By Connor Brown at The Grapevine
March in New Braunfels is quite a sight to see. The cold
weather has likely left us for the year, and the town is painted in various shades
of green, from our beautiful parks and trees (shout out to Parks and Rec!) to
the green tinted beer in our cups around the 17th.
New Braunfels is crazy about green and this is the month we get to shamelessly
over-do it, because who doesn’t love drinking green beer in Gruene wearing
green? I certainly do, but Gruene is getting into a different kind of green
this month with an upcoming selection of Organic wines!
What makes a wine organic? This is
easily the simplest question to answer in the realm of organic wine, as it has
everything to do with the grapes and how they’re grown. Each year, organic wine
producers endure a rigorous process to stay organically certified. Vineyards
cannot use any herbicide, pesticide, or other toxic or superfluous substance to
maintain or support the vines or alter the wine. In America, our USDA is
responsible for testing soil, taking samples, and ensuring compliance with the
vineyards and their strict rules. Beware as organic does not mean Vegan or
Natural, for wine it’s the assurance that every aspect of production is
scrutinized from growth to storage. And with new revelations every year about
harmful chemicals that enter our body on a regular basis through food, it’s
nice to have the peace of mind that our dinner or recreation wine isn’t adding
to that list.
But what is the real difference
between organic and non-organic wine? Aside from the obvious, non-organic wine
making can include the use of chemicals to maintain the vineyard, and additives
to affect the taste and color of the wine flowing from the bottle. For larger
and more productive wineries, the use of pesticides and herbicides is common
practice. However, a good question, what makes it into the glass that isn’t
organic? Obviously, any additive is a no-no in organic wine production, but the
most common thing that gets added to wine during production is sulfur dioxide,
which results in wines having sulfites. Sulfites are going to be found in
almost all wines, but what gets the organic stamp is simply not adding any
more to it. But what do these sulfites even do and why add it? The practice
of adding Sulfur Dioxide is to curtail the formation of unwanted bacteria or
yeast once the wine is produced. Therefore, in order to meet USDA requirements,
wines must have less than 100 parts per million of sulfites. This mostly just
affects the shelf life of a bottle, which to most of us is unimportant as most
wine is consumed within 30 minutes of purchase.
At the end of the day, what’s most
important is if the wine is delicious and the time spent drinking it was
enjoyed. With so many wines in this world and so little time to try them, maybe
making an effort to drink organic can help us enjoy wine even longer in our
lives and in our world.
Cheers to living green, from Gruene!
First published in New Braunfels Monthly.
Cheers to living green, from Gruene!
First published in New Braunfels Monthly.
