Last year the EU project to agree on a definition of what “organic wine” would be was discarded. There was too much disagreement on what substances and what technologies should be allowed in the wine cellar. So the wine world is left with “wine made from organically grown grapes” because it is well defined and agreed what is allowed and what is not allowed in the vineyards.
Some of the organic organisations in Europe have now launched an independent project to agree amongst themselves what ”organic wine” should mean, i.e. what should be considered organic in the cellar. The charter is called CEVinBio. It defines a (positive) list of accepted substances and additives in the vinification that are of agricultural origin and that are certified organic. It gives a (negative) list of a number of techniques that are not allowed, e.g. heating the must above 65 degrees C, very fine filtration (“ultra and nano” filtration), dealcoholisation, to mention some.
Remains to be seen how this will be accepted in practice. (Source: La Vigne)
3 Responses
Interesting article considering that wine has actually been made organicaaly for seven thousand years. It was in the fifties that winemakers started using different kind of pesticides. The use of these chemicals and the affect on the terroire and the taste of the grape is in my opinion an interesting topic as well,but to agree on a definition is of great importance.
Hi,
Do you know the new web site of "La Vigne" ? http://www.lavigne-mag.fr. And his facebook page ? https://on.fb.me/dIl3SY.
The first newsletter from lavigne-mag.fr has been sent on wensday…
Best regards
Indeed. La Vigne is a must-have (if you read French). We wrote about it here a while back.
-P