the only way to make wine. Tasting them, I wouldn't argue. Supple, silky-textured, brimming with fruit, these are luscious, sensual wines. Is there a defining "Biodynamic" style? My tasting notes for biodynamic wines often contain words similar to those I used to describe Movia's wines.

It seems we've reached the point in the world of wine where it can be said that there is such a thing as too much technology. Why? Why do we find it necessary to make more wine than we can possibly consume? In our rush to produce more, easier and "cleaner," we have lost the essence of wine. Fortunately, some people never forgot, and others, eager to revive land handed down to them for generations, have returned to ancient agricultural ideas rooted in nature, literally bringing together heaven and earth to make happy vines. Offering us happy wines.