March 2010 Newsletter

Organic, Biodynamic, Sustainable, Carbon Neutral - all these terms are now finding their way into the wine industry. We are asked daily for organic wines by our customers. But what are they......really?

Sustainable winemaking means doing everything to limit the carbon footprint in the vineyard. Growers abstain from using man-made chemicals and artificial fertilizers to improve their vineyards and in the wines they create. Instead, natural fertilizers, and composting is used and plants that attract insects are cultivated to benefit the health of the vines. Sustainable practices used in the vineyards also extend to actions that appear to have little or nothing to do with the production of grapes, such as leaving areas for wildlife to flourish near vineyard sites. This provides vegetation for animals, which keeps them from eating the grapes. Weeds and wildflowers that are allowed to grow between the vines stresses them and forces the production of fewer bunches of grapes with a greater concentration of flavour. Also, using bio-diesel for tractors in the vineyards reduces harmful emissions among the vines too. Ultimately, sustainable winemaking encompasses the entire eco-system surrounding the vineyard with the goal that all the natural elements within the vineyard work in harmony with nature.

Taking things one step further, there are some significant differences in organic winemaking, both in the winemakers approach and the end result in the bottle. Grape growing, like any other farming is organic by origin. However, for many large wineries, it is not cost effective to risk poor yields. Chemical fertilizers promote large yields and other chemicals can easily wipe-out vineyard destroying diseases. Vines that are chemically fertilized and regularly sprayed for various diseases with chemicals are absorbed through the roots into the vine's sap, then passed through leaves, stems, and fruit. Finally, they are passed into your glass where eventually, we ingest them. Using chemicals also drastically reduces the natural terroir of the wine and diminishes the wine's fruit profile. Organic wines are produced by using only organically grown grapes. No pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, chemical fertilizers, or synthetic chemicals of any kind are allowed on the vines or in the soil of these wineries. Strict rules govern the whole winemaking process such as hand-harvesting, types of yeasts used during fermentation, and storage conditions in the vineyards of all imported and domestic wines that acquire organic certification.
While organic winemakers abstain from all chemical substances used to stabilize conventional wines such as sulfites, sulfites are a natural by-product of the fermentation process. It is impossible for any wine to be completely free of sulfites. Wines that are, are an accident of nature as fermenting yeasts present on all grape skins generates naturally occurring sulfites. Organic wines may have naturally occurring sulfites, but the total sulfite level must be less than 20 parts per million in order to receive organic certification.
The stricter government regulations for organic wine and the rejection of using added sulfites are, for all intents and purposes, the two key differences between organic and sustainable wines.