Chemical fertilizers promote large yields and chemicals can easily wipe-out vineyard destroying diseases. Vines that are chemically fertilized and regularly sprayed for various diseases with chemicals are absorbed through the roots into the vine's sap and passed through leaves, stems, fruit and finally, into your glass. Not only do you eventually ingest these chemicals, but by using them it also drastically reduces the natural terroir of the wine and diminish the wine's fruit profile in your glass.

Organic wines are produced by using only organically grown grapes. No pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, chemical fertilizers, or synthetic chemicals of any kind are allowed on the vines or in the soil of the vineyards claiming to be organic. Strict rules govern the winemaking process such as hand-harvesting, the types of yeasts that can be used during fermentation and storage conditions in the vineyards of all imported and domestic wines that acquire certification.*

Organic winemakers abstain from all chemical substances used to stabilize conventional wines such as sulfites. It is important to remember that sulfites are a natural byproduct of the fermentation process and that it is impossible for any wine to be completely free of sulfites. Wines that are completely free of sulfites are an accident of nature–fermenting yeasts present on all grape skins generates naturally occurring sulfites. Organic wines may have naturally occurring sulfites, but the total sulfite level must be less than 20 parts per million in order to receive organic certification.

The stricter government regulations for organic wine and the rejection of using added sulfites are, for all intents and purposes, the two key differences between organic and sustainable winemaking.

*It's important to note that we carry quite a few organic wines that don't have certification – if you have any specific questions about a wine we feature under this category that isn't certified organic please ask. The cost of becoming certified can, for many of the small growers we champion, be prohibitively expensive. In addition many growers seek to avoid the commercialization or political implications of how organic winemaking is perceived.

Biodynamic Winemaking
Biodynamic winemaking is much more than a simple agricultural system; it is a worldview that greatly impacts the practice of winemaking in many ways. To make biodynamic wine you have to think biodynamically, which has its roots in a series of lectures delivered by Rudolf Steiner in 1924. Steiner's life-long goal was to bridge the gap between the material and spiritual world through his “spiritual science” of anthroposophy. This science postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world one is able to directly access through cultivating a form of thinking that is independent of sensory experience. Very late in Steiner's life he turned to agriculture and his eight lectures, entitled Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture, were delivered a year before his death. These lectures are the cornerstone of biodynamic winemaking; in fact, all modern biodynamic practices are built upon Steiner's theories.

The key to understanding biodynamic winemaking is to consider the vineyard as a living system that is closed and self-sustaining. Organic and biodynamic winemaking shares many of the same attributes; biodynamic wines are produced by using only organically grown grapes. No pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, chemical fertilizers, or synthetic chemicals of any kind are allowed on the vines or in the soil of the vineyards. The grapes are harvested by hand, the vineyards are plowed by hand or horses, and only indigenous yeasts are used during fermentation. However, biodynamic winemakers see their vineyards in a much broader context that connects their vines and the year-long growing cycle with lunar and cosmic rhythms. In these vineyards the soil is not simply material for plant growth, but a living organism. The idea of using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides would, in the biodynamic winemaker's view, poison many key components that promote the health and longevity of their vineyards. These growers use a series of special preparations to enhance the life of the soil, which are applied at appropriate times throughout the year in keeping with the lunar and cosmic rhythms of nature.

Please see our selection of biodynamic wines here