Genuine Organic Wine to Come in 2010

BRUSSELS : Specifications for organic vinification will be published in March and applied to the 2010 vintage.

Totally organic wine does not exist, in either Europe or France. In fact, only the regulatory mention “vin issu de raisins de l’agriculture biologique”(”wine made from organically grown grapes”) exists for the moment. This is because only the agronomical part of the production process (farming the grapes in the vineyard) has a detailed and restrictive set of specifications at its disposal.

For example, it is forbidden to use chemical synthetic products to protect the vines against grey mildew or oïdium (powdery mildew) ; two dreaded diseases which can destroy part of a harvest, and therefore reduce the production revenue especially for growers who only harvest once a year. Organic enthusiasts prefer sulphur and copper, but banish chemical weedkiller.

“The challenge now facing our industry is to put together a list of requirements for the whole grape vinification phase, the key stage of the production process,” explained Thierry Deschamps, who is president of the Syndicate of the Aquitaine organic wine growers.

This organization, which groups almost 80 producers, held its general meeting yesterday in Beychac (Gironde), in a current French context of strong expansion for all organically grown products. This development can also be seen in the vineyard, in the Aquitaine region and elsewhere in france, where conversion to organic farming is on the increase, even if this particular type of cultivation represents just 3% of France’s vineyard surface area today. Incidently, it takes three years to switch from conventional agriculture to organic.

Technical standards :

“I encourage you to avoid continuing to set yourselves apart through your actions,” underlined Alain Rousset (president of the Aquitaine regional Council), who was speaking yesterday before a large gathering at the meeting which featured heated exchanges between himself and local producers. Rousset, who, due to his role as president of the Aquitaine region, is becoming more and more involved in wine industry matters, also announced that in the future, the region’s agricultural schools would place more emphasis on educating and training students in organic agricultural methods.

It is certainly true that conventional agriculture has monopolized most of the study programmes as well as research topics for decades. However, apart from the philosophical questions raised by the organic principle, the main concern is, as so often in viticulture, of a purely technical nature. The heated debate held yesterday about the vinification standards to be authorized or not - for the future production of an entirely organic wine - served to prove the point. What doses of sulphurous anhydride (SO²), an antiseptic essential in preventing wine turning into vinegar, should be allowed? What about stabilizing products? What type of yeasts are acceptable? Should producers still be allowed to heat wine to eliminate undesirable yeasts? What about the use of oak chips? All this may surprise novices, who may still have idyllic notions of wine (whether it’s organic or not) “growing up” alone in its vat, but the truth is that certain ‘tools’ are needed in order to provide customers with a clean quality product.

Marine Renaudin, who is in charge of organic-related questions at the INAO (institute of appellation d’origine) in Paris, and negociator in Brussels, was present at yesterday’s meeting to shed more light on the subject. In fact, talks involving the 27 member states, have been continuing for several months on the matter. The list of European requirements will be published in March and applied to the 2010 vintage.

PHOTO : (S.Klein)Thierry Deschamps, president of the Syndicate of Aquitaine organic wine growers.

Author:César Compadre
Photo:DR SO

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