Organic

Organic is word that continues to grow and grow in importance to a lot of people. From food to wine, our hopes are we are enjoying a product that is better for our bodies. There are several wineries that are branding their wines to be organic to appeal to this growing market. Isn't any growing plant (grapevines) "organic"? Yes it is, but did they use pesticides and fertilizers?

Organic farming in the wine world (in simple terms) means no synthetic pesticides and fertilizers were used in the growing of the grapes. There are several different types of organic farming, 1) Practicing Organic, 2) Certified Organic Europe, 3) Certified Organic with label approval in USA, 4) Bio dynamic, and 5) Sustainable. It is shame the world cannot agree on what is Certified Organic, but perhaps down the road their will be some organic unity.

The consumer must rely on the retailer to help them in their organic search. Some winemakers practise organic farming but will not pay the expenses of certification and label approval. Some in Europe will not pay the costs of USA certification. The retailer has the challenge of knowing whether or not a producer is organic, or sustainable or bio dynamic or neither. Some labels promote their "organic" which is big help, but these are only a fraction of wines available that are "organic" in some form.

Some consumers are having adverse effects to some wines they drink, and with those headaches the blame goes to sulfites. Sulfites are a natural byproduct of wine making process. There are sulfites in every wine, and thus every bottle label must say "Contains Sulfites." It is true that some winemakers add sulfites to the wine as a preservative, but the labels will not say "Sulfites Added". So it is guessing game with which producer adds and which doesn't. I hear story after story of people that travelled to Europe and drank wine there with no physical effects from the wine. Was it the lack of sulfites, or did this producer practise organic farming or did they eat with their wine?

In conclusion, I suggest organic wines in the experiment of wine causing headaches. Sulfites could indeed be the cause, as some people are more sensitive to certain things than others, but I believe the problem could be synthetics, not sulfites. Our wine store now has a special Organic Section (our bottle tree) that has bottles of wine that are labelled organic and wines that practise organic farming but have no label approval.
Cheers!
John Myers