Organic Wines Uncorked: Who's Organic at Wine Lands?

Monday, August 5, 2013

Who's Organic at Wine Lands?

Wine Lands is coming up in San Francisco, part of the big music festival Outside Lands Aug. 9-11 in Golden Gate Park.

Pairing specific bands or songs with wines is just one of the games wine lovers are playing in advance of the festival.

A few of the wines served to our hipster and trendy crowd will be from organic vineyards - hurray!

Hopefully one day hipsters will "get" that organic vineyards, not just microlabels, are the real hipster heaven. Perhaps we'll have hipster microlabels who understand why [certified] organic vineyards matter. [Hint: it does not cost more for many folks out there.]

In the meantime, if you're attending, seek these out:

WINERIES WHERE ALL THEIR WINES ARE MADE FROM ORGANIC VINEYARDS

Long Meadow Ranch

All organic, all the time, all the way - from the veggies on the plate to the wine in the glass. And the wine's just fine - no Napa fruit bombs. Low alcohol, food friendly wines.

(Certification not bottle labeled.)

Robert Sinskey Vineyards

Tight, refined wines from 100% organic vineyards, mostly in the Carneros (which is still warmer than Bordeaux). They are best known for the Pinots, and their whites (Alsatian varieties) but the Bordeaux blend (POV) is also a big volume seller. Their Vin Gris (a rose) is their most popular coin of the realm with the wine cognoscenti.

Certification bottle labeled on the back ("ingredients").

WINERIES WITH SOME WINES MADE FROM ORGANIC VINEYARDS

AP Vin
This SF-based Pinot devotee has one organically sourced wine: its Turner Vineyard Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara County's Santa Rita Hills AVA.

Envolve
The next gen wine label from the Benziger clan and friends. They'll be pouring their organically grown Sauvignon Blanc and their biodynamic Rose.

Qupe
A Santa Barbara County winery that makes conventional, organic AND biodynamic wines. They'll be pouring their Albarino at their booth. Yowsa. It's biodynamically grown and a former winner of the LA Times wine pick of the week. (It's also recommended as a great wine to accompany salads with vinaigrette dressing.)

Turley Wine Cellars
The historic White Zin appears to be the must serve at this event.

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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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Monday, August 5, 2013

Who's Organic at Wine Lands?

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