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THE FACES OF ORGANIC Many vines; few wines Thursday, May 4, 2006 Janet Fletcher, Chronicle Staff Writer With sales of organic food soaring, why is organic wine so hard to find? Search retail shelves and you may find a few wines made from organically grown grapes, but few if any certified organic wines. Since the USDA debuted its National Organic Program in 2002, which sets standards for organic wine, among other foods, only a handful of wineries have proved they meet the criteria to put the words "organic wine" on the label. The biggest stumbling block, many winemakers agree, is the USDA's prohibition against added sulfites. If you want to call a wine organic, you can't add any sulfur dioxide in processing. Zero, zip, none. And the vast majority of winemakers -- in this country and elsewhere -- will tell you that you can't make a decent bottle of wine without it. Surprisingly, one of the most rigorous organic practitioners in the state doesn't want the label either. Coturri Winery in Glen Ellen may be the only winery in California that could qualify for a "100 percent organic" claim, which requires that every ingredient in the wine be organic. That means no commercial yeast for starting the fermentation, no tartaric acid for correcting the wine's acidity, and of course no sulfur dioxide. "The only ingredient in our wine is grapes," says Paul White, the winery's general manager. Nevertheless, adds White, "We don't want to have a USDA-certified stamp. We'd rather be known as traditional fine wine." E-mail Janet Fletcher at jfletcher@sfchronicle.com. |
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