Organic Wine - The Truth
April 28, 2008
Between organic wine and wine that is not classified as organic, is there any real difference or is it just marketing hype? - Missy in Pine Bluff, AR
An organic wine is defined as “a wine made from organically grown grapes and without any added sulfites by the USDA and must give information about who the certifying agency is.
A lot of savvy marketers will take advantage of certain overly zealous health nuts that want everything they touch to be “organic”. However, there is a specific reason why this trend has caught on, mainly being is that if made right organic wines can be just as high in quality than conventional wines if not more so. You have to stop and think for a moment that before the advent of industrialized farming which uses pesticides and powerful fertilizes, the craft of wine making has always truly been an organic process from vine to bottle.
Also, another contributing factor to the higher level of quality is because organic vineyards have a better resistance to bad weather and various diseases. Many organic wineries will use grapes from organic vineyards that hand pick their grapes vs. relying on mechanical pickers. This process provides the best bunches of grapes while at the same time saves the vine and soil from the damaging effects from the overuse of pesticides and fertilizers.
It’s definitely easy to be jaded when something is lauded as new and different with a shiny politically correct label slapped on it and some slick marketing behind it. But believe it or not I have tasted quite a few organic vintages and I have to say that they are on the top my list of some of my most favorite wines. Cheers!!
Gout de Terroir
March 11, 2008
Hi Wine Virgin, can you explain what gout de terroir means? Thanks. - Ellen in Douglas, GA
The gout de terroir roughly translates into the taste of the earth. Some believe that it is possible for the soil in which the vine grew was able to impart certain earthy flavors to the wine itself, giving it very unique characteristics. However, there is no hard scientific evidence that the soil can transmit the taste of the soil up through the roots, through the vine and into the grapes.
People seem to have this strange ability to make an association between what they see in a vineyard and what they taste in the wine. Yet even though the dirt that the vine grows in cannot transmit a certain flavor or aroma one may consider that the reason for saying that a particular wine has gout de terroir of a mineral or earthy tone is due to the entire wine making process itself.
Take into account the specific micro-climate that some grapes are grown in along with particular weather variations. You also have to consider how long the grapes were allowed to ripen before they were picked. These simple variables among many others have as much to do with the finished product as anything. Most people seem to stop at the thought that a wine takes on a definite character only during the wine fermentation process.
If you follow this thought process back even further, you will begin to see why the French made the claim that the gout de terroir had its say in the over all aroma and taste of a wine. Ellen, if you sit down and perhaps notice the tint of what you might think of as earthy or even chalky, realize that you are tasting a little bit of everything that went into making that glass in front of you. Cheers!!