The Great Clean Wine Controversy: Cameron Diaz's Avaline Wine is CERTIFIED "Made with Organic Grapes" And Therefore Clean–Can People Stop Vilifying Her, Please?

There's been a lot of criticism this week about Cameron Diaz calling her Avaline wine "clean wine." (See Esther Mobley and Alder Yarrow's Vinography for their comments.) 

In my humble opinion, this mishegass is an overreaction to a broader category–Clean Wine–that is a name claimed by many a marketer. 

On the other hand, organic standards are quite clear.  I am not clear why Avaline is being singled out as a target. Because if anyone meets standards for clean wine, it's the people with certified "Made with Organic Grapes" wines.

The distinction to be drawn here–and it is vital to understand this–is that Avaline is certified "Made with Organic Grapes." What does this mean? While I regard my highly esteemed colleagues as fine wine journalists–and I defer to their knowledge on many matters–I am not sure they actually know what the language of certification means. Is it time for our community to learn more about this?

You could never label a bottle "Made with Organic Grapes" unless both the grapes and the winery and the winemaking process followed specific organic certification requirements. And such labeling is scrutinized by the USDA, the Spanish organic certifier, and the TTB.

Apparently Mobley is not aware of this, since she writes, 

"As far as I could tell, the wine was actually industrially produced plonk, capitalizing on the connotations of that word — which might suggest to consumers that the grapes were grown organically, or that the wine was produced with minimal chemical intervention — without having anything to back them up."

1. "Might Suggest"

A wine labeled wine that carried the language "Made with Organic Grapes" MUST be made only from certified organic grapes, under federal regulations from the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP). A label like that cannot just suggest, or it could never be labeled like that. The vineyard must show an organic certification certificate. And it would be listed on the USDA Organic Integrity website. It would also have to be a certified wine and follow regulated winemaking requirements to carry this label.

Study after study shows that organically grown wines have far fewer pesticide residues (and sometimes none at all) as this 2018 study shows.

Gallo's Pink Moscato checked in with 23.30 ng.ml while Bonterra's "Made with Organic Grapes" had 0.38 ng.ml. That is to say, Gallo has 61 times more herbicide residue than an organically grown wine.

That certainly qualifies as a cleaner wine.

2. "Wine Was Produced with Minimal Chemical Intervention"

A wine labeled "Made with Organic Grapes" can only be vinified using a restricted number of organic-only additives (from organic standards overseen by the USDA) and is absolutely backed up by a traceable supply chain of certifiers in both Spain and the U.S. 

A wine with this labeling can not have more than 100 ppm of sulfites. According to its Facebook page, and tech sheets, Avaline has about 64 ppm.

No Mega purple allowed.

3. "Without having anything to back them up"

The entire chain of certifiers from Spain to the U.S. is backing up the certification in both countries that this is a wine made using certain organic standards. In addition to the list of permitted additives (which does NOT include mega purple, etc. but does require that only organic additives are allowed), the winery it is made in must be certified organic and the organic fruit and equipment may not come into contact with non-organic grapes. 

Read more from the USDA here.

In addition to the USDA, the TTB scrutinizes every mention of the word "organic" on a wine bottle and has what many say is overly stringent monitoring for imported organically grown wines. In fact, TTB's stringency drives many organic producers in the EU (and in the US) to refrain from labeling their wines "made with organic grapes" in the US. I've spoken with at least a dozen producers who have complained about this. Amigo Bob Cantisano, an organic leader and an organic vineyard consultant who worked with the creme de la creme, used to complain bitterly about wineries denied organic labeling because of inconsistent TTB enforcement, which, he said, denied many legitimate, certified producers the ability to use organic labeling.

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Cameron Diaz has every right to call her Avaline wines "clean wine" if by that we mean wines that are made with fewer chemicals and only organic grapes.

• Wine writers need to learn more about organic standards so they can write accurately about Avaline and other wines labeled "Made with Organic Grapes."

Some other producers in this category are:

• Grgich Hills, in Napa, which makes 70,000 cases of all estate, organically grown wines 

• Bonterra, in Mendocino, which makes 600,000 cases of organically grown wines

Both of these brands label their wines "Made with Organic Grapes." These are one of the two types of certified wines in the U.S. 

Labeling one's wines "Made with Organic Grapes" is a high standard and one we should encourage more producers to follow. It assures consumers of what is in the bottle–and let's hope in the future more wine writers now know what that means.

As for any other wines calling themselves "clean," the term may be unsubstantiated. But for organic producers labeling their wines this way, they have plenty of reasons to say their wines are clean wines.

Kudos to Cameron Diaz for being a flag bearer for Made with Organic Grapes wines. It's really not that complicated to understand what that means-if you know the rules of the road in organics.

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RESPONSES TO COMMENTS (SEE COMMENTS BELOW):

(For reasons unknown, Google's permissions did not let me enter replies to comments in the comments section so I am putting them here.)

Jessika from https://wineclubreviews.net

I'm not sure you're as knowledgeable on this subject as you think you are, either. Your link to the Moms Across America study refers to Glyphosate, which is a pre-emergent herbicide, not a pesticide. I believe, among other things, the objection to the phrase "clean wine" is that it's faux virtue signaling (which is annoying even when its genuine). Most high quality wine around the world (some notable exceptions in Napa, the land of greenwashing) is produced with organic grapes, they're just not certified. If you're calling your consumable product "clean" you're doing so for marketing purposes. This is what is bothering Alder and Esther and 1000s of the rest of us who are tired of hearing marketers vilify products that are generally of equal eco-friendliness. She could market it as "Made with Organic Grapes" instead of "Clean" and the wine talking heads would be quieter about it.

1. Herbicide language versus pesticides

I am well aware that glyphosate is an herbicide. Many people are unaware of any subcategories of pesticides, so often any toxic chemical used in ag is referred to as a pesticide (in common parlance). I've been writing about organic and biodynamic wines for 11 years, so, yes, please know I am aware of the difference. The Moms study also looked at AMPA, which is a byproduct of glyphosate if you want to get more technical about it.

I urge everyone to obtain and read the Pesticide Use Report from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and individual county ag commissioners to find out about ALL the chemicals used on local vineyards. 

Please note that the department is named Pesticide Regulation and includes herbicides. 

Roundup is configured in some formulations as a pre-emergent but typically vineyardists use herbicides that are specifically formulated as pre-emergents, and use Roundup as an herbicide to spray after weeds start growing.

"The product comes in different formulations that kill weeds and grass, brush and vines. Roundup Extended Control Weed & Grass Killer contains a pre-emergent herbicide. The other Roundup formulations work only on existing plants and do not prevent weed seeds from germinating."

2. "Most high quality wine ...is produced with organic grapes, they're just not certified"

This is a myth and its persistence is a curious thing. 

Again please look at public data available from the State of California DPR, mapped by our health department on its Tracking California website with our agricultural pesticide use mapping tool and you will see the tons of chemicals–carcinogens, developmental and reproductive toxins, neurotoxins, bee and bird toxins (neonicotinoids) and more routinely sprayed in FINE wine regions as well as cheap table wine regions. 

Here's a map of the neonics used only on wine grapes from the mapping tool. 

You'll see just how widespread even this one category of chemicals is. 

While "Clean Wine" has been used by many marketers, without proof, why wouldn't a producer with proof be allowed to make these statements? 

Organic producers for years have been trying to help the public understand why organic matters and consumers are resonating with this "clean" language. My point is partly that wine writers should know about organic regulations (many in the industry are unaware that organic claims are regulated by federal laws) and what they mean and be able to write about these topics for consumers and the industry from the facts. The Chronicle piece ("might suggest") seems not to understand the most basic fact that organic claims are federally regulated.

3. "What is bothering..."

What wine writers really should be talking about is the word "sustainable" which is used widely. Sustainability has many merits as a program–encouraging renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions, etc. However it still uses synthetic fertilizers and many toxics. Even paraquat is allowed in year one of CSWA.

Why don't wine writers take sustainability to task for making outrageous green claims–with taxpayer funding even?! The reason is that there would hardly be any wineries to write about. The advertiser base is too precious. When has the Chronicle EVER done a story on vineyard chemicals? NEVER.

Ecofriendliness is a many faceted concept. But for most wine writers, writing about toxics is verboten.  

Phillip Dube

I don't think this is quite right on the winemaking processes allowed. The USDA states that "Wines that are sold as 'made with organic grapes' have different requirements than organic wine. When a wine is labeled as being made with organic grapes, 100% of those grapes used must be certified organic. Yeast and any other agricultural ingredients aren’t required to be organic, but have to be produced without excluded methods (like genetic engineering). As for non-agricultural ingredients, these have to be specifically allowed on the National List. Finally, sulfites may be added to wines that carry the 'made with organic grapes' label—up to 100 parts per million." (https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2013/01/08/organic-101-organic-wine). I think MegaPurple - which is just concentrated RubiRed grape juice and SO2 - is allowed (but in no way saying that it is used by Aveline).

1. We have three types of wines that involve USDA organic certification. Which often makes the topic confusing.

One allows for organic grapes only, and that is called Ingredients: Organic Grapes. These have no sulfite caps except the general guidelines in the US (350 ppm). These are not certified wines.

The other two types are each certified wines–Organic Wine standard (no added sulfites) and the Made with Organic Grapes standard (sulfites up to 100 ppm). These are certified wines. (I can see you copied and pasted some comments from the USDA website. Good for at least trying to check up but the page you looked at only mentions the certified wines). 

These certified wines can be labeled on the front of the label, unlike the Ingredients wines which can only have back label labeling. 

Producers pay an additional licensing fee (in addition to the certification fees for certifying the grapes) on processed products including wine.

Here is the more detailed description of organic labeling on the two certified wine types from the USDA NOP website.

The chart does not include the third designation: "Ingredients: Organic Grapes" which is permitted but 
means only that the grapes are certified, not the processing (i.e. winemaking).

Here is the list of additives that could be used (see page 37) in a certified organic product, including wine (but few of these would apply to wine).

2. Why do you think that Mega Purple is on the organic winemaking approved materials list?

Just curious. Too many myths floating around in the air, so let's get to the bottom of this. 

POST SCRIPT April 18, 2022

Robert Eden from Chateau Maris in Languedoc wrote in when I posted my post on LinkedIn to say that his certified organic wine coop Maris (a partnership with the largest ag land owners in France) has been asked to make wines for Avaline.

Another postscript: Avaline's website also says the wines come from Can Rafols dels Caus in Penedes, which is more information than many private label wine companies provide.