EcoFarm Organic Wine Tasting Features 100+ Organically Grown Wines and Ciders

Thursday night's celebration of organically grown wines at Ecofarm, held as Asilomar in Pacific Grove, brought cider and winemakers together for a grand tasting that included more than 30 producers.

Susan Feinbloom and George Davis  from Porter Creek were pouring Pinot Noir from their 17 acre estate in the Russian River Valley. George had the good fortune of buying land there early on and planting what are now some of the oldest Pinot Noir vines in California. His son Alex Davis oversees the vines and makes the wines.

Zoubeida and Remi Zajac's Powicana Farms in Redwood Valley has been getting critical attention.

Dan Berger was inspired to write about their 2015 vintage after the wine won Double Gold at the Mendocino Wine Competition.

The Zajac's, who are French emigres, made their first wine in 2013 from the 10 acre vineyard they purchased, converting it to Biodynamic certification in 2015 after they settled here. They dry farm and practice no till in the vineyard; in their winemaking they use ambient (or native) yeasts.

They make Petite Sirah five ways - as a rose, a sparkling rose pet nat, a still red wine, a reserve still wine and a port.

Another fine winery whose lovely wines are too often under the radar is Manzanita Manor, a project of Jutta Thoerner and Cynthia Douglas, who mostly raise organic walnuts on 100 acres of land. They also lease 30 acres of public land in San Luis Obispo County, growing wine grapes on 5 acres.

From the traditional Portuguese varieties they planted there, they make a port style wine that is the only no added sulfite port in the U.S. It's also the only all organic port as well, fortified with organic brandy.

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Other wineries with wines from certified organic vines pouring at the event included:

Made with Organic Grapes (bottle labeled)
• Bonterra Vineyards
• Chance Creek Vineyards
• Preston Farm & Winery (Biodynamic)

No Added Sulfite Wines (bottle labeled)
• Frey Vineyards
• La Rocca Vineyards

Ingredients; Organic Grapes

• Frog’s Leap Winery

• Robert Sinskey Vineyards (bottle labeled)

Wineries that have some organically grown wines (but not all of their wines are organically grown); no bottle labeling

• Raymond Vineyards & DeLoach Estate (Biodynamic) 

• Storrs Winery & Vineyards (certified organic in the estate vineyard in 2018)
• Winery Sixteen 600 (negociant)