Organic farming isn't always a choice

As consumers, we can choose whether or not to buy organic products. Most farmers make the same choice, but for some, it's the only way they can survive. Click on the article title to read more:
Organic chemistry
Organic is happening in the wetlands of Hollagaru village in Shimoga district of Karnataka. The high production of arecanut, paddy, vanilla and coffee has ...

Why choose organic wine?

What could be a better accompaniment to a meal of organic food than a glass of organic wine? Wine is one of humanity’s oldest beverages. It’s been used in medicine and religious rituals, and it is all over our social calendars. A lot of research has been made to study its effect on human health. Is it a coincidence that the French, who are second in the world in wine consumption, also have the second lowest occurrence of heart disease?

That alone is a good reason to enjoy a glass of wine. But why select an organic wine over one made with conventional methods?

First, as with all organic food, organic wine is produced without any pesticides, herbicides or insecticides. According to some estimates, seventeen such substances are used in conventional wine grape production, making grapes one of the most heavily sprayed crops. After years of spraying the soil, as well as a season of spraying the grapes, the grapes contain contact as well as systemic pesticides. They may not only harm the plants, the soil, and ultimately the environment, but may also be present in the wine as a residue.

Organic farming promotes “biodiversity” and allows other plants to grow in and around the vineyard. Instead of using chemical substances to eliminate weeds, vintners let them grow. In place of herbicides they cultivate the soil and plant cover crops. They use only natural fertilizers, such as composted animal manure, and cultivate beneficial insects, such as ladybugs, to keep the less-welcome ones away.

Grapes are hand picked, which allow only the ripest and healthiest to be used in wine production. An independent body of certification (accredited by the USDA), has to control each winegrower, once or twice a year, to test if he meets the standards for organic farming.

But being “organic” doesn’t stop when the grapes are picked. The winemaking process itself is a factor. Organic wineries keep physical treatment of the wine to a minimum level, although the temperature is controlled throughout.

Further, to call a wine “organic,” it must not contain added sulfur dioxide, or sulfites. A natural byproduct of the fermentation process, sulfites are essential to prevent oxidation or bacterial spoilage of the wine. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows organic wines contain up to 100ppm of sulfites in the final product, many contain less than that; organic red wine, for example, often contains only 40ppm. Conventional winemakers generally add sulfites, and the sulfite levels of their wines will be twice as high.

Organic wines haven’t had a good reputation throughout the years, but you’d be surprised at how far they’ve come. Add a glass of organic wine to that next organic meal, and make it tasty, heart-healthy, and environmentally friendly.

Not just organic, but biodynamic

Some growers go beyond organic to "biodynamic." The term sounds terribly modern, but the idea goes back to the 1920s. Fully 20 vineyards in California alone are biodynamic. What's biodynamic wine like? And why should you care? Read all about it here.

It Wasn't the Sulfites

Organic wine usually has sulfites, but avoiding sulfites isn't the reason to drink it anyway.

It’s happened to you, hasn’t it? A night of good cabernet (well, maybe not so good, but red anyway,) and you wake up the next morning with a headache. And you think: darn those sulfites! That’s what I get for drinking that red wine! Well…it may have been the red wine. But it probably wasn’t the sulfites.

Sulfites are sulfur dioxide – sulfur and oxygen. Both, of course, occur commonly in nature, and our own bodies produce about a gram of sulfites a day. It’s commonly used as a preservative in any number of things. Dried fruit has plenty of sulfites. It’s added to salad bar items, to keep them fresh. And if you’re out for a nice restaurant meal, you’ll probably get more sulfites from your food than from your wine.

Sulfites, which are normally measured in parts per million or “ppm,” occur naturally in winemaking, from yeasts that form during fermentation. Most of the sulfite molecule binds with other substances in the wine. Once “bound,” it can’t be tasted or smelled. The rest of the molecule, the “free” sulfite, is left to bond with air or other substances that could spoil the wine. So it’s the free sulfites that have the preservative qualities, that either kill harmful organisms outright or prevent them from reproducing. Sulfites keep wine from oxidizing and prevent the growth of bacteria, molds, and yeasts that would turn it to vinegar. So while almost all wine has naturally-occurring sulfites, winemakers generally add more to keep the grape juice from going bad.

Sulfites aren’t the only natural preservative in wine. Tannin, found in grape skins, does the same thing. Since red wine is fermented with the skins, it has more tannin, and needs less sulfites. You’ll find the highest sulfite levels in sweet dessert wines, because they need it most. Drier wines have less.

United States law requires that all wines with sulfite levels of more than 10ppm be labeled “Contains Sulfites.” Since sulfites occur naturally, that includes almost all wine. It doesn’t necessarily mean that sulfites were added. The legal limit in the US is 350ppm, with most weighing in between 25 and 150. European wines average around 80ppm.

Organic wines must have less than 100ppm, and most have less than 40. While organic winemakers are more likely to restrict the use of added sulfites, it’s just as possible to have a sulfite-free wine that’s made from conventionally grown grapes as from organic ones.

Do sulfites have any negative effects on wine? Some winemakers find that they affect the color, clarity, and taste of their wines, and you may find the lower sulfite wines more to your liking as well.

Do they have any negative effects on people? Those are limited to a very small part of the population. You’re a bit more likely to feel those effects if you’re asthmatic. The Food and Drug Administration tells us that about 0.4% of the population is highly allergic to sulfites. More may be sulfite-sensitive.

If you’re having reactions to wine, try a few dried apricots. If you don’t react to them, it may be something else – the specific grape, the trees growing near the vineyard, the oak the wine was aged in – but it’s not the sulfites.