Any business usually has its jargon and wine is no different. My goal is to demystify this terminology and demystify wine itself for you. Fortunately, there is a lot of interest in really learning and avoiding the air of pretension associated with wine. And I swear, wine itself is not pretentious. A bottle doesn't have to be expensive to be good either. There are many modest producers who make extraordinary wines at reasonable prices. Wine doesn't need to be snobbish or difficult to understand. But yes, the terminology exists. And a word that I see many confused by is the word "organic." So, let's clarify it.
In the US, an organic wine must come from an organic vineyard and have no added sulfites. That's all. In the EU an organic wine has to come from an organic vineyard and they can add a low amount of sulfites to the wine. Be careful, I'm talking about the wine in the bottle, not the vineyard. As simple as that. Okay? Okay. There are very few wines that do not contain sulfites. I would say this is 1% of all wines in the world. There are more of them now because of the natural wine movement, but even natural wines have added sulfites. Natural does not mean sulfite-free. But I'll leave this for later. In general, not adding sulfites is a risk that few producers want to take and if they do, those wines must be shipped carefully because travel, changes in temperatures and environmental instability can cause damage. An organic wine, from wherever it is, can be excellent or it can be terrible. That depends on the producer and how much attention they pay to a multitude of microbiological aspects in the process of making their wine.
An organic vineyard is something else. In this case, the focus is on the way in which the viticulturist and the winemaker take care of the vineyards. This is super important, so pay attention. An organic vineyard does not necessarily mean that the WINE it produces is organic. The winemaker can add the necessary amount of sulfites to a wine from an organic vineyard, and usually does so knowing that the minimum possible for the wine to be microbiologically stable is always better.
Remember that most of the wine-making process happens in the vineyard. Bad grapes that are not balanced can never become good wine. Never. No matter how much alteration and processing a winemaker can do, there is nothing that will correct poor quality grapes. Generally, good grapes equal good wines. The balance of a vineyard that is healthy and flourishing is what makes a good wine. One hundred percent of the balance comes from the winegrower's practices. Treating the vineyard organically or sustainably is the best way to achieve vineyards that last and, therefore, produce more complex wines. It's not hippy, nor is it just for natural wine producers, not at all. On the contrary. Even the producers best known for high-quality wines do this - Domaine de Romani Conti, Château Latour, Vega Sicilia, Mouton Rothschild, among thousands of others, are examples of wines that come from organic vineyards. Some of these producers are not interested in certifications for one reason or another, but there is no doubt that they take care of their vineyards in the best way possible. After all, they are the raw materials for their product.
When I hear someone say, “I don't like organic wines” I am curious if that person is really referring to the 1% of wines on the market that do not contain sulfites or the others that are restricted in the use of sulfites. Or if it is a prejudice associated with the word.
I will talk quickly about Natural Wine because like all other wines, when they are not well made, they can be very bad, and I think that is where part of the misunderstanding arises. Natural Wine is a category that emerged in France in the 1950s, and is popular today for good reason. At that time some French producers wanted to make non-commercial wines, without alterations - better for the vineyard, the environment, for our health and the wines are mostly better than industrial wines. But the word Natural is not regulated and each producer has their own practices. That said, there are certain parameters that make a wine natural. These are: they usually contain 20ppm or less of sulfites - it can be more, commonly it is less - there is usually no sterile filtration, they do not use inoculated yeasts, they care for the vineyards in an organic, sustainable or biodynamic way, and there is no manipulation of the wine. Sometimes these producers make very high quality wines and use sulfites, sometimes they take the risk and don't add them. In some natural wines the quality is excellent, in other cases it is normal, and in others it is not very good. This happens with both natural wines and commercial wines - it depends on the practices of each producer. And to clarify, some of these practices I mentioned are not necessary. For example, sterile filtering sometimes removes important flavors, and for centuries wineries have racked wine several times as filtration. Indigenous yeast, that which grows on the skin of the grape, is a big part of the flavor of the wine and the terroir. Many wineries that that make world class wines use indigenous yeast and not industrial yeast. It is a elemental part of terroir.
Each producer is different. We cannot rate all natural wines or all sulfite-free wines because we tried one and didn't like it. The same applies to types of grapes. “I don't like Merlot,” would be the same as saying “I don't like bread,” when I have only tried a roll. There are thousands of types of bread, each brand has its own recipe - there is Wonder Bread and Artisanal Bread and everything in between. Can I classify all bread in one group?
In my opinion, it is best to treat each wine as a singular experience. If you like it, fine. If not, it's not the category, it's the wine in your glass. The price does not matter. There are expensive wines that are not good and inexpensive wines that are incredible. The grape doesn't matter or whether it is organic or not. The important thing is that we learn something, that we are open to exploring. I hope that with all this information, we can begin to remove that air of myth and pretension around wine, which is of no use to us.
It is very important for me to know what you think of what I write. You can leave a comment, a question, or simply a greeting in the comments section. I would also greatly appreciate it if you could share these articles with whoever you think could benefit from them. My intention is to share the love and passion that I feel for wine with you and that in some way, this encourages you to embark on your own path through the wonderful universe of this drink that has accompanied us since the birth of civilization.
Cheers!! Enjoy the wine adventure and see you in the next blog.
