Ideal Bite

Confused by more than just the pricing on your bottle of wine?

09.10.2008

Submitted by tmeronek on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 12:49am.

The Bite:

Surprise, surprise. Not only do you have to worry about the region, varietal, and vintage, now you gotta decipher just how organic your vino is. Worry not - our cheat sheet makes the labeling system stunningly straightforward.

The Benefits:

Not-so-dumbfounding labeling. Green wine can carry several labels. Know what you're getting when you buy.
Less costly planetary impacts. In the state of CA alone, wine grape producers use pesticides on land three times the size of Yellowstone National Park; the more land that's organic, the less chance of pesticides getting into our groundwater.

Personally Speaking:

Even if knowing wine is organic is just a placebo for gentler hangovers, it works for us.

Wanna Try:

Organic wine contains 100% organically grown grapes, without added sulfites (a preservative in some wines that can cause allergic reactions). Look for the USDA Organic seal. Most organic wine is made in the United States and has a short shelf life.
Made with organic grapes means the wine's made from 100% organic grapes and may contain added sulfites (but fewer added sulfites than conventional wine). No USDA Organic seal here; due to added sulfites, they can last as long as their conventional counterparts.
Biodynamic means the wine was holistically produced with consideration for the local ecosystem, soil, and even phases of the moon (but isn't necessarily certified organic).
Vegan doesn't mean that it's organic or eco, but it does mean it's free of animal by-products used in filtering and clarifying such as casein (milk protein that makes the wine taste softer), egg whites (to brighten the wine), gelatin (used to downplay bitterness), and isinglass (a fish-based clarifier). Vegan wines are clarified with bentonite clay.

Cocktail Fact

Not such a shocker: A CA Tech study found that people who tasted the same wine labeled at different prices preferred the more expensively marked bottles.

Bang For The Bite

If 10,000 Biters swill a bottle of organic wine instead of nonorganic every week for a year, we'll avert the weight of a nearly full barrel of wine in pesticides.

1 comment