Why should consumers care whether the wine they drink and serve is from organic wine making?  

To answer that, we need to go back in time a bit.  After World War II our country began to rely and use chemicals in their vineyards.  They did not see in the beginning anything but how well their vineyards flourished and how well they sold.  Unfortunately they did not see the damage the chemicals were doing to the soil, the plants, the water, the air and anyone that would be drinking their wines. They really had no interest in organic wine making at that time, they simply wanted more money.

The vicious cycle of Chemicals

They did not understand then, that they were setting up a vicious cycle that would be hard to recover from.  Herbicides, pesticides and other fertilizing chemicals shift the harmony of the land and throw the vineyards balance off. Minerals Chemical fertilizers strip the soil of minerals crucial to soil were depleted and because of that depletion more and more ways had to be devised to get health back into the soil, artificial ways that only caused more problems.  Soon the amount needed to take care of a problem had to be increased to get the same results.  These chemical are like a drug to the land and we know how that ends up if not stopped.

Conventional farming

Conventional farming of grapes uses large amounts of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and other “cides” that are severely damaging to the soil and the plants and ultimately to us the wine drinkers. If you think that grapes are not chemically sprayed then think again as grapes are one of the heaviest crops sprayed.

Organic wine making

When the farmer uses chemicals on his grapes he is not simply spraying on the outside, some chemicals go into the soil, then to the wine and into the very pulp of the grape and yes you can guess where they go from there.  They become residue in the wine and some residue gets through to us.

The only known defense to chemical growing and winemaking is organic wine making.  No one can argue that it is not the best for the land, the plants and the wine.  Organic wine making starts in the vineyards with common sense and old time farming methods that allow for healthier soil, plants and wine.

Some modern techniques of organic farming are:

• Keep your soil in balance by feeding it naturally
• Use algae and manure as fertilizer
• Use other plants to help keep your vineyard healthy
• Use wildlife, like birds, sheep and pigs to keep your vineyard weed free and bug free.
• Attract bugs that will eat the bad to the grapes bugs and not eat the grapes
• Cover crops give shelter and food to good bugs that keep the bad bugs away and thus lower your need for pesticides.

Producing wines made from organic wine making techniques is good all around although the process is much more labor intensive and because of that the cost may be 20% more than non organic wine, but it seems more and more are drinking it and thus more and more winemakers are making it.