Organic wine-making moves on to a new level

WITH almost 6% of its vineyard converted to organic production Alsace can claim to be the greenest wine region of France.

Although the prediction made a few years ago by one top grower that 90% of Alsace’s vineyards would be organic by 2010 now seems wildly optimistic, the rate of conversion is steady and sustained. There are also a large and growing number of vignerons who, while stopping short of full organic status, claim to practice sustainable viticulture and only spray their vines with agrochemicals as a last resort.