From Cosa Bolle in Pentola:
When I started writing about wines, organic wines didn't have a good reputation. Rightly so: Most of what one came across was stinky and strident, and I emptied more than one glass into the sink after the initial sniff because I couldn't bring myself to taste the stuff. This doesn't mean that the wine didn't have a market. Quite the contrary; in Italy organically produced foods are extremely popular, and many people were willing to fork over handsome sums for these smelly dirty wines precisely because they were organic.

It was only a matter of time before somebody did it right, and I remember being pleasantly astonished by Stefono Bollotti of Cascina degli Ulivi, whose standard DOC wines (Gavi, Barbera, and Dolcetto) are second to none, as are the unusual varietal wines he also makes. Since then I have found a number of other organically produced wines that are well worth getting excited over, while many winemakers have quietly adopted organic production methods, though without declaring themselves organic because they want to have the option of using treatments forbidden by the codes governing organic wine production if the conditions warrant them (for example, an antifungal agent to attempt to salvage something from a vineyard hit by hail before the harvest).

What had been lacking was a major winemaker who got up and said, "My wines are organic." Until now; Badia a Coltibuono has taken the plunge: Beginning with the 2003 harvest they are shifting to exclusively organic farming for all of the vineyards they own, and are starting literally from the ground up, working to restore soil health by using local grasses for cover, organic fertilizer, and locally grown chestnut posts that don't require treatments; they've also taken a detailed inventory of the vines in their vineyards and have discovered that they have about 40 different Sangiovese clones, which they are preserving to guarantee clonal diversity for the future. It's a gradual process, says owner Roberto Stucchi, but he has noted already that the yeasts seem happier with the more natural grapes, and that the fermentation starts more easily.

Given Coltibuono's importance within the Chianti Classico region (Emanuela Stucchi, Roberto's sister, is President of the Consorzio del Marchio Storico, the former Gallo Nero), other Chianti producers are certain to take note of Badia a Coltibuono's stance, and given Chianti Classico's importance in the Italian winemaking panorama, there will likely be a ripple effect that cannot but be positive.

It is important to note that Roberto and Emanuela are only certifying what they directly oversee as organic -- they have two lines of wines, the Badia a Coltibuono line, which is made from their own vineyards, and will be organic beginning with the 2003 vintage. The Coltibuono line, which they make from purchased grapes, will not be organic, though I expect that they will do their best to keep their suppliers from using non-organic chemicals.

Why my support of organic agriculture? Because I'm a conservationist: Going organic means much more than simply renouncing the use of certain chemicals; it implies a greater respect for the land, and an attempt to reacquire the balance that is lost though the use of chemicals, which may kill the weed or pest that competes with or destroys the crop (not necessarily a vine; the concepts hold in other kinds of farming as well), but also kill the other organisms -- worms, bacteria, insects, fungi, and so on -- that live within the soil, breaking down the minerals and making the nutrients available. Once the store of nutrients in the soil is exhausted -- it takes a few seasons -- the farmer also has to use chemical fertilizers (the organisms that process organic fertilizers are gone), and at that point a vicious cycle sets in, with the farmer having to use pest controls because all the natural enemies of the pests are gone, and fertilizers because the land can no longer support crops on its own. The use of all these chemicals is more than simply expensive; they work their way into the ecosystem, and though one might be inclined to worry about the pesticides, the fertilizers that contaminate the streams and groundwater can do as much if not more damage.

The only way to break the cycle is to renounce the chemical crutches, but doing so is difficult, because it takes years for the land to recover, and in the meantime the farmer has to survive. However, there are some interesting developments; at the Slowfood's Salone del Gusto I attended a presentation by a representative of a company called CCS Aosta that has developed techniques for reestablishing the microbial and fungal balance within the soil. The results, the man said, are very promising; non-organic farmers who are testing the system are obtaining beautiful crops and have found that they can reduce their fertilizer use by more than 50%. I would assume, given these results, that if one were to employ this system while also following organic methods one could likely go completely organic in fairly short order. The fewer chemicals leaked into the environment, the better off we all are.

There is one final point to be made about organic farming: It has to be a group effort, with everybody in a given area participating. There's little point in one farmer using ladybugs to control an insect pest if his neighbors use a pesticide that also wipes out ladybugs; breezes will bring enough of the pesticide onto his land to reduce his ladybug population, thereby making his (untreated) crops that much more attractive to the pests. Organic farming is therefore a way to restore a balance that has been lost in many rural areas, and, given the advances made possible by modern research (CCS Aosta is certainly not alone), the old saw that organic farming is less productive than intensive fertilizer-based farming no longer holds. Indeed, once the environmental and other hidden costs of chemical based farming are factored in, modern organic farming may be more economical for the farmer.

A presto,
Kyle Phillips
Webweaver, About Italian Cuisine

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