Not all organic wines are the same

Not all organic wines are the same – why does it always pay to purchase wine from the “pioneers” of ecological viticulture?

Every time a winery switches to ecological viticulture, it makes us happy, since this contributes to the increase in ecological viticulture and thus to the reduction of environmental pollution. If however this conversion to organic wine-growing is done at a time when grants for this are being given, this calls for a bit of suspicion. It often happens that these wineries stop their organic wine-growing a few years later. This is however not the only reason for us to be cautious in our attitude toward new organic wine-growers. Whether or not we as organic wine merchants decide to include wines produced from wineries who are in the process of converting to organic viticulture in our range of products does not depend on the reservations we feel alone. We know that the soil of the vineyards needs many years to recover from the consequences of “chemical viticulture”, and it is highly probable that the residue of pesticides will be found in those wines produced by “young organic wine-producers.”

The switch from conventional to ecological wine-growing

According to the law of the European Union, the time allowed for the switch-over is 2 years, but many organic farming associations insist on 3 years, and the Demeter association requires 6 to 7 years from its members. These requirements are easy to understand if you consider the fact that the chemical residue in the soil takes several years to decompose, and that even after a wine-grower has switched over to organic farming these chemicals can still get into the grapes and thus into the wine for several years.

If you think it is important to drink only "pure wines, " as I do, then it is best to buy your wines from wine estates which have been practising ecological farming for many years. But there are other reasons why...

Not all organic wines are the same

During the 25 years in which we have been working together with organic wine-growers and organic wines, we realized that real organic wine-growing can only be done successfully by those wine-growers who have very strong convictions. In addition, countless comparisons have shown the superior quality of those wines produced by the "pioneers of ecological wine-growing."

What is the explanation for this?

If it is given very little organic fertilizer and well-cared for, as was customary before the "age of chemistry" and as it is still done by quality-oriented organic wine-growers today, a vine can live to be 100 years old and its roots can be up 25 meters long. This enables the vine to survive long periods of aridity and heat which will not have a negative effect on the growth or the ripening of the grapes. At the same time, vines which are allowed to grow in this manner can absorb the minerals from the soil in which they are growing. The grapes from these wines have an abundance of minerals (the extract in the wine) and when they are harvested they have a balanced ratio of acidity and sugar, which makes it unnecessary to manipulate the must or the wine (add or extract acid or sugar). These wines have a distinctive character, which can be traced back to the "terroir" (soil, climate, microclimate, varietal). These are wines whose quality is determined in the vineyard and not in the cellar.

Vines which have been treated with a lot of fertilizer for many years and are then switched over to ecological farming methods have roots which are not as deep, since the fertilizers they required were made available to them on the top of the soil. This means that the grapes, and the wine, will be lacking in quality and character.

This is why we prefer to collaborate with wine estates which have been farming ecologically for many years, some of them for 40 years, or in the case of Tenuta San Vito in Tuscany, for 25 years. These wine-growers are really the "pioneers in organic wine."

Erich Hartl
hartl@weinpur.com
http://www.organicwinepure.com/

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