Organic Wine - What is it?
Posted by RSVP on
Organic wine: Previously associated largely with bong o playing hippies, organic products have become one of the latest & most fashionable trends in wine (and food) production, with everyone keen to embrace the clean green and sustainable message of organics, pushing it from the fringes to our supermarket shelves.
What's actually involved in organic winemaking?
Much of it is focused on the vineyard: organic grapes must be grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, weed killers or other synthetic chemicals. Even essential 'natural' preservatives like sulphur dioxide are kept to a minimum. (A standard wine may have 400 ppm or more of sulphur. Most organic wines are limited to125 ppm or less).
In the winery, this also translates to wine produced with minimal intervention. The grapes are usually hand picked (to reduce the need for preservatives) and fermented with naturally occurring wild yeasts. Similarly, at bottling time, many organic wines escape with minimal fining and filtration.
So who are the main players?
There is an increasing number of wineries with an organic focus, including such boutique producers as Cullen, Lark Hill, Botobolar & Temple Bruer, Battle of Bosworth and Kalleske as some of the more well known organic names, with the numbers increasing every year. Even larger makers such as Angoves & Yalumba now have organic ranges.
All wines that purport to be organic must be certified. Though there are seven certification authorities for organic farming in Australia, the vast majority of organic-wine grape growers operate under the Big Three: NASAA, Demeter (for Biodynamic winemaking) and the BFA. The NASAA and the BFA are notable for their certified organic logos, both of which are commonplace in Australian organic food circles.
So just look for one of these organisations certification on your next bottle of wine and try an organic wine today!
Article provided by Winemakers Choice.