When it comes to harmonious wine and food pairings, Organic September is the perfect time to set your sights on organic wines to complement those planet-friendly recipes.
Especially with the surge in demand for sustainable and eco-conscious choices – along with stores elevating their fresh produce and range of organic items, so too has the variety of organic versions of your favourite wines.
Kinder to the environment, sustainability is of ever-increasing importance for environmentally aware consumers, notes Lauren Denyer, a wine educator at WSET (The Wine & Spirit Education Trust).
“So, terms like sustainable and organic featured on a wide range of products we pass on supermarket shelves, this is also reflected in the wine aisles,” says Denyer. “With organic wine sales increasing, this should encourage more organic wine production around the world.”
Indeed, Majestic, the UK’s largest specialist wine retailer, has increased its core organic range from 50 to 67 wines over the last financial year… and with the rise in popularity, they predict sales of its organic wines will double across the next three years.
Organic wine is made in much the same way as most wine, says Denyer, but it’s the practices in the vineyards that fundamentally make a wine organic.
“Producers are restricted from using certain herbicides, fungicides and pesticides, with a complete ban on synthetic treatments and chemical fertilisers,” explains Denver. “This will generally result in a more balanced eco-system in the vineyards, with healthier soils and vines.”
Working in harmony with Mother Nature, organic farming is more labour intensive with timely decision making – and increased risk of losing fruit with lower yields if the weather isn’t on your side, suggests Denver.
Going the extra mile to grow grapes in this way and having the official certification is costly, she adds, and will contribute to the price of organic wines. “Usually just a little more expensive than non-organic wines.”
As Denyer points out, France is the leading country in Europe for organic wine production, with around 20% of vineyards farmed organically.
“It’s generally easier to farm organically in warmer, dryer parts of the world but many producers with more difficult conditions are also having success, such as Louis Roederer Champagne,” highlights Denyer. “Where half of their vineyards in the region have recently been certified as organic.”
And so to the million dollar question: Does biodiversity in these prized vineyards bolster the taste?
“There’s no question organic wines are better,” says Manfred Ing, winemaker for Querciabella, one of the leading organic, biodynamic and vegan estates in Chianti Classico, Italy.
“They not only promote environmental balance, but they also have a special way of expressing the unique characteristics of the vineyards where the grapes were grown.”
However, just because a wine is organic, he says it doesn’t necessarily make it healthier or prevent hangovers.
“That being said, a clear conscience does make the softest pillow,” says Ing. “So, choosing wines that are kinder to the environment and, in our case, cruelty-free might serve the mind to feel peace.”
