Organic Vintners Form New Organic Trade Association Wine Council, Seek to Harmonize with Global Organic Wine Standards

Joseph Brinkley, president of OTA's Wine Council in D.C. in 2023

Six U.S. producers and several partner companies came together to form a new Organic Trade Association (OTA) Wine Council.

In making this announcement, the OTA wrote:

"OTA's Wine Council fills a current gap in services provided to existing members when it comes to the adult beverage industry, specifically the wine sector.  The council serves as a focused space and group that can address many of the issues facing organic wine growers and brands in the organic and made with organic grapes category for wines. 

This council will serve to protect and promote organic in the wine space, specifically in the wine made with organic grapes category, by creating a space for collective advocacy around policies and regulations that effect this business sector, by working to educate the many players in the three tier system that wine must operate within domestically, by addressing current issues related to imports/exports such as equivalency agreements and related topics, and by providing a forum to address additional topics that we are facing or may face in the future that are critical to the growth and success of organics in the wine sector."

Current officers are Joseph Brinkley (Bonterra Organic Estates) as Chair, Cain Thompson (O’Neill

Vintners & Distillers) as Vice Chair, and Eliza Frey (Frey Vineyards) as Secretary.

For years the U.S. has been unable to align with the EU or other international standards on certifying organically grown wines. In addition in the U.S., with three wine standards, consumers and trade have been endlessly dismayed and confused over what the term organic wine means as it has multiple layers of meaning. At its most general, the term means a wine that comes from crushed organic grapes. But the term also has a more technical USDA NOP meaning as one of the wine standards in the U.S. and the one that does not allow added sulfites.  

The roots of domestic certification for organically grown wines in the U.S. were set in a mysterious and highly reactionary and political manner. See this blog post (formerly an article on the now defunct Pix.com website) that provides the historical context for the subjective decision making process that took place when the USDA started defining the organic standards for wine. 

The wine industry at the time was not well organized and food rules were hastily applied to wine. The situation in the EU was quite different. The U.S. policies resulted in wine standards that are not harmonized for international trade, leading to many needless complications and costs. 

Most recently new and even more excessive regulations require wine importers themselves to be certified (in addition to the wines), while a TTB backlog prevented timely certification. 

Its 2023 Wine Council report states the Wine Council's agenda which plans to address some of these issues.

The site listed the group's 2024 goals as: 

 Those who are interested in joining, may contact Danielle Cote (DCote@ota.com).