Organic Wine Growing and Production

Words like organic, biodynamic, natural and sustainable are increasingly being used by wine producers and marketers as well as resonating with wine consumers. This wasn't always the case but today's wine drinkers think of organic wines as a healthy, high-quality alternative, which also has the added benefit of being good for the environment.

Organic Wine
When a wine is labeled "Organic", it means that the wine is made from grapes, which have been grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or herbicides.

Winemaking techniques at the winery need to be organic as well; little or no manipulation of wines by reverse osmosis, excessive filtration, or flavor additives (such as oak chips). Many organic winemakers also prefer wild yeasts to those formulated in laboratories for fermentation.

Certification
In order to be certified "organic," a wine must meet certain standards that are set by a government agency. Each country has its own certification criteria, and the rules can vary from country to country.

Many wineries that are technically organic still choose not to be certified. There are many reasons for this. Some do not want the added costs and bureaucracy of registering. Others may disagree with their government's standards. It can also be a marketing decision. Whatever the case, they are not allowed to use "organic" on their labels.

Sulfites
In the United States, wines labeled "organic" cannot contain added sulfites. For this reason, wines that have added sulfites, but are otherwise organic, are labeled "wine made from organic grapes."

The use of added sulfites is debated heavily within the organic winemaking community. Many vintners favor their use, in extremely small quantities, to help stabilize wines, while others frown on them completely.

Biodynamics
While the principles of biodynamic winemaking may seem eccentric and untraditional, the results in the bottle are converting skeptics to drinkers.

Biodynamic winemaking follows the teachings of Austrian anthroposophist Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925), and is based upon the idea that the earth and plant life have rhythms in respect to their position to the sun, moon and stars. It is believed that the cosmos and constellations have influence on the different aspects of the plant's growth, therefore the work done in the vineyard and cellar correspond with these rhythms.

Winegrowers use a series of special preparations to enhance the life of the soil, which are applied at appropriate times in keeping with the rhythms of nature. And disease is seen not as a problem to be tackled head-on, but rather as a symptom of deeper problems within the whole vineyard system; correct the problem in the system and the disease will right itself.

Sustainable
Although there are no set standards, wineries that take the ecology of the vineyard into account, and try to minimize chemical treatments and energy use, are called sustainable. These producers adhere generally to organic, natural or biodynamic practices but want the freedom to act otherwise in an emergency or simply don't want to undergo the rigorous certification process required for organic by their country's government agency.