Organic, biodynamic, natural…Quezaco?

1- ORGANIC WINE

A label at European level.

Since 2012, for a wine to obtain the “organic wine” label, it must be organic from viniculture to vinification. It is therefore a wine from vines without chemical, pesticide or herbicide-based treatment, and for which only authorized additives were used during vinification: no colorings, no flavorings, no synthetic preservatives. .

A first step away from intensive winemaking, organic wine can still use processes such as acidification, deacidification, heat treatment, addition of tannins, wood chips or industrial yeasts. The quantities of sulfur authorized at the time of vinification are limited to 100mg/liter in the red and 150mg/litre in the white, against respectively 150 and 200 mg/litre in the conventional.

 

The US market calls for another certification called NOP that european organic grapes growers can get as well. Then only we aer allowed to write “ made from organic grapes” on a US market sold wine bottle.

 

2 – BIODYNAMIC WINE

 A philosophical and environmental approach.

 Biodynamics is inspired by the work of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Biodynamic winegrowers seek to intensify the life of the soil through preparations based on plants and minerals. They also use the lunar calendar. Although it is not a regulated label, two recognized certifiers govern production, Demeter and Biodyvin. The list of authorized additives is more restricted than for organic wine and the sulfur levels authorized are lower (70 mg/liter for red and 90 mg/liter for white).

 

3 – NATURAL WINE

In search of the natural expression of the terroir

Although not regulated, natural or nature wine proceeds from an even more rigorous approach to approach the most natural and environmentally friendly viniculture and vinification conditions. It uses grapes from organic or biodynamic cultivation and goes even further towards natural vinification by not authorizing any inputs or techniques aimed at modifying the original juice, apart from a very low sulfur threshold: 30 mg/liter for reds and 40mg/liter for whites. Here is an example of the maximum doses of sulfur (sulphites) authorized for a red wine:

Wine in conventional agriculture: 160mg/l of sulfur

Wine in Organic Farming: 100mg/l of sulfur

Biodynamic wine (Demeter): 70mg/l of sulfur

Natural Wine: 30mg/l of sulfur

 

As a comparaison point, at BRAU, the wines from our Pop, Terres de Brau and Signatures de Vignerons ranges contain an average of 40mg/litre of sulphur.

Our Experimental range, for natural wines, are all below 10 mg/liter.

You can see that although we do not add sulfite, there is naturally a production made from the vinification.

This is explaining why, even though your wine has zero added sulfites, its back label must indicates “ contains sulfites”.