Nowadays, all consumers are familiar with this little green logo indicating that a product is organic.
But how important is this label in viticulture and what does it mean?
The organic label is a public certification decided at the European level that forbids the use of synthetic pesticides and chemical inputs in the vat room. However, it allows the use of pesticides if they are of natural origin. The winegrowers must not use more than 4kg of copper per hectare per year and the addition of sulfites during the vatting process is also limited compared to conventional viticulture. The list of authorized additives and technological manipulations is also reduced, but remains quite extensive. With the expansion of biodynamic viticulture, it is sometimes difficult for the consumer to understand the difference between the organic and biodynamic labels. It is important to remember that the specifications of the organic label do not concern the ecological aspect (waste sorting, biodiversity...) nor the rights of the workers in the vineyard.
Buying a certified organic wine assures consumers that the wine chosen was made without synthetic pesticides and that the other elements used are also organic. But be careful not to misunderstand, buying an organic wine does not guarantee that it will be better than a wine from a conventional viticulture nor that it will be a wine reflecting its terroir.
In France today there are about 1500 winegrowers who work organically and among them about 15% follow the precepts of biodynamics. Almost 16000 hectares of the French vineyard are currently declared as organic and the areas in phase of reconversion represent almost 4000 hectares. The region producing the most organic wines is Languedoc Roussillon, which alone represents 31% of the organic wine-growing area in France, followed by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region with 22% of the wine-growing area.
We hear more and more about biodynamic viticulture, but what is a biodynamic estate?
It is impossible to talk about biodynamic viticulture without mentioning Rudolf Steiner who is at the origin of the concept. Indeed, he created this system of organic agricultural production infrom the 1920s by considering the farm as a whole as a diversified living organism and as autonomous as possible.
Nowadays, biodynamics is composed of specific practices based on three fundamental principles: the conception of the estate as an autonomous agricultural organism, the taking into account of the influences exerted by the sun, the moon, the planets and the zodiac, and the use of biodynamic preparations (cow dung, medicinal plants...).
Biodynamic viticulture has been developing in France for about fifty years and prestigious vineyards have been working biodynamically for a long time (Romanée-Conti, Humbrecht, Pontet-Canet...).
It is important to specify that in order to obtain a biodynamic label, the winemaker must first have obtained the organic label. There are two labels in biodynamics: Demeter which is an international brand certifying all kinds of products and Biodyvin which is a private certification distinguished by a particular attention to the taste of wines.
To conclude it seems important to underline that good wines and even great wines exist in all types of viticulture and that if you take pleasure in tasting it is because they are all produced by a passionate winemaker.
