MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Great-tasting wines coming from organic methods
Criticism of noninterventionist wine-making is far more subdued nowadays
The industrial food sector has been getting bad press — and not only from Luddites, whose world-view involves an idealised vision of some agricultural Eden. The 1970s and 80s was the worst era of modern French wine, when even the most heralded producers selected their planting material on the basis of yield, rather than clonal diversity, and then mechanised their viticultural practices. Tractors compacted the soils, agrochemicals leached their natural vitality. Farming costs dropped, but so did quality. The vines may initially have been less susceptible to disease but, over time, their natural resistance also crumbled. At much the same time, the organic farming movement began to make its presence felt, initially as a “new-age” fringe force. It still has that whiff about it — at least in SA. When Stellar Organics won a trophy for its shiraz at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show a few years back, you could hear the more mainstream consumers (and wine press) wondering at the wisdom of the...
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