Sampling Montinore’s biodynamic bubbles in their Oregon estate tasting room near Portland

Monday April 22 is Earth Day, and the whole month of April is Earth Month.

So what should you be drinking to celebrate? How about biodynamic wine? We’ve got a bottle of biodynamic bubbles from one of the world leaders in biodynamics, Oregon’s Montinore Estate, that we recommend you toast with (see below).

I took this photo on a visit to the Montinore tasting room last fall; read more about the biodynamic calendar here

And The Wine Pairing Weekend crew is getting into the swing of Earth Month by searching out and writing about biodynamic wines of the world– and what to pair with them this month. Read the invite post here; in it I explain about biodynamics and share wo biodynamic reds from Mendocino’s Bonterra.

We’ll be publishing our posts before our 8am Pacific twitter chat this Saturday April 13; follow along using the hashtag #WinePW. Here’s who is writing about what:

• Jill Barth: “Bodegas Krontiras: A Biodynamic Expression of Mendoza” Jill Barth
• Jeff Burrows: “Biodynamics in the Dolomites with Azienda Agricola Foradori” FoodWineClick
• Nancy Brazil: “Celebrating Biodynamic Viticulture with Montinore Estate Pinot Noir ” Pull That Cork
• Nicole Ruiz Hudson: “Organic/Biodynamic/Natural: WTF Does It All Mean ?????” Somms Table
• David Crowley: “Beef and Lamb Tagine with a Special Wine from Lebanon” Cooking Chat
• Martin Redmond: “Beautiful Biodynamic Bubbles: Quartz Reef Méthode Traditionelle Brut” ENOFYLZ
• Pinny Tam: “A Wine Lover’s Game Plan in Drinking Well – Biodynamic/Organic/Vegan Wines & Supplements” Chinese Food and Wine Pairing 
• Lauren Walsh: “A Bottle of Red; A Bottle of White – Montinore Estate Biodynamic Wines with Dinner Tonight” The Swirling Dervish 
• Linda Whipple: “Biodynamic Austrian Biokult and free-range chicken schnitzel” My Full Wine Glass
• Wendy Klik: “Wine for Earth Day” A Day of a Life on A Farm
  
• Camilla Mann: “Seabass Agli Agrumi + Wine from America’s First Demeter-Certified Biodynamic Winery #WinePW” Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Gwendolyn Alley: “Going Biodynamic during Earth Month with Narrow Gate and Beaver Creek” Wine Predator

As you can tell from our titles, I’m not the only one with Oregon’s Montinore in my glass! It’s a popular biodynamic choice– in part because they are one of the larger biodynamic wineries of the world and their wines are easy to find in the US and they are clearly marked as biodynamic and certified by Demeter as biodynamic.

According to their website, Montinore was established in 1982 in Forest Grove, which is in the northern Willamette Valley’s Tualitin Valley near Portland, OR. Today

“Montinore Estate is the largest producer of certified estate wines made from Biodynamic® grapes in the country. With our 200-acre Demeter Certified Biodynamic® and CCOF Certified Organic vineyard located in north Willamette Valley in Oregon, we focus on producing superior Pinot Noirs, cool climate whites, and fascinating Italian varietals,” says the Montinore website.

I’ll be writing much more about my visit to Montinore but for today, we’re just talking bubbles paired with a lovely spring day!

NV Montinore Estate – Vivace – Oregon Sparkling Wine – 12.3% alcohol SRP $24
I bought this wine with an industry discount while on a Willamette Valley sponsored press trip.

Biodynamic, Organic, Demeter Certified blend of Estate-grown Gewürztraminer, Müller-Thurgau, Pinot Gris and Riesling; the beautiful label depicts the plants used in biodynamic preparations applied to the vineyard. RS is 1.6.

Sight:  Lovely delicate bubbles, yellow gold, straw gold, not oxidized.

Sniff: Very floral, with some woodsy resins and citrus. Florals include honeysuckle, elderberry flower, jasmine, citrus blossom, tuberose, and in terms of resins we found sandalwood, cedar, amber, frankensence, and myrh. There’s a lot of depth on the nose!

Sip: Honeysuckle, minerals, tangerine,  blood orange, clementines. The tendency would be to ice a wine like this down until very cold but it is so much more expressive when a bit warmer. Don’t turn this into a mimosa! But it would be a great backbone for a craft cocktail.

Savor: Great brunch wine or welcome wine, this is a fabulous celebratory wine. Wine is a bit too sweet for the caviar; it does much better with the brioche style champagne rather than a fruit forward sparkling wine. However there was a textural compatibility that was lovely together, but for me, it gave the wine a harsh finish. We loved it with our cream cheese with honey and pistachios; together it is like eating baked goods, John wanted to know where the apple pie was.

This would be a really nice Easter wine: It could handle a ham with pineapple. We weren’t too sure about how the wine would go with the rosemary tomatoes mozzarella skewers. But it was a winner. The sulphuric black salt that Sue put on the skewers loved the wine. The purity of the salad was nice with the wine: It loved the tomato, and the creamy mozzarella balls. This is a perfect salad wine. It would go fantastic with a caprese salad. The spiciness and the sweetness of the sausage went great with the wine. With our chocolate mousse, because the mousse was not that sweet, it also worked but the chocolate almond lacy cookies were far too sweet to make the wine compatible.

Happy Earth Month! Cheers!