By Cynthia

November 24, 2005 8:57 AM | Link to this

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll try one of the wines you suggested and see what I think!

By Adam Mahler

November 23, 2005 4:50 PM | Link to this

Mark, Please check out my recent post on Organic Wine at my blog: http://untangledvine.blogspot.com

By Brian Fitzpatrick

November 23, 2005 12:30 PM | Link to this

I am the owner/farmer/winemaker of Fitzpatrick Winery & Lodge in California and for 26 years have been farming and making wine from organically grown grapes. My number one goal is quality; and I believe the way to world class wines starts with organically grown grapes. Imagine if the wine tastes great and is free of toxic herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, etc. Your health and that of the environment are the beneficiaries of our efforts. And why not? The only thing holding back farming wine grapes organically is attitudes. Drop your excuses and get with it; there is no downside to building a living healthy environment. Making great wines starts with growing great grapes. The winemaker’s hand oversees the process but can’t make up for mediocre grapes. So when you’re looking for stunning world class wines, the growing region, the vineyard and winemaker all offer leads to discovering that trophy wine. Through my 26 years professionally making wines I know that my judicious use of sulfites helps me deliver consistent quality wines. But that’s not to say that you will never find a fantastic organic wine (made without silfites) but you may have some disappointments along the way. Not all wines are great, no matter how and where they’re grown or how there made. Winemaking is like the Iron Chef and Nature delivers it’s fruit a little different every year. But the benefits to your health and our environment are always better with wines made from organically grown grapes. Wine is part of a healthy lifestyle - Slainte! (Irish for ‘Good Health’)

By Wine-Wench

November 23, 2005 12:11 AM | Link to this

Is there a difference between wine made from organically-grown grapes, vs., organic wine? The standards presented by the California-based Organic Grapes into Wine Alliance (organicwine.com/standards) seems to have quite strict prohibitions for “organic” wines (e.g., no plastic corks, and no Potassium metabisulfite sulfur treatment). But do these prohibitions make the wines better?? Well… I don’t seek them out, if that makes any difference!

By Dennis

November 21, 2005 10:12 PM | Link to this

From a general point of view you will not notice a difference between organic vs non-organic wines. Like any other wine there are good and not so good producers. The biggest difference from my experience is the organic producers are not as consistent in quality from one vintage to the next. Because of their self imposed restrictions they do not have the flexibility to adjust things in the vineyard or winery to take in account the weather or pest conditions. Most good quality producers try to grow wines as clean and as pure as possible but want to leave their options open. Also US organic requirements are in someways different from European organic standards concerning what techniques are considered allowable. Saying that, there are a number of reliable organic producers Bonterra by Fetzer, Badger Mountain from Washington, Renaissance from CA, many of Chapoutier wines from France. Natural State Distributors in Columbus specializes in organic wines from all over the world. The next step beyond organic growing is called bio-dynamic and adds more new age issues to the organic growing process.