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As any fresh food shopper will tell you, the USDA Organic sticker is hard to miss. In fact, this is perhaps one of the most recognizable brands on the American grocery aisle, right up there with Coke and Cheerios. But that doesn’t even begin to grasp the enormity of its impact. The result of a 12-year regulatory effort, beginning in 1990 with the Organic Food Production Act – which itself was inspired by decades of environmentalism following the publication of Rachel Carlson Silent spring in 1962 – this little green and white sticker completely revolutionized the way we eat. What it hasn’t done, however, is make even an iota of difference in the way we drink.
That’s not to say the USDA didn’t have high hopes. But ask anyone in the wine industry what the USDA organic symbol stands for, and they’re bound to tell you one version of the same thing: failure.
Much of this can be attributed to timing. When the logo started appearing on the bottles around 2002, the wine industry was booming. Consumers wanted comfort and extravagance: Yoo-hoo packaged like Louis Vuitton.
And, quite simply, these weren’t flavors or feelings that organic wine producers – forbidden to add sulphites (a key preservative) and Mega Purple (a ubiquitous colorant made from grape syrup) – were equipped. to offer. So even as the farm-to-table movement gathered momentum, organic wine languished – to always be seen by consumers in a quaint and fleeting way, like this neighbor making his own honey.
But aside from the bad timing, I see the organic wine flop as a lack of imagination on the part of the wine industry.
When we care about something, we talk about it. We invent myths and discuss semantics. And, culturally speaking, we care a lot about wine. In fact, no other drink inspires such a wide range of responses – from feeling of inadequacy to feeling of divinity – and is not more vital to our social and ceremonial lives. Jesus didn’t turn water into pomegranate juice – and when Biggie was thirsty, he sipped champagne.
So it’s clear that the importance of storytelling has been lost on the USDA. However, the winegrowers noticed that organic wine was not going to sell. And so began the decades-long saga of reinventing organic wine to capture the zeitgeist and engage consumers.
Here’s a pocket guide to the most popular organic wine categories that have emerged.
Certified organic
Bounded by the USDA organic symbol and legally defined as “made from organic grapes with no added sulphites”. Unlike its cool-kid alter ego, natural wine, this category has failed to make its way among the wine luminati. However, this is far from irrelevant. For supermarket wine buyers – by far the majority – this should be the most important criterion after price. But keep in mind that certification is prohibitively expensive for most small growers, many of whom far exceed USDA minimum requirements – which is why I will always choose handcrafted over government approved.
Made from organic grapes
Welcome back, Mega Purple! While the grapes are USDA organic, the final wine is not, which means all of the additives and preservatives used in conventional winemaking are back. But that might not be such a bad thing. If you’re all into organic farming, but prefer the predictable flavors of big business wine, this category is for you.
Biodynamic
Discover the first successful rebranding of organic wine. Largely the story of two evangelical non-farmers – Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner and French banker turned winemaker Nicolas Joly – biodynamics is a prescientific version of organic farming rooted in the occult: activities follow a lunar calendar and the vineyards are treated with homeopathic remedies called preparations. Composting is elevated to the rank of art. But as bizarre as it sounds, biodynamic wines tend to be delicious and graceful. In addition, Demeter – the official certifier of biodynamics – is the oldest organic certification in Europe and remains the highest level of organic farming in the world.
Regenerator
Started at the Rodale Institute in the 1980s, regenerative agriculture is modern science at its best. But more than that, it is progressive idealism translated into agriculture. Rather than just an idea, think of it as a toolbox of principles and practices for rebuilding topsoil and restoring biodiversity. For example, its “no till†policy is a method of carbon sequestration that can prove vital in the fight against climate change.
Natural wine
Organic wine with sprezzatura (Italian for hip). No legal definition Рfor now Рbut there is a manifesto: nothing added, nothing taken away. What started as a back to basics revolt against Beaujolais Nouveau in the 1970s has now spread across the world: the farm-to-table movement the wine world has never seen. It only took 40 years, a revolution in Parisian wine bar culture and a lot of undrinkable p̩t-nat (a sparkling alternative to champagne) to get here. It is, as they say, an atmosphere.
Clean wine
In July 2020, an asteroid the size of Indiana rushed towards the world of natural wine. No, it wasn’t a literal fireball. It was a light pink rosé called Avaline.
Owned by actress Cameron Diaz and beauty entrepreneur Katherine Power, Avaline wasn’t the only ‘clean wine’ brand to hit Instagram feeds last summer, but she was by far the most ambitious, marking the official entry of wine into the welfare economy.
But what exactly makes clean wine clean? Turns out, it’s the same thing that makes SoulCycle touching: marketing. To compare natural wine and clean wine is to realize that handmade and high touch mean two very different things. Goodbye, age-old themes like patience and tradition, hello, rambunctious commercialism – an industry built overnight to sell you what amounts to expensive wine with unnecessary additives. Pea protein, do you like it?
Depending on who you talk to – I mean follow on Twitter – clean wine is either the harbinger of doom or the best thing since Goop’s vagina scented candles. But let’s not lose sleep over it. What we should be focusing on is what all of these organic categories fail to address: the human component – diversity, inclusion and social equity. And until these issues are resolved, organic wine will be just a little green sticker on the back of a bottle.
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