Reservations:
Your check is your reservation: Send an e-mail to , with your name and the names of your guests. Tell who is a member and who is not. Then mail a check made out to SLOW FOOD PITTSBURGH to Jack, 265 Morrison Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15216. Jack's phone:
412-343-7354.

This event will sell out. You don't want to miss this remarkable assemblage of wine. And you surely do want to be in on all the surprising ways Chef Wallace will find to exploit the riches of local farms and heritage foodways.

The Wine of the Hour: Biodynamic Wine Tasting
and hors d'oeuvres buffet

What: The event presents an opportunity--unusual anywhere--to taste a broad sampling of some of the world's best biodynamic wines, assembled under one roof.

When: Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Time: 6 pm

Where: Lidia's Pittsburgh in conjunction with Pittsburgh Wine Festival 09

Price: $45 members, $55 nonmembers

Menu:
Each of these wines deserves great food. So, in addition to Lidia's usual well-chosen salume and cheeses, Executive Chef Eric Wallace invites you to see what wonderful things wines and foods can do for each other in pairings like these:
--The rich Pacific Rim reisling with a spring onion gratinee.
--The Grgich Hills chardonnay with local mushroom and goat cheese bruschetta.
--The incredibly fruity and complex Coulee de Serrant chenin blanc with a foie gras pistachio terrine.
--The Robert Sinskey Bordeaux blend with chocolate, selected from the stash at SFP pal Amy Rosenfield's Mon Aimee Chocolate.

Winemakers are:
Mike Grgich of Grgich Hills, Napa Valley; Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon in California, and Pacific Rim in Washington State; Michel Chapoutier of M. Chapoutier in the Rhone Valley; Nicolas Joly of the legendary Coulee de Serrant in the Loire Valley, and Leone de Castris of Apulia, multiple winner of Italy's highest wine honor, the coveted Tre Bicchieri award.

WHAT ARE BIODYNAMIC WINES?

The wines to be poured are Demeter-certified* biodynamic, a challenge that goes far beyond organic requirements. To be biodynamic, vineyards must be part of an enclosed self-regulating, self-sustaining farm system dependent on other crops, trees, animals, birds and insects to maintain the natural balance.

Keeping that balance includes what might sound like homeopathic prescriptions, tinctures of this and that, and certain spiritual elements timed to nature's rhythms, the most notorious being burying a cow's horn of manure.

If some of the theory has underlying reasons not yet understood, biodynamic winemakers feel little need to mount a defense. Biodynamic bottles are winning important tastings worldwide, with no extra points awarded for growing style. Recently wine stores selling only biodynamic and sustainably grown products have found a niche.

Eric Asimov in the New York Times said last year, "It would be fair to say that few people would ever have heard of biodynamics had it not been for the wine industry." He quotes the owner of a stylish wood oven pizzeria in Brooklyn that has always featured organic, biodynamic or sustainable wines: "When I first opened three years back, people did not ask about the wines the same way they talked about the food," Francine Stephens says. "It's definitely changed in the last year. People seem to have made the leap that it's an agricultural product, which is a big leap."

Many believe the biodynamics are poised at the tipping point. This Pittsburgh tasting is a fine and festive chance to help tip them into a broader embrace.

So come, sip and leap. We will determine for ourselves--was it worth the fuss to bury the cow horn or not.

We are proud to partner in this event with the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.

Join us and raise a toast to the pioneering winemakers who have harnessed the world's most earth-friendly approach to agriculture to make wines that are worth celebrating.

*Demeter® USA is the only certification agent for Biodynamic® farms, processors and products in the United States. As a non-profit organization, Demeter's mission is to improve the health of the planet and its people by providing certification of products whose ingredients are grown and processed according to the highest agricultural and environmental standards. From farm to market, only those companies that consistently meet these standards are permitted to display the Demeter certification mark.

The history of the Biodynamic movement began in 1924, when a group of European farmers approached Dr. Rudolf Steiner (noted scientist, philosopher, and founder of the Waldorf School) after noticing a rapid decline in seed fertility, crop and animal health. Steiner held a series of lectures that presented the farm as a living organism: self-contained and self-sustaining, entirely responsible for creating and maintaining its individual health and vitality, free of any external and unnatural additions. This was in sharp contrast to the concurrent "Green Revolution" which advocated the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Following Steiner's lectures, Demeter was founded in Europe in 1928 to support and promote Steiner's agricultural methods, called "Biodynamic".

Over the years, Demeter certified Biodynamic® farming has maintained its expansive view of the farm as a living organism. In addition to the requirements of organic certification, Biodynamic standards include a biodiversity set aside of 10% of total land, rigorous processing standards that emphasize minimal product manipulation, and perhaps most importantly whole farm certification (versus a particular crop or area). It is the highest paradigm of sustainable farming, offering one of the smallest carbon footprints of any agricultural method.

Today, Demeter is the only ecological association consisting of a network of individual certification organizations in 45 countries around the world. Demeter asks consumers to join their effort to heal the planet by choosing Demeter certified Biodynamic® products.

WHITES

Pacific Rim Wallula Vineyard Riesling 2007, Washington State
This by the original Rhone Ranger, Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon, who has turned his sights to Washington State, where he is making remarkable biodynamic, single-vineyard aromatic whites. Wine writer Paul Gregutt says the Wallula raises the bar for every Riesling maker in the country: "natural, ripe and full-flavored with a wonderful mouth-filling intensity." Was named one of the "Best 100," '08, by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Grgich Hills Napa Valley Chardonnay 2006
Miljenko "Mike" Grgich, 83, chose freedom in 1958 over his Zagreb University diploma, fleeing Yugoslavia to come to the Napa Valley. He was winemaker at Chateau Montelena when his 1973 chardonnay bested French white Burgundies in the "Judgment of Paris." We will taste the first vintage of Grgich's biodynamic chardonnay. Beautifully balanced between acid, flavors and body, with lemon zest, flower nd honey, with a hint of crushed stones. Opulent, creamy, buttery. All of Grgich Hills' 366 vineyard acres are biodynamic-the country's largest biodynamic vineyard.

Coulee de Serrant Clos de Bergerie 2004, Loire Valley
The Loire Valley's Nicholas Joly, called the master of chenin blancs. is also the guiding voice of the biodynamic movement in winemaking. His 100-percent old-vine chenin blancs are some of the most distinctive wines in the world. They are complex, long-lasting, require long decanting and tend not to be for the faint of heart. The Wine Advocate gives the 04 Clos de la Bergerie a 92: "This saturates the palate with poached apricot, apricot kernel, pineapple, raspberry preserves, almond paste and toasted pecan, yet without suggesting more than subtle sweetness. In fact it manages to display intense ripeness while preserving a certain underlying austerity, here conveyed in the finish by an adamant tone of wet stone." Yes! Wine Spectator, 91: "Has a chewy intensity to the peach pit, green almond, ginger, persimmon and humus notes, followed by crunchy acidity on the rich finish."

REDS

Robert Sinskey Vineyards POV Napa Valley Red Wine 2005
Winemaker Jeff Virnig crafts POV from Robert Sinskey Vineyards' point of view - with organic, biodynamically farmed grapes receiving minimal manipulation -- which is how the wine received its name. Aromas and flavors of dark fruit: plum, blackberry and cassis, plus overlying tilled-soil earthiness and herb notes. Full-bodied on the palate, with fig-raspberry compote and a lovely tart-ish berry acidity; fine tannins on the lengthy finish. This wine outperformed more costly competitors in the San Francisco Chronicle's '08 tasting of 75 California traditional Bordeaux blends.

Crozes-Hermitage Les Varonniers 2004
100% Syrah. Robert Parker: The dark ruby/purple hued 2004 exhibits a smoky perfume of herbs, olives, black cherries, licorice and subtle oak. Elegant and finesse-styled, it is a classic Crozes to enjoy over the next 10-12 years. 92. Wine Advocate gives this bottle a 90-92.

Red varietal: to be named, will be an American merlot, pinot or zinfandel.