Organic Wine With Your Cheese?

Everyone loves to fantasize about vacations gathering with loved ones over bottles of wine. But what if you are organic? Until recently, I never mixed the two concepts of organic and alcohol together. Fortunately, now I know that the two can mix so that you can take your healthy lifestyle with you no matter where you travel.

According to the Organic Food and Drink Website, the organic wine industry is growing by %20 a year. The term “organic” can be applied to wine just as easily as any other product. The land the wine is fertilized on has to be chemical free for three years. They use natural insect predators to keep insects away instead of spraying pesticides on the land.

There are a lot of factors that differentiate organic wine from non organic that I had never known about:

• Organic Winemakers pay specific attention to the use of yeasts, the filtration/fining method, and the use of sulfur dioxide.




• Organic vineyards have more natural resistance to poor weather or pestilence and perform better in poor vintages than non-organic ones.

• White wines ferment apart from grape skins. Red wines ferment with juice and skins together, providing them not only with their color but with various tannins, a natural preservative.

Tucson based wine resturant, Elle features a handful of organic wines. Employee, Jeff Fuld compares the concept of coffee and wine to describe the trend.

"When decaffinated coffee first came out, people used to say that it was not bad for decaf". Fuld says this is somewhat different from organic wine because it tastes so similar. "It is considered an aided bonus to the wine rather than a qualifier that is just not as good", he said.

Organic wine is becoming more common at Elle the more people see how comparable the taste is. "I think that skepticism is decreasing over time", he said.

If you do not live in Tucson and want to buy organic wine, you can purchase it online at The Organic Wine Company . This brother-sister company was the first to import French organic wine into the United States.

When I looked at the selection, I was amazed at how much they had to offer. They sell red, roses, white, sparkling and dessert wine from $10 to $70.

I had always thought that organic wine would be so much more expensive than regular wine. Since there seems to be no difference in price, I would definitely inquire about it next time I make a wine purchase.