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By Laura Stec

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About this blog: I've been attracted to food for good and bad reasons for many years. From eating disorder to east coast culinary school, food has been my passion, profession & nemesis. I've been a sugar addict, a 17-year vegetarian, a food and en...  (More)

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Natural Wines?

Uploaded: Sep 13, 2019

My neighbor Bob has been making wine for awhile, in the driveway and garage of his Portola Valley home. A couple weeks ago I helped bottle last years batch, in preparation for the new harvest. “I like it as is; we don’t doctor the wine or add anything to it. Let the grapes speak for themselves.”

Ummm... you mean just pick, squeeze, bottle? Kind of gutsy. (Bob doesn't even put on a foil) He is passionate about wine o’natural. and its raw-ish, yeasty, cleaner, clearer taste. I don't know how to describe the experience.



Bob first told me about his tendency go natural sittin' round the bar at the Parkside in PV. I’ve heard a lot more since then about the growing trend; wines made with little-to-no added sugars, cultivated yeasts, additives or sulfites. Organic on steroids you might say, because many are biodynamic, dry-farmed, unfiltered, low-alcohol and hand-picked. Even Paleo or Keto can relate to the lower carbohydrate, alcohol and sugar content.

Now sure, people have been fermenting grapes and making wine for millennia without removing or adding things, but much less these days at large wineries that play with chemistry to make wines more agreeable to the average palette.

Enter Dry Farm Wines, a Napa-based company on a mission to spread the good news about natural wine. “Mass produced alcohol is a toxic substance, and the health evangelist in me doesn’t like it,” says Founder, and guy-with-coolest-shoes, Todd White. “I love wine, but I don’t like all the alcohol, preservatives, additives and sugars. We are the largest buyer of family farm, natural wines and lab test everything."

I tasted Todd’s wine at Oak & Violet, Menlo Park’s airy, local foods, bar/restaurant/open space, named after the city’s official tree and flower. We Food Partied! here last December.



They serve lunch and dinner, and the open courtyard is a perfect place for happy hour with the gals. An updated menu offers a number of tasty dishes starring vegetables including Japanese Eggplant with Black Garlic Yoghurt ($9),



and Broccoli and Cauliflower with Citrus aioli and Cashew ($9).



Order a few of the creative veggie sides and make a meal. When you go, ask the bartender which wines on the menu are “natural,” and experiment.

“Wine is the only major food product that is not required to have a content label,” says White. “76 additives are approved by the FDA to put into wines, contributing to a host of negative responses including headaches, hangovers and allergies."

Best Health magazine lists potential additives in conventional wines include sugar to boost alcohol; egg whites, milk products, gelatin and fish bladders to remove off-flavors; calcium carbonate (chalk) to lower acid; and tartaric acid or citric acid to increase acid.

“I want no part of it, says White, “I want to drink smarter. We don’t sell anything over 12.5% alcohol. Our wines are expressions of taste and pleasure. When a wine is alive and free from overreaching modern influence, it expresses nature joyfully and perfectly.”


a sampling of Dry Farm Wines

It’s important to note that natural is not a regulated term, and there is no official certification process, so get to know your source. Dry Farm wines has created its own certification process. Find them, and other natural buyers, online.

I was skeptical about the flavor difference when first introduced to natural wines, but now realize the authenticity they offer. It’s a new way to explore the world of wine, and I’m gaining an appreciation for the style. Like any alcohol however, appreciate in moderation; the American Heart Association recommends one or two drinks (4 oz each) per day for men, and one drink for women. They make no distinction between natural wine and conventionally-made wine.

photos by LSIC

Local Journalism.
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Comments

Posted by Laura Stec, a resident of Portola Valley: other,
on Sep 13, 2019 at 12:35 pm

I just got a post for a cool event at The Park James Hotel.

Societal Impact of Social Media

Sun, September 29, 2019
2:00 PM �" 5:00 PM


Park James Hotel
1400 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Presented by Arts Guild of Portola Valley




A conversation with
an Academic, an Artist, an Author, an Executive,
an Influencer, and a Journalist


Exploring the cultural effect of our collective digital footprint.
Michal Kosinski, Professor Stanford University
Topic: The End of Privacy

?Kevin Moore, Artist & Founder
Topic: The Instagramification of Culture

María Mínguez Arias, Author
Topic: Grieving in the Digital Age

Mary Ioannidis, Google Executive
Topic: Friend or Faux?

Tony Perkins, Influencer & Author
Topic: The Diffusion of Influencers

Eric Savitz, Assitant Editor, Barron's
Topic: The Business of Social Media

Here for tickets: Web Link



Posted by H2O Sustainable Wines, a resident of Another Mountain View Neighborhood,
on Sep 18, 2019 at 9:34 am

The Russian River is currently unsustainable in its natural state for natural processes like native salmon habitat due to the ag demand placed on it by the wineries. They hide this by augmenting the flow, diverting water from another river through tunnels.

Many do not know that a lot of water flowing down the Russian is diverted from the Eel River into the Russian because the wineries have sucked the Russian dry. This over production in the wine regions also negatively affects the Eel river.

Down in Paso Robles the water basin is being rapidly depleted, dropping at a faster rate in the past 20 years than had ever been seen, and still they plant and pump...the ground is actually sinking.


Posted by From a Reader, a resident of another community,
on Sep 20, 2019 at 6:50 am

I liked your recent article about natural wine. However, it is definitely not a trend, it has been made for 8,000 years. The industrial/conventional swill which most people drink is the “trend" since it has only been around post WW11 with the advent of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides etc.


Posted by mitchelsamuel61, a resident of Old Mountain View,
on Oct 21, 2019 at 11:01 pm

mitchelsamuel61 is a registered user.

I am completely agree with you, I am an amazing fan of your site,


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