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Browse the endless wine shelf at the supermarket and you might grow curious: what’s behind this bottle of red besides fermented grape juice? These days, we’re savvier than ever about where our food comes from and how it’s produced. But most of us can’t say the same thing about that glass of vino we’re enjoying along with it. The truth is, the method of wine production is as varied as Big Ag chicken versus pasture-raised farm birds. Some wines are more natural–or “cleaner”–than others. To understand the difference between organic, biodynamic and natural wine, it first helps to have a little background.
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Though the intricacies of a good glass are all held in the bottle, variations between wines aren’t always transparent. One thing is clear when strolling through the aisles of polished pinot noirs and rieslings at your local shop: aside from seemingly simple decisions–do I want red or white tonight?–there are more qualifications to consider. Like “organic,” “biodynamic” and “natural.”
To help make sense of the wine aisle, let’s break down some phrasing.
1. Organic Wine
Though the legal definition of organically grown wine varies from country to country, here’s the gist: organic wine is made from organic produce–grapes grown according to government-regulated principles of organic farming. Now let’s get more specific.
Organic Label Is Regulated
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No Synthetic Fertilizers, Herbicides or Pesticides
Organic grapes are cultivated in vineyards banning the use of artificial inputs, including synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides and pesticides. In organic vineyards, a bountiful growing year relies instead on maintaining strict standards for soil health-for example, upping biodiversity through crop rotation.
No Added Sulfites
The exception: bottles produced in Europe and Canada, where organic wine standards allow small amounts of added sulfites as long as the total quantity doesn’t exceed 100 parts per million (ppm) for reds and 150 ppm for whites. (To compare, conventional wine standards in these countries allow sulfite levels up to 150 ppm for red wine and 200 ppm for white.)
2. Biodynamic Wine
Organic–and Then Some
Biodynamic Label Is Regulated
Like organic wine, “biodynamic” is a registered certification with a definite roster of requirements. Wines labeled “biodynamic” will have approved recognition from the Demeter Association, a branch of Demeter International-the nonprofit organized in 1928 following Steiner’s first lectures on biodynamics in agriculture.
3. Natural Wine
Natural winemaking, despite its more recent popularity, is technically the first and oldest method of growing wine. However, natural wine is tricky to pinpoint in a single definition; all-natural wine follows a similar ethos, but winemakers might vary in their personal codes of conduct.
The “Cleanest” Wine Option
Natural wine-from growing and fermenting to bottling and cellaring-is made entirely without chemical intervention and with the bare minimum of technological manipulation. It’s as natural as a wine can get, with little to nothing added or subtracted in the vine to vat process. To put it very, very simply, it’s fermented grape juice and little else.
But, it’s crucial to note that “nonchemical intervention” doesn’t mean an absence of intervention entirely. Winegrowing and winemaking across all categories is precise, painstaking labor, and it’s extraordinarily so in natural wine. Soil fertility and diversity in the vineyard’s ecosystem are vital, meaning problems among the vines, like an invasion of leaf-munching Japanese beetles, require rethinking symbioses within the entire operation rather than locating a tank of pesticide spray.
Another but: the ethos of natural wine doesn’t necessarily mean these wines are “real” while others are not. Instead, think of “natural” as an indication of wine that’s as unmanipulated as possible. Any naturally occurring flaws are included and often celebrated. Ever hear the phrasea square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not always a square? Keep that in mind: a natural wine is organic and sometimes biodynamic, though organic and biodynamic wines are not always natural.
No Regulated Standard for Natural Wine
Though natural wine is among the strictest and most self-imposed versions of winemaking, there’s no legal classification or regulated standard to define the actual process. Unlike biodynamic winemaking, the natural wine movement is not attributed to a single individual. That said, there are established organizations, like VinNatur, that aid in defining and regulating those who make natural bottles.
4. Conventional Wine
With talk of “real” wine versus “fake” comes talk of “good” wine versus “bad.” Here’s the catch: the term “bad wine” is as vague, individualized and variable as is “good wine.” A reliable way to judge good versus bad is the “Sip Test.” Taste the wine in front of you. Do you want another sip? And another? The point: “good wine” is a wine that you enjoy drinking. Stripped of its label, it should taste good to you, period.
Though “good wine” doesn’t comprise organic, biodynamic and natural wine alone, bottles beyond these distinctions have less restriction on the additives allowed in the final product.
May Contain Dozens of Chemical Additives and Preservatives
Most Additives Are Not Required to Be Listed on the Bottle
Even if a bottle of conventional wine includes the additives listed above, you won’t see them listed on the bottle’s label, with the exception of sulfites, cochineal extract/carmine and FD&C Yellow No. 5. Of course, the movie-night bottle of chardonnay you snagged on sale at the grocery store may not contain any of these inputs. The only way to know for certain is to research how the wine is grown and processed.
The Best Wine to Avoid a Headache?
Ever sipped a grippy glass of cabernet sauvignon and found a dull ache blooming across your eyebrows? Wine and red wine, in particular, is so often blamed for inducing headaches that it’s gained its own shorthand: R.W.H. (for “Red Wine Headache”). Although red wines more often contain lower sulfur levels than whites, sulfites are frequently held as the main culprit. The theory is that drinking wines with the absolute lowest amount of sulfur-organic, biodynamic and natural wines-should keep the headaches at bay. But is it true?
The best way to combat an R.W.H. is to drink at least one glass of water for every glass of wine. Wines that are lower in alcohol-say, the 12 to 13 percent range-might also reduce the likelihood of uncorking a headache.
The old adage helps, too: everything in moderation.
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