Reno Gazette-Journal Wednesday, December 1, 1999 Organically grown More winemakers are using organic growing methods, which are better to the environment By Paul Franson special to the Reno Gazette-Journal   Just as there’s increasing demand for organic foods among consumers, there’s a lot of interest in organic wines. Several producers, including Fetzer, one of the industry’s major players, are now making wines from organically grown grapes. And some wineries make wines that meet even stricter organic standards. These naturally produced wines originated not from consumer demand but from the wineries themselves. Most wineries are turning more and more to environmentally friendly techniques for growing grapes even if they don’t make any organic claims.

John Williams, owner of Frogs Leap Winery in Napa Valley, is heavily committed to natural farming, for example, but he notes that other wine grape growers are adopting similar concepts. They believe, he says, that over the long run, sustainable farming will prove more economic by creating healthier vines and eliminating expensive chemicals.

Robert Blue, winemaker for Bonterra wines, the organically grown line at Jetzer Vineyards, agrees. He says it costs $50 to $150 per acre more to grow grapes organically. But this is a small factor economically since an acre of premium grapes typically produces $5,000 to $10,000 per acre. Blue says he believes his company’s older organic vines also are healthier, and this could result in longer life for the vines with greater productivity.

Wineries also like reducing their workers’ exposure to agricultural chemicals. They also are aware of their neighbors. Spottswoode Vineyards in St. Helena, for example, has been growing organically since 1985 but started primarily because its vineyards were in town—and the family lived on the property, too.

In addition to farming organically, many wineries also are making wines with minimal chemical additives.

What is organic wine?

With fresh produce, the standards for making a food organic are pretty clear: Foods that are labeled organic contain no synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers.

But there’s a lot of confusion about what makes a wine organic. Wines are designed to have long shelf lives, so preservation is important, which means winemakers have to use sulfur to make stable wine. The fermentation process naturally produces sulfites, so even if no sulfites are added, all wine contains some.

Wines without added sulfite generally have short shelf lives. They turn brown from oxidation and produce sherry-like flavors or even acquire vinegar aromas.

That’s why the biggest category of "organic" wines is actually labeled "made with organically grown grapes," but the wines are made with sulfite preservatives. The grapes are grown naturally using very old techniques: fertilizing with plant compost, animal manure and nitrogen-fixing cover crops, mechanical control of weeds (hoeing, for example), encouraging natural enemies of pests, using environmentally friendly pest controls like soaps, even building houses to attract owls and hawks.

There’s one chemical that’s necessary in the growing process, however. Elemental sulfur, a naturally occurring mineral, is traditionally used to prevent mildew in grapes early in the season, sometimes in a compound with copper. Sulfur is allowed in vineyards even for organic grapes since it’s simply impractical to farm without it.

This sulfur shouldn’t be confused with the sulfites used in disinfecting, however.

True organic wines that meet California standards can’t have any added sulfites, and they must exhibit less than 10 parts per million of sulfites even from natural sources. This is the holy grail of purists, but it may result in unstable wines. French standards, in fact, allow 100 ppm for organic wines.

Do the organically grown wines taste better? There are so many variables that it’s difficult to tell. They’re fine wines with fresh tastes typical of good California Coastal wines, but even Bonterra winemaker Blue doesn’t make any claims to superiority. "There are too many other variables to claim that the organic grapes make a big difference," he says.

Frogs Leap’s Williams, by contrast, is more opinionated. "We’re convinced that organic farming produces higher-quality grapes — and higher-quality grapes make better wines," he said.

There’s another category of organic wine that has attracted a lot of attention: "biodynamic" wine. These wines are grown using traditional natural techniques — and a heavy dose of new age mysticism that incorporates astrology, homeopathy and other techniques based on faith rather than science. Biodynamic farmers plant, prune and harvest based on the position of the stars, bury manure in cow’s horns to produce potions and burn the skins of pests to discourage their brethren. That aside, these farmers use organic farming techniques and tend their crops carefully.
 

Bonterra is Fetzer’s line of wines made from organically grown grapes.
 
 

Bonterra wines are the most widely available wines made from organically grown grapes. Bonterra is an arm of Fetzer, which is owned by Bourbon maker Brown-Forman Corp. The company owns

700 acres that are certified organically grown and works with three dozen growers who farm another 800 acres. It makes 43,000 cases of Chardonnay, 26,000 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon and smaller amounts of Merlot, Syrah, Viognier, Sangiovese and Rousanne.

By comparison, Fetzer makes 850,000 cases of its popular Sundial Chardonnay and 600,000 cases of Eagle Peak Merlot each year. Fetzer’s other vineyards are mostly organic, but the company does not call the wines organic.

Bonterra wines typically retail between $11 to $15. That’s slightly higher than the Fetzer equivalents, but the difference is probably more because of the limited production, different vineyards and the company’s decision to position the wines slightly upscale. Other wineries that are heavily committed to organic fruit include Frey Vineyards in Hopland, the Organic Wine Works in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Wente Brothers in Livermore. Fitzpatrick Winery in Somerset, Calif., near Placerville, also makes wines from organic grapes. A number of imports also make organic claims, but not all meet the tough California standards.

The wines are generally available at serious wine shops like Ben’s Liquor and the Corkscrew in Reno, and at Dart Liquor at Tahoe City and the Village Market at North Lake Tahoe.

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