Organic
The wines in this selection are fully certified (differing certifications country by country are listed below). This category is all encompassing when it comes to taste. Can an organic wine be identified tactilely? The answer is hotly debated, but we believe that due to farming without herbicides or pesticides—the wines are typically lighter in body and higher in acidity and therefore better suited to pair with a larger array of foods than traditionally produced wines.

Natural
Our selection of these wines meets the following requirements:

Sustainable
While this sub-category is the largest in the group, thanks in no small part to the inclusion of wines that are practicing or applying for bio-dynamic/organic certification, it is also the most loosely defined. We can best describe these wines as ones that are made with grapes that are grown using methods that improve, or at the very least, don't harm the local ecosystem. This holistic approach to farming is mainly concerned with environmental health, but social and economic equity (read fair wages) are also factors. These are often under the radar, boutique wineries that either eschew labels or simply do not want to pay for them. So how do the wines in this category taste? Try a few and let your conscience, as well as your taste buds, decide. All we can tell you is that we sleep soundly.

Bio-Dynamic
The most complex, and least understood, of all of our sub-categories…by a long shot. We are completely fascinated with this wine making and grape-growing method, if one can even consider it a "method" at all. The biodynamic practice of farming grapes and crafting wine is based on the ideology of Rudolf Steiner and brought to the public forum by Nicolas Joly. They both believe that farming can be attuned to the spiritual forces of the cosmos. This might mean linking sowing and harvesting to the phases of the moon or the positions of the planets. It also might mean burying manure in a cow's horn or using a "tea" of seaweed and water as sunscreen for the vines. Biodynamic wine-makers are as hands-off as possible and give nature hold over the reigns. The results are wild, unpredictable, and pure. This is what many believe to be the truest expression of wine period, and the evidence for this is that more and more high-end producers the world over have become converts. There is a certain magic to the resultant wine that is hard explain. We certainly believe these wines, while utilizing ancient methodologies, offer some of the most unexpected and rewarding flavors of any wines being made today.