Is You Is or Is You Ain't Organic?

10/27/2008 -

A listing in the new environmentally-friendly website Greenopia got us to thinking about which wines are called "organic" and what that really means. We noticed that many wine stores list a very high percentage of organic wines, but upon closer examination, most of the wines listed as organic on their websites are not. Many appear to be estates practicing "sustainable" agriculture, without any type of certification, which allows them to apply treatments as needed. We're not condemning that type of farming but we feel that consumers seeking organic products should get accurate information. At CSW we list as Organic or Biodynamic those wines made with organically grown grapes which have received certification from an appropriate government or private agency (Demeter is the sole certifying body for Biodynamic). That certification refers only to the agricultural methods, however, and not to chaptalization (adding sugar, permitted in many wine regions) or to adding sulfur dioxide, an anti-oxidant, found natually in grapes that retards spoilage. The US Department of Agriculture confuses the issue by stating that "Organic Wine" must be made without added sulfites (even though naturally occuring levels of SO2 are sometimes higher than the 20 parts per million the USDA allows). While winemaking without sulfur can yield brilliant results, we feel that the sulfur question is really a separate issue, so we'll stay with "wine made from organically grown grapes" for our Organic and Biodynamic classifications.
Here are a few of our favorite wines, certified to be made from organically grown grapes...