J
ust as in the organic food movement, there are a variety of (often overlapping!) ways to classify how a wine has been produced. As wine goes the three most prevalent classifications are:
ORGANIC, BIODYNAMIC & SUSTAINABLE
All three practices involve different techniques and guidelines as well as certifications, which can all be a little confusing, so we’re going to explain.
Benefits to you:
1. Sulfites are the culprits that give you that headache and nausea the day after drinking. Having lower sulfites, Organic Wine reduces the risk of severe hangovers. This is especially true for people that are sensitive to sulfites. With Organic Wine, you can have your wine and drink it too.
2. Be 'cides' the sulfites, organic wine takes out all the 'cides (insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides). In a list of commonly purchased fruits, grapes land in the top 10 of fruits that retain the 'cides, no matter how much you wash them.
3. By buying organic wine, we are supporting organic farming and reducing the amount of 'cides that remain in our entire ecosystem.
In order for wine to be considered 'organic' it must be made with grapes that are organic. This is not news. What you may not know is that organic wines cannot contain added sulfites. If added sulfites are used in the making of wine made with organic grapes, it can only be called 'Wine made with organic grapes'. It cannot be called Organic Wine. Although sulfites will be present in all fermented wines, the content will be low. Organic wines typically have around 40 ppm (part per million) of sulfites. Non-organic wine have approximately 335 ppm, over eight times the amount of sulfites.
Organic Wine
Organic wine is a wine that is made from grapes that were farmed organically. These are grapes that were grown on an organic farm and they receive the same organic farming certification as an organic apple or pear farm. An organic wine is the only type of wine that can actually carry legal certification, so if a wine is organic it will carry the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) organic seal. The USDA approval signifies that the wine is made from 100% organically grown ingredients and has been monitored throughout the entire production process.
Biodynamic Wine
A biodynamic wine goes beyond organic practices in an effort to balance the entire vineyard with nature and the moon cycles. It is based on the writings of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner who believed that the vineyard is one ecosystem that only when in balance can grow the best fruit. Biodynamic farming practices are widely used around the world, but there is no formal certification for them, like there is for organic, so some winemakers choose to simply take the organic seal while others list that the wine was created biodynamically on the bottle.
Sustainable Wine
Sustainable practices are based on farming that is not only good for the environment, but also makes economic sense. This means that a farmer may largely use organic practices, but if some of those practices don’t make economic sense (eg – they’re too expensive), the farmer might skip some of them. Just as with biodynamic wine, there is no formal certification for a wine to be sustainable, but there are several associations that winemakers can join to formally list themselves as a sustainable vineyard.
