Beyond Organic Wine

Johannes Pinchbeck is a Canadian grape breeder who lives north of Edmonton, Alberta and develops grapes that can take sub-arctic cold and still be productive. The extremity of his climate introduces aspects of grape growing that seem unbelievable, and that remind me of how mind-blowingly amazing these plants are that have adapted to survive in these conditions. Enjoy this journey to explore a kind...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com Elaine Chukan Brown is a gifted writer, speaker, and global wine educator, as well as an outspoken advocate of diversity in our wine cultures… and everywhere. Elaine has won many awards and honors including Wine Communicator of the Year. But more than that, Elaine is a badass, beautiful human being who I l...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com This episode features Will Bucklin of Bucklin Old Hill Ranch . Will is the caretaker of one of California’s oldest vineyards, and he discusses some of the many things we can learn from a vineyard that is over 150 years old. One of the remarkable things about a vineyard that old is that it pre-dates the Gre...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com Hey, this is Beyond Organic Wine, and this episode features audio from the Embracing Hybrid Grapes conference that took place on International Hybrid Grape Day, January 26, 2026, at UC Davis in California. This audio is only available for subscribers, and features Matt Niess of North American Press telling...

“I want to thank you for what you said. I’ve felt excluded from wine, and I didn’t understand why. And what you said helped me to see why I felt that way, and now I feel like I can do something about it.” A young woman said this to me after my presentation on the panel titled “Beyond Vinifera,” at the Oregon Wine Symposium last week. Before I spoke, two scientists from Cornell University spoke abo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com This episode features Zach Geballe of the VinePair Podcast . Zach’s experience as a wine and drinks communicator for VinePair builds on years of experience as a sommelier and beverage director in restaurants. He and the VinePair team do a great job of staying informed and having informed perspectives, and...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com On January 26, 2026, I and Elodie Oliver produced a historic conference at UC Davis that was dedicated exclusively to the benefits of hybrid grapes for California wine. I will be releasing the audio from each of the keynotes, presentations, and panels for Beyond Organic Wine substack subscribers. This is t...

Last Monday Elodie Oliver and I hosted a sell-out crowd (we had to add extra seats!) of winegrowers, winemakers, wine sellers, grape breeders, wine industry leaders, wine press, academics, and wine aficionados at the UC Davis Conference Center for a conference dedicated exclusively to the benefits of hybrid grapes for the California wine industry. The conference felt like a symbol of the seismic s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com This episode features Derrick Vogel, a grape grower in northern Michigan, and the co-owner of Folklor Wine & Cider with Izabela Babinska. Derrick introduces us this unique winegrowing region at the northern edge of where Vitis vinifera can grow thanks to the buffering influence of lake Michigan, and where...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com The full schedule for Embracing Hybrid Grapes in California on January 26th at UC Davis is now available. I hope to see you there! Crazy Experimental Wines! That’s what this episode is about, and it’s also the label of Chris Boiling’s wines. Chris is a British wine writer who has also been making wine for...

I had such a great time on my first trip and was so impressed by the wines that I went back to Quebec for a second trip and discovered another fantastic producer who has been certified organic since 2021, growing a few select vinifera and several hybrids, and making some outstanding wines. They are Vignoble Sugar Hill and please do yourself a favor and try their wines. This is a second career for...

The vast majority of champagnes we buy and drink in the US are over-priced luxury brands made of cheap materials, harmful farming practices, and at times exploitive labor. We get told constantly that Champagne, the region, is “moving toward” more sustainable practices, and that it is continually “doing better” with regard to ecological viticulture, but that’s because it has so far to go. As a regi...

Reflections on some of the big questions of 2025, and recommendations of some of my favorite books from 2025. An end of year wish for you and your wine, and a big thank you to everyone who makes Beyond Organic Wine possible. I hope to see you at Embracing Hybrid Grapes on January 26, 2026. Embracing Hybrid Grapes in California. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other sub...

What if I told you that you could take a piece of degraded, marginal land with 3.5 pH soils and turn it into an agricultural production system with five times the productivity of neighboring conventional farms without using any fertilizer or pesticides or outside inputs besides sunlight, seeds, and plants? What if I told you that there are decades of data to support this and that it can be done an...

My guest for this episode is Nika Carlson of Greenpoint Cidery in Hudson, New York. There are some unique and wonderful aspects of what Nika does that make this conversation fun and enlightening in ways that I find thrilling and inspiring…. She planted her estate orchard entirely from wild seedling apple trees that she selected from her region. She ferments a landscape of flavors, including herbal...

My guest for this episode is Joseph Brinkley. Joseph is the Senior Director of Regenerative Organic Farming at Bonterra . He oversees farming of Bonterra’s 800+ acres of estate vineyards in Mendocino County, all of which are farmed with organically. Bonterra is one of the largest organic B-corporation wineries in the US, and they are now the largest winery to achieve Regenerative Organic certifica...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com My guests for this episode are Julia and Alex Alvarez-Perez of Usonia Wine in the Finger Lakes region of New York… and they will be sponsoring Embracing Hybrid Grapes in California with two of their wines… and I’m very much looking forward to sharing them with those of you who attend… you are in for a surp...

My guest for this episode is Franz Weninger of organic and biodynamic certified Weingut Weninger in Horitschon, Austria… and you, dear listener, are in for a treat. Franz is a second generation winegrower who thinks deeply about the soil, the plants, the systems and ideas that go into the ecology of wine. He offers practical and surprising insights into how to grow vinifera with less sprays, how t...

My guest for this episode is George Gale. George has led a double life. On the surface, George presented a public façade as a philosopher of science, American historian, professor, and author. He was a PhD student at UC Davis, and wrote his dissertation at Oxford. He has a Wikipedia page, spent 43 years as a professor of science and philosophy at University of Missouri Kansas City, and published m...

My guest is Rueben Lange of Amiti in Oregon FromAmiti.com . Rueben first worked a harvest in 2016, but he has packed in something like 12 harvests since then by bouncing between Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and three continents, including some notable vintages at Idiot’s Grace in the Columbia River Gorge, Maison Maenad in the Jura, and Forlorn Hope in California. Rueben says of Amiti: “The g...

My guest for this episode is Michael Völker, one of the Zwei Natur Kinder in Germany. Michael and Melanie Drese spent many years working in other fields, traveling the world and. In 2013 they returned to begin taking over Michael’s father’s winery in Kitzingen in Franconia, Bavarian Germany. They began to make natural wines under the 2naturkinder label as a side project for the winery, and since t...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com My guest for this episode is Harold Langlais, who works as Marketing Director for and part owner with the Amoreau family at Chateau Le Puy . Chateau Le Puy’s land – the Hill of Wonders - has been chemical free since it began in the 1600’s. After WW1 they refused to begin using the novel chemistry that came...

My guest for this episode is Alder Yarrow. Alder writes and does everything for the blog Vinography, and I’ve been receiving Alder’s weekly email for several years. He gives a list of links of articles he’s been reading, and I always enjoy scanning this list to see what’s going on in the wine zeitgeist. Alder’s Vinography.com blog has been published daily since 2004, and was nominated for a James...

Yesterday I spent the afternoon editing Wikipedia entries about hybrid grapes because they were either factually wrong, omitted important and relevant information, or pushed prejudiced perspectives… and sometimes did all of this. Sometimes the edits were small but important. In the entry on Hybrid Grape, a contributor thought it important to mention that they “exhibit a mix of traits” from their v...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com “The earth is alive. The earth is intelligent. The earth is having a crisis because of us. The good news is: we are the earth ourselves, and we can be much stronger in our activism if we remember that we are acting on behalf of, we are living agents of, we are part of, this living being called the Earth. E...