The wines of Aristide (Aris) Blancardi turn almost all popular wisdom about "natural" and "conventional" wines upside down. An hour long chat with Aris can radically alter most of what one previously thought they knew.

The farm is endowed with breathtaking coastal vines: kissed by the sea and marked by the fierce Mistral winds that also define the Rhone Valley and nearby Provence. The property itself, with the ocean, Monaco, and the French Riviera in the front, Dolceacqua, and the foothills of the Alps foothills in the back, is a special place.

Aris is a trained veterinarian with a degree from Tufts, in Boston. In the early 2000's he found himself unexpectedly in control of his family's Ligurian flower farm. With old vine Pigato and Vermentino already on the property, he decided to register for a class on Biodynamics and to learn winemaking. Eventually having the opportunity to work with iconic French figures of Biodynamics, including Nocolas Joly, Aris returned home with the conviction to make Tenuta Selvadolce a Biodyamic grower.

Aris follows a relatively hardcore sub-version of biodynamics. He speaks of someone who understands nature, not because he has the blueprint or answers (he believes it is far too complex for any technology or machine to map or replicate) but because he observes relationships and sees how problems are solved over time, if he simply allows nature to work.

Where others see problems in the vineyard, Aris observes that pests can be helpful, when viewed through the right lens. It doesn't mean that he takes no action to keep his vines healthy; it means that he doesn't rush to judgment, and he rarely removes anything from nature.

Conversely, some pests indicate an issue with the natural equilibrium of a vineyard. The soil at Selvadolce used to be gray, compact, and dead. It was full of iron from repeated chemical treatments used to grow flowers. Stinging nettles were the only living plants. As the soil health improved, the nettles naturally left - it wasn’t their natural home.

In the cellar, nature also offers a solution to every problem that conventional wine stabilizers seek to fix. Aris believes that wine needs no propping up with any form of stabilization (including sulfites). Wines stabilized with sulfites or other methods are actually less stable at their core, because the wines required stabilization as a crutch, indicating that they were coerced from their natural path.

Regarding slow fermentations, Aris would say that the fermentation was taking a long time for a reason and the coercion of the wine to speed up the natural processes damaged the wine's inherent ability to achieve equilibrium. I find a parallel to Eastern and Western medicine in his philosophy.

Proving his methods, Aris opens up his sulfite-free wines up to 7 days before tastings, where the wines show no oxidative qualities. In following the conventional wine (and scientific) wisdom taught in classrooms and practiced globally, this is almost unbelievable.

This is a controversial topic as we believe in the importance of judicious sulfite use. Other winemakers have told us the only way this is possible is for his terroir to be truly singular.

Aris has also experimented with leaving his wine in a hot car for days, finding no perceptible difference to a control bottle, in terms of vitality, aroma, or structure. He talked about his wines that sometimes have residual sugar never re-fermenting in bottle, even when left in warm temperatures for extended periods. The answer to Aris is simple - his wine with residual sugar naturally found equilibrium because it was not coerced in any way from the vineyard to how it was raised.

These ideas and realities are such a radical contrast from what is taught in classrooms and from the mass of "natural" wine producers whose wine barely makes it alive in a journey to the next town, speaking more of winemaking methods (or lack thereof) than of the land from which it was born.

Aris himself isn't comfortable with the term "natural" wine and doesn't describe himself as a natural winemaker. He rarely drinks natural wine - or any wine for that matter. He chuckled about not enjoying most natural wine but also not enjoying wine from renowned producers.

In the early 2000's he used sulfites because he was afraid to make "stinky" wine that would be labeled natural, representing wine that he would not drink himself. Only with time did he begin to pare back sulfite use after beginning to understand the land and how nature worked.

In the cellar, Aris utilizes no temperature control and ages wines on the fine lees in old wooden barrels. He is a steadfast believer in aging on the fine lees, with periodic bâtonnage to inoculate the wine from oxidation. However, the most important principle is patience: every wine is bottled only when it is ready, and each wine sets its own schedule.

The local white varieties, Pigato and Vermentino, make up the bulk of production and represent the oldest vines (planted in the 1970's). More recently, Aris acquired land and planted the red varieties Grenache and Rossese. While all wines are beautiful and unique, we find that the Pigato and Vermentino wines soar the highest.

As for the wines themselves, they vary greatly from vintage to vintage. Sometimes the wines are dry and other times there is residual sugar. Some wines are lower in alcohol and others higher. I recall tasting a Grenache from a warm vintage that Aris noted had 16% alcohol. No of us believed that the wine had more than 13.5% alcohol because it retained such freshness and modest fruit ripeness. The old vine Vermentino and Pigato bottlings frequently see maceration on skins, adding another dimension of complexity and natural stability to the wines.

We caution against judging these wines before tasting based on a superficial label (dry, sweet, etc.). A sweet wine meant to be sweet because of the vintage conditions will be much more pleasing than that same wine forced to ferment dry. Its in that philosophy that perhaps the best way to describe the wines can be found - they have tremendous balance and harmony, regardless of style or label.

Seeing Selvadolce, smelling the complex mélange of plants and life mixed with a kiss of the sea and the winds from the mountains, it all makes sense. This is complex land. Aris revels in the uniqueness of his land and its ability to manifest in the wines.

Each grower we work with respects the land. Aris and Selvadolce highlight just how diverse and different philosophies and actions can be within that larger, seemingly cut and dry framework. This plainly highlights exactly why its so difficult, and in the end futile (although pleasing and sometimes useful), to try and label wine. This is precisely what makes wine a lifelong journey of learning, for both longstanding students and newcomers.