Organic Wine Grape Farming
There are two aspects of making wine that must be considered before calling a wine organic: what happens in fields and what happens in the winery. It is possible for a wine to be considered organic if the winery processes are not totally organic, but it's impossible for a wine to be considered organic if the farming processes are not organic. Does this Spark an idea?
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Organic Practices in Farming
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In order to be considered organic in the wine farming process, grapes cannot be treated with pesticides, fungicides or herbicides. Growers must not use chemical fertilizers.
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Organic Practices in the Winery
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In the winery, there must be no inorganic additives such as oak chips for flavor or certain strains of yeast. There is also a ban on excessive manipulation of the wine in processes such as reverse osmosis and excessive filtration.
Categories of Organic Wine
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There are four categories of organic wine: 100% organic, organic, made with organic ingredients and some organic Ingredients. Organic wines must contain no sulfites except for those naturally occurring. Wines categorized as containing some organic ingredients may include sulfites.
Biodynamic Farming
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Biodynamic farming was a practice developed by Rudolph Steiner. It treats the whole vineyard as an ecosystem; this farming process uses natural predators to solve pest problems. It also uses compost for fertilizer. All of these aspects eliminate the elements that make wine farming inorganic.
Difficulties with Organic Wine Farming
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Many say that wine making is organic until something goes wrong. Often a blight or weather problem will threaten an otherwise organic farming process; that may force cultivators to make a difficult decision. Growers can stay organic and lose their crop, or they can lose the organic label and keep their future wine.
References
- Photo Credit "Bodega & Viñedos Familia Cecchin" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: ricardo.martins (Ricardo Martins) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
