Organic Wines Uncorked: Wine Water Watch Presents: What's On Those Vines? With Moi, In Person, Oct. 21, Sebastopol

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Wine Water Watch Presents: What's On Those Vines? With Moi, In Person, Oct. 21, Sebastopol

Wine Water Watch has very kindly asked me to speak next month on the subject of pesticide use in vineyards in Sonoma, a topic I have most recently blogged about here in these two posts:

• Sonoma Gets Its (Toxics) Closeup: What's On Those Vines? A Look at Carcinogens, Neurotoxins, and More

• The Emperor's New (Green Marketing) Clothes: "Sustainability Program Ramps Up in Sonoma- Headed by Marketing Professor

At this event, Oct. 21, in Sebastopol, I'll be showing the audience how you can use online government sites and public information to see who's using what in your area and how to understand which chemicals are chemicals of concern.

DRINK THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD

I'll also talk about how to support local Sonoma wineries with organic or Biodynamic vines.

I will be giving away a free list of suggested, all organic estate wineries to support and offering an ebook, Organically Sonoma ($20), on ALL of the wines from organic or Biodynamic vines in Sonoma. (I will also post a link to buy the ebook on this blog, when the ebook is published.)

The event takes place from 1-3 pm.

Hope to see you there!

For more info, visit the Wine Water Watch web site.

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Wines We Cover

We publish information about wines grown from certified organic or Biodynamic vineyards that are generally made with sulfites (which are usually added in small amounts to preserve the wine).

That includes these certification types:

ORGANIC WINE CERTIFICATIONS

• Made with Organic Grapes

Vineyards: certified organic

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites (i.e. a normal range)

Winery: certified organic facility

Labeling: front or back label

• Ingredients: Organic Grapes

Vineyards: certified organic

Vinification: up to 350 ppm of sulfites (same as for any non organic wine)

Labeling: back label only

BIODYNAMIC® CERTIFICATIONS

• Biodynamic Wine

Vineyards: certified biodynamic

Yeasts: native

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites; no additives of any kind

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back label; Demeter logo may appear

• Made with Biodynamic Grapes

Vineyards: certified biodynamic

Yeasts: native or organic

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites; limited number of additives permitted

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back

Note: unlike organically grown wines, for which there is a category called "Ingredients: Organic Grapes," wines sourced from biodynamic grapes may not make any biodynamic claim on the bottle label. Bottle labeling is reserved for Demeter certified wines only.

SULFITES IN CONTEXT

According to U.C. Davis, the average among all wines in the U.S. (as well as globally) is 80 ppm.

WHAT THE USDA CALLS ORGANIC WINES

Unlike any other nation, the U.S. oddly imposes a no sulfite restriction on wines in order for them to be called Organic Wine. These wines are also called NSA or NAS wines (which stands for "No Sulfites Added" or "No Added Sulfites.")

From the above description, one can see that there are in fact three types of organically grown wines:

1. Organic Wine (less than 15% of all organically grown wine)

2. Made with Organic Grapes

3. Ingredients: Organic Grapes

The vast majority of wines from organic grapes are labeled Made with Organic Grapes, Ingredients: Organic Grapes or are blended with nonorganic grapes and unlabeled.

Fine winemakers do not generally make wine without sulfites and a number of large wine retailers like BevMo do not sell wine in the category of "USDA Organic Wine."

With rare exceptions, this blog does not cover what the USDA calls "Organic Wine."

We are hopeful that the USDA will revise the categorization of organically grown wines and make NSA or NAS wines a category of their own.

This would put the U.S. in accord with the rest of the world, where "Organic Wine" means a wine from certified grapes made within limits on sulfites (generally under 100-150 ppm).

Organic Wines Uncorked

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Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Wine Water Watch Presents: What's On Those Vines? With Moi, In Person, Oct. 21, Sebastopol

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