Why Buy Organic - Organic Fruit Wines and Cider; English Wines, Fruit Juices, Liqueurs

Why Buy Organic Wine?
Organic Wines are produced from certified organically grown grapes. They also have to be made in an organically certified winery in accordance to EU organic standards.

The main difference between organic and conventional wines is what happens to the soil and vines in the vineyard. No chemical fertilizers, herbicides (weed-killers), fungicides (stop mildew diseases, etc) or insecticides are allowed in organic vineyards. Soils are kept healthy and fertile with green manure cover crops such as clovers, which also improve wild-life habitats for insects (bees and butterflies) and birds.

The only permitted sprays are minerals such as sulphur and copper which stay on the plant surface and do not enter the sap system or leave residues in the fruit like the systemic chemical sprays used in non-organic vineyards can do. These rather 'primitive' organic sprays are less effective at controlling diseases meaning much hand work is also required to keep the vine canopy open and airy to help prevent fungal diseases. Some organic vineyards are switching to newer disease resistant vine varieties requiring little or no spraying.

Eu organic Logo

In the winery several additives and wine making aids permitted for conventional wines are not authorized. Sulphites which are used to prevent premature aging of wines have to be kept to less than half the amount allowed for ordinary wines.

Look for the organic certification logo on the label, and do not be fooled by some sellers claiming that the grower is organic but doesn't bother getting his wine independently certified. If its not certified.... it isn't organic! EU wine labels are not permitted to use the wording 'organic wine' on the labels so you'll often find the words ' produced from organically grown grapes'. But the winery and wine-making still has to be certified organic for the wine to be allowed to carry an organic certification logo.