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Organic Wine
A Toast to Good Health!
Good wine praises itself – Arabian proverb
Due to the increasing awareness and popularity of organic foods and produce, organic wine has started to appear on shelves in liquor stores around Australia and New Zealand. A growing demand for all things organic has meant that a growing number of organic wines are now being produced; quite a large number of winemakers are either growing and/or sourcing organically grown fruit to create their chemical free wines. On top of this, there are also a handful of organic wines that can boast to be ‘preservative free’ as well as organic.
What does this mean for the wine industry and consumers alike, well it means that consumers have more choice and a healthier choice too I might add. It also means that winemakers are able to create a new market for their organic wine in an industry that has been suffering from a wine glut or oversupply therefore making it hard to profit within the marketplace. You could say that organic wine is an innovation that has given new life to an already established and very competitive industry.
What is Organic Wine?
Organic standards vary the world over, meaning that what classifies as an organic product in the US may differ slightly to the same product that is not considered to be organic here. These differences are usually only superficial and are dependant on the certifying agencies guidelines. So to give you a summary, there are two types of wine being produced organically - an organic wine as defined as being “a wine made from organically grown grapes and without any added sulfites” or – “wines made from organic grapes” (or organically grown grapes), that do contain added sulfites.
Winemakers have added sulfites for centuries because wine is extremely fragile without them, the organic winemaker may only add up to 100 parts per million-no more, all of the other additives are still forbidden. In preservative free wine no sulfites are allowed to be added during the winemaking process.
Wine that is produced using organically grown fruit (or berries) means that the fruit has been grown by organic viticulture methods. This is not dissimilar to any other organic method of agriculture, but it is specific to winegrowing. Organic viticulture is about producing grapes using a management system which promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It emphasises the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs, taking into account that regional conditions require locally adapted systems and limit the use and type of chemicals used in the vineyard.
The fundamental idea behind organic wine is that making wine from grapes grown without chemical fertilizers, weed killers, insecticides, and other synthetic chemicals is better both for the planet AND for the wine drinker because all of these things can damage the soil and the plant, and can end up in the wine as residue.
The cornerstone of organic farming is the soil. Maintaining a healthy, biologically active soil is the main objective for an organic farmer. In the vineyard it means cultivating the soil and planting cover crops, instead of applying herbicides. It means using natural fertilizers, such as composted animal manure, versus chemical fertilizers. Organic growers use no synthetic growth-regulators.
Conventional agricultural practices have stripped the minerals essential for healthy crops from the soil, necessitating the increasing use of artificial help to replace what has been lost. In fact, according to conservative estimates, seventeen insecticides, fumigants, and herbicides are currently being used in conventional wine grape production today. Most of these chemicals that are used on the vineyard are applied in spray form and are systemic in nature, which means that they do not reside just on the surface of the vine, but enter the plant including the fruit (berry). This means that trace amounts of chemical will survive the winemaking process and end up in the bottle ready to be consumed.
As for not using pesticides, the organic alternative is to encourage natural predators of insect pests instead of using poisonous insecticides. Organic farmers promote “biodiversity” and allow plants other than vines to grow in and around the vineyard. Biodiversity helps regulate the vineyard soil by attracting beneficial insects, spiders and predatory mites, as well as provide shelter and food (pollen, nectar and other bugs), and replaces the need for chemical pesticides or insecticides. What cannot be fully controlled through biodiversity can still be managed organically, through the use of naturally occurring plant or mineral extracts, which leave no residues in the soil.
In the cellar, “organic” suggests minimal processing and no use of chemical additives. Organic winemakers pay particular attention to three factors: the use of yeasts, the filtration/fining method, and the use of sulfur dioxide. The need for cultured yeasts in organic winemaking is reduced by the farming practice itself, for wild yeasts remain present, unperturbed by weed killers or insecticides. Therefore their use is limited to difficult weather conditions which would threaten the harvest. The physical treatment of the wine (like filtering and fining) is kept to a minimum. However temperature control during the winemaking process is widely used.
Minimizing the use of sulfur dioxide as an antioxidant is stringently observed. It’s rather difficult to make a wine that will keep well without adding at least some additional sulfites to those naturally produced. This is particularly true of white wines, which ferment apart from grape skins. Red wines ferment with juice and skins together, providing them not only with their color but with various tannins, a natural preservative.
Those who are allergic to sulfites will also find an added health benefit in wines designated organic or 100% organic. Allergic reactions to sulfites range from headaches and abdominal pain to difficulty breathing. Traces of sulfites naturally occur in all wine, and scientists debate whether there is such a thing as truly “sulfite-free” wine. But many sulfite-sensitive people find they are able to tolerate organic and 100% organic wines.
Many wine enthusiasts believe organic wine varieties are more flavorful because they’re made from grapes raised on healthier soil. This makes perfect sense when you consider what conventional farming practices do to the soil, fruit that is grown in your home garden without chemicals will always have a better taste than the same fruit that has been grown using chemicals and picked before it is ripe to be available in the marketplace for an extended period of time. Chemical use is also believed to result in weakened vines, lower yields and even less nutritious fruit. Research suggests that artificial fertilization may accelerate growth by swelling produce with more water, leaving it with a lower concentration of nutrients.
Over the last few decades, the push for more responsible, sustainable farming practices, which reject the use of synthetic soil nutrients and pesticides, has extended to grape-growing and wine production. By choosing wines produced from organically grown grapes, you support agricultural communities that refuse to pollute soil and water supplies. Instead, organic growers focus on prevention when it comes to pest control: continuous monitoring of crops, maintaining vine strength, increasing microbial activity in soil, growing weed-fighting and flowering plants that attract birds and insects, and using beneficial insects like ladybugs and hoverflies to consume unwanted predators.
According to the Organic Trade Association, organic wine sales in the US grew 20.4 percent in 2003. The group predicted that organic wine sales will grow about 17 percent each year through 2008. As consumers grow increasingly concerned about the impact of commercial farming practices on both the environment and their personal health, the soaring popularity of organic wine makes sense.
It is important to remember that with any food or beverage that claims to be ‘organic’ it MUST be certified! This ensures that the product is actually organic. To find out what the organic certifying agencies are in Australia and New Zealand visit the Organic Ltd website for further information http://organic.com.au/certify/.
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