Organic Wine:
If you are a wine buyer look for it, ask for it. I like an organic Reisling from Oregon, and I have had a few different reds from Calif and one from South America. The prices are right in there with the standard wines, all over the place. 60 years ago most all were organic. I ask my dealer why he didn't bunch them together, he said they sell better mixed with other wine, otherwise some people think it's yukey poo.
Organic Beer:
My favorite beer is the Fat Tire beers from Colorado. They use less water making beer than any brewery in the nation, they also use wind energy and give bikes to employees if they will ride them to work. One of their 10 kinds is an organic beer with orange peel flavor, real good, same price as their other beers.
Organic does not always cost more, it's better for you, for the land, for the farmers/pickers, and it fucks the Koch's out of their fertilizer money and the chemical companies out of their's too, so there. phtttttttttt. Shop like your fucking a rich guy!
Fringe.....for those who don't know....
ReplyDeleteWhat is an Organic Wine?
Following the creation by the USDA of NOP (National Organic Program), an organic wine is defined as "a wine made from organically grown grapes without any added sulfites". By this unfortunate restriction, the vast majority of what you and I have been calling organic wines can now only be referred to as "wines made from organic grapes" (or organically grown grapes), since they are allowed to contain up to 100 ppm of added sulfites. (Read here the opinion of Paolo Bonetti, CEO of Organic Vintners.)
While we support the efforts of the few winemakers who explore avenues to eliminate the use of sulfur dioxide, the truth is that wines without added sulfites are very few in number and very unstable in quality, giving the public a negative perception Organic Wines in general (Organically Grown I mean!)! The wine industry has the dubious honor of being the only one that cannot call its product "organic" even though it is made with more than 95% of organic components. [Even with 100ppm SO2 present in the wine, the highest permissible level, the product is still 99.99% organic!].
This is detrimental to the winegrowers who seek to market a consistently drinkable product and yet are discriminated against in a really unique way. It is also an annoyance for consumers and merchants alike who do not need more categories to confuse them! Moreover, note that a wine without sulfites should not be equated with an organic wine, since it is quite possible to make a sulfite-free wine with conventional (non organic) grapes.
The excessive attention given to this matter is perfect to distract the public from much more important issues like soil depletion and erosion, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, ecological impact, resistance to pests, chemical dependence, and product standardization to name just a few which plague the conventional way to produce grapes and other agricultural products!
An independent body of certification, itself duly accredited by the USDA, has the responsibility to control each winegrower, once or twice a year, to verify his adherence to the standards applied to organic farming, now recognized internationally. The fundamental idea behind organic wine is that making wine from grapes grown without chemical fertilizers, weed killers, insecticides, and other synthetic chemicals is better both for the planet AND for the wine drinker because all of these things can damage the soil and the plant, and can end up in the wine as residues.
Since the NOP standards are essentially derived from the ones already in existence in European countries we have not insisted to add this layer of administration to our already busy producers. It increases their costs and ultimately the price we and you pay without any visible benefit. The real issue though is that NOP forbids us to state that our wines are certified by our own system (in place for 30 years!) which is a clear abuse of power!
I am buying as many organic products as I can find. However, I may need to be a bit more selective. It's costing so much for the food, I may not be able to afford the new clothes I'm going to need. I'm too old to run around nekkid, plus, it gets way too cold around here. LOL
ReplyDeleteA bottle of Moselle Bernkasler Doktor will smoke that organic swill every time...
ReplyDeleteOf course we are dealing with $54 a bottle too. Maybe a bottle of good old Boone's Farm...
Ron
TAB;
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, a bit confusing isn't it. I have read elsewhere and on some Napa web sites, some producers are meeting the organic standards but either not wanting to add another attribute to the label or because they will add sulfites to stabilize the wine go no further with the "organic" certification or label, but at least grow natural product. The problem is finding who they are to enjoy and reward them. Like my wine store who doesn't draw attention to organics by grouping them, the growers know organic scares a few buyers who think not washing grapes in weed killer or fungicide means an inferior wine.
Sherry,
ReplyDeleteGo organic when you can. My wife told me the carrots are the same price, oranges are 10 cents each higher, most things here at our Kroger are not much higher, but a few are much higher so we rarely get those, Bell Peppers and Cucumbers and Grapefruit are way above the standards, broccle and lemons, potato, leeks are sometimes only a little over the standard products but sometimes a lot. We keep an eye on it and often buy them when the price is not to much higher. We go to the healthfood store and buy organic rice, dried beans in bulk, they are cheaper than the little boxes and bags at the store and for beans cheaper than the canned standard beans.
Sarge,
ReplyDeleteI should hope a $54 bottle smokes my $8 to $12 bottle.
My point was not to smoke your favorite wine, but to smoke Koch Industries, Monsanto, Roundup, Bayer, FMC, DOW, DuPont, Drexel.