Organic Wine Making 101
In an age where more and more people are resisting food grown or manufactured with chemicals and other additives, the term organic has become a keyword. So why has organic wine making become so controversial?
The problem is that while the term organic implies that no artificial chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides are used, food and beverage manufactured in the US may be labeled “made with organic ingredients” even if they contain as much as 30% content that isn’t organic. But this so-called 70% rule for ingredient requirements doesn’t relate to wine. It seems it is all or nothing for the wine industry.
A definition of organic wine
Organic wine may be defined as “a wine made from organically grown grapes without any added sulfites”. So even if wine is made from organically grown grapes, where no chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides are used, if any sort of sulfur (or more properly, sulfites) is added to the wine later, then according to the United State’s Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program, the wine becomes simply “made with organic grapes”.
This makes it clear that organic wine is quite different to any other food and beverage category covered in the USDA’s organic program.
The USDA also singles out wine in terms of the quantity of sulfur dioxide that may be used. The implication of this is that even if organic grapes have been used to make the wine, if the sulfite concentration is any more than 100 parts per million (ppm) it can’t even be labeled “made with organic grapes”.
The fundamental reasons for making organic wine
Wine farmers who are dedicated to organic wine production use grapes that are grown without any sorts of chemicals. This includes fertilizers, weed killers, insecticides, fungicides and anything else that can damage the environment and harm humans and animals.
These winemakers believe implicitly that this is the most important aspect relating to “organic wine making”. While they may add sulfites to the wine, they will never use other chemical substances to modify the wines that they have made, which is what many conventional wineries do.
Why sulfur dioxide is added to wine
If you make your own wine at home and add Campden tablets to your wine, you are adding sulfur.
Sulfur gets rid of bacteria and generally makes wine more stable in terms of quality. It also helps to prevent oxidization which makes the wine change color.
Even though some organic winemakers are doing everything they can to eliminate the use of sulfur in wine production, the vast majority feel it is unavoidable. But in the organic wine making industry the use of sulfites is limited to what they say are “reasonable levels”.
It is quite ironic, but sulfites occurring naturally in fermenting yeast in quantities ranging from about six to 40 ppm. Experts in viticulture will tell you that it is in fact virtually impossible for any wine not to have sulfur dioxide in it.
The ultimate irony
It is possible to make a sulphite-free wine with grapes that have not been grown organically. You can do it at home with wine grapes, or even supermarket table grapes, that were grown in vineyards where organic farming isn’t given a second thought.
How ironic is that?
