An Invitation to US Slow Wine + Slow Food and A Visit To Snail Winner Santa Barbara County’s Biodynamic Beckmen Vineyards #WinePW

Beckmen
Beckmen
Beckmen
Beckmen
Beckmen
Beckmen

(Updated 4/12/22 with pre-order info). Steve Beckmen says when growing grapes, he lets them be what they will be, and when making wine, he lets the wine do what it is going to do. His vineyards look different than what’s expected and that’s fine by him because healthy vines lead to delicious naturally made wines. Demeter certified in 2009, the Santa Ynez family owned and operated biodynamic leader Beckmen Vineyards continues to experiment and learn from the vines to make the best biodynamic and most natural wines possible. These are just a few of the reasons why Beckmen Vineyards is in Slow Wine Guide USA and received the prestigious SNAIL award from the Slow Wine Guide in the new 2023 edition which can be pre-ordered here NOW and will be released in a few weeks. Three of their wines are included in the Guide, and all three were nominated for “Slow” wine awards– but only one is allowed!

A draft of the Slow Wine Guide “Snail” designation reads: “A Ballard Canyon benchmark, Beckmen’s biodynamic farming and acclaimed wines make it a winner.”

In April, we invited our fellow wine writers to discover the wines of the Italian edition of Slow Wine Guide — or to write about wines that deserve to be included paired with a menu that evokes also the ethos of the “Slow Food” movement. The Slow Wine Guide for Italy reviews more than 2,500 wines and 300 wineries offering a comprehensive guide of Italian wines available in three languages: German, Italian, and English.

cover to Slow Wine Guide 2022 edition

This May we invite fellow wine writers to learn more about the wineries of Slow Wine Guide USA; the new edition can be preordered NOW from Amazon here and comes out in May and will be widely available in stores, at wineries, and online. Details on how to join us and more about Beckmen’s wines follow.  Continue reading →

Why Organic Famiglia Febo Deserves to be in Slow Wine Italy #ItalianFWT

organic, natural Febo from Italy 

What makes a wine a Slow Wine and a candidate for the Slow Wine Guide in Italy? With 300 wineries and 2500 wines, what gets a wine in the book?

As someone who writes for Slow Wine USA, Continue reading →

Vigna Petrussa’s Slow Wines Plus More To Try: #ItalianFWT Preview

Vigna Petrussa’s Slow Wines

“Wine is the flower in the buttonhole of agriculture and it carries the expression of the terroir and the community.” So states Carlo Petrini.

Fast does not always mean best. That’s the message of the Slow Food and Slow Wine movement which celebrates taking the time to make food and wine the old fashioned way. Continue reading →

Anne Bousquet and her Sandy Soils, Organic Domaine Bousquet Malbec, and Cabernet Sauvignon #WomensHistoryMonth

organic Bousquet Malbec

“We teased him about buying a beach,” says Anne Bousquet about the sandy soil in the Argentine vineyards purchased by her father using money from the sale of his vineyards in France, “but he was adamant because this soil makes elegant wines and that characteristic was very important to him as a Frenchman.” Continue reading →

Ventura County’s Bud Break and Women in Wine

Lisa Stoll, Gwendolyn Alley, Gretel Compton

After plentiful December rains, followed by unusually dry weather through winter, spring dresses the hillsides of the Santa Clara Valley in orange poppies, purple lupine, yellow mustard, glossy avocado, and green grasses turning golden on sunny slopes. On this early spring morning, I’m headed to Santa Paula’s Clos des Amis South Mountain Winery for a story about Ventura County’s women in wine. So begins my latest cover article for the VC Reporter published in the March 24, 2022 edition and which you can read here. For the story behind the story, and for more fun photos from that day, keep reading!

VC Reporter cover 3/24/22 with Gretel Compton and Lisa Stoll in the Clos des Amis Albarino vineyard; read the story here 

It’s bud break, an especially exciting and vibrant time to visit the vineyards as we embrace a new cycle of life coming out of the dormancy of winter and the labor of pruning the vines. Lots of lovely lupine in bloom too! Continue reading →

Eight at the Gate: Sustainable Chardonnay Harvest In Wrattonbully, So Australia #WorldWineTravel

Eight at the Gate

Harvest in the southern hemisphere is in full swing, and Jane Richards at Eight at he Gate in Southern Australia reports that all of the Pinot Gris and Chardonnay is in, and even with some big rain events, fruit was clean and quality very high. Continue reading →

Champalou Fille’s 2020 Vouvray with French Favorites #Winophiles

Back in the day, you had to be widowed to make wine in France. Today, however, more and more women are taking over the family business — like Alice Paillard  now or in the past, Madam Roederer, both in Champagne. 

For Women’s History Month, I am hosting the French Winophiles as we discover and share France’s Women in Wine. Below you’ll find links to our articles (invite here). Here on Wine Predator, we feature a young woman in the Loire who is taking over winemaking duties from her parents. In Vouvray, home to Chenin Blanc aka Pineau de la Loire, Catherine (12 generations in wine)  and Didier (6 generations in wine)  Continue reading →