Mary Taylor Wines: Our Philosophy
In addition to caring deeply about the stakeholders involved with our company, our wine selection process is as such: We partner with grower-producers who farm their land respectfully and who are true artisans. While the majority of our wineries are independent, we also work with two small co-operatives (one in Bordeaux and the other in Saint-Pourçain) whose viticulture practices align with our values of sustainability, minimal intervention, and artisanship.
Like many small-scale vignerons, our growers often cannot afford to certify themselves as organic or biodynamic, yet they nonetheless adopt farming practices that would meet the criteria for certification. At a minimum, we prefer to partner with producers who follow the sustainability standards outlined by the Haut Valeur Environmentale (HVE), an environmental certification for farms adopted by the EU. These tenets include extremely conservative use of water, minimal use of fertilizers (and those made only of natural compost) and mildew treatment, holistic pest management, biodiversity, and comparatively low yields. The growers who we mention as biodynamic are self-declared; they work by the moon schedule and they treat their land with the utmost care so that the plants are healthy and happy.
In terms of winemaking, our foremost priority is to highlight the true diversity of terroirs. As a result, our producers uniformly employ little to no filtration, limit the amount of sulfur added before bottling, and choose to carry out their fermentations via natural or local yeast strains. They also avoid the use of overly intrusive young oak in order to emphasize the underlying expression of vintage, grape, and place.
We seek out partners, customers, growers, employees who are committed to equal opportunity, integrity of all living beings, and a strong sense of stewardship for this beautiful earth.
