Going Green in Gruene: Organic Wine

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 17^th. 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.