What is Organic Wine

Whenever I visit my favorite wine store in SF, I try to come prepared with my monthly newsletter carefully marked. I am always on the lookout for organic wines, but first and foremost, I try to stick with the prospects I have targeted in their newsletter or their email.

What exactly is "organic" wine? As a wine lover, this article made me realize that I did not really know the USDA's definition of Organic Wine. The USDA standards are different from what the EU has in place:

... The biggest stumbling block, many winemakers agree, is the USDA's prohibition against added sulfites. If you want to call a wine organic, you can't add any sulfur dioxide in processing. Zero, zip, none. And the vast majority of winemakers -- in this country and elsewhere -- will tell you that you can't make a decent bottle of wine without it.

"Sulfites are an antioxidant, and we have not found a replacement for that," says Robert de Leuze, winemaster at ZD Wines in Napa.

For centuries, winemakers have relied on sulfur dioxide to keep white wines from turning brown prematurely and losing their youthful fruit flavors. Red wines contain tannin, a natural preservative, so they need less sulfite protection than whites, but they still need some sulfites to guarantee a reasonable life span.

"Wines without sulfites are on a fast track," says Bob Blue, winemaker at Bonterra Vineyards in Hopland. "They taste old quickly."

... For winemakers committed to organic farming but not ready to abandon sulfites in the cellar, the USDA allows the label use of the phrase "made with organic grapes." The farming practices and the winery must still be certified, and the finished wine must have fewer than 100 parts per million of total sulfites, a ceiling that winemakers say they can live with. Robert Sinskey Vineyards, ZD Wines, Shenandoah Vineyards and Bonterra Vineyards are among the California producers operating in this niche.

But as some industry watchers are quick to point out, the government's organic rules include blatant inconsistencies, the inevitable result of the political wrangling that went into writing them. Organic grape growers can dust vines with elemental sulfur, which sunlight converts to sulfur dioxide, a mildew preventative. Yet organic winemakers can't add sulfur dioxide in the cellar.

"Elemental sulfur is considered organic, but please explain to me how we get organic sulfur without an industrial process," says Roger Boulton, a professor of enology at UC Davis. "They bent the rules on sulfur because it was convenient."

... But by the USDA rulebook, San Francisco's Organic Wine Co., an importer and Internet retailer, doesn't sell any organic wine. All the European wines that the company imports contain added sulfites, although all are made with grapes farmed organically and certified in Europe.

The American standards infuriate Veronique Raskin, the French-born Organic Wine Co. founder, who argues that any wine made with organically grown grapes should merit the organic label. Why, she asks, should winemakers be penalized for using small amounts of a necessary preservative when they are trying to be such good environmental citizens?

"I really don't know what the big deal is about sulfites," says Raskin. "Even the biodynamic people, who are some of the strictest in terms of respect for the environment, have come up with standards that allow the moderate use of sulfur dioxide."

Barney Feinblum, president of the Organic Wine Collection, a Boulder-based catalog and Internet retailer, concurs, arguing that the USDA position on sulfites is extreme.

"In Europe, people think that's just silly," says the merchant. "Only in America do we have this definition."