Organic wine, natural wine & biodynamic wine: is there a difference? “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a falling star and wish upon a wish, eeny, meeny, miny, moe!”
Sometimes it’s easier to leave it to chance than to make a choice, especially if you don’t have all the facts. In this article, we’ll explore the characteristics of each so that there’s no more guesswork during your next tasting.
Organic wine
Offering good, healthy, responsible wine is the credo of organic wine. In organic farming, crop protection products and chemical pesticides are banned for the greater good of our planet. In the short term, these chemicals, such as herbicides, are so effective that they kill not only pests but also harmless plants and animals. In the long term, the soil is deeply damaged and the natural balance is disrupted. It is because of these harmful products that land suffers from erosion and becomes arid and nutrient-depleted. Organic wine producers need no more reason to turn to more ecological and sustainable solutions.
The soil is like us: it likes to be looked after, so winegrowers use natural fertilizers to give it all the strength it needs. You also take your little dose of vitamins in winter, don’t you? Plants need the same thing, and in our case, the vine.
When we take the time to look into care and health, we realize that there are many natural alternatives to the industrial products we use today. Toothpaste can be replaced by a mixture of salt, mint, pepper and dried flowers, as the ancient Egyptians did, or by a mixture based on ashes (yes, yes, from the fireplace). To pamper the soil, the winegrower uses organic fertilizers that promote soil life and make earthworms happy, for example.
Since 2012, winemaking has also been governed by the French and European organic label . As with appellations, products from organic farming are controlled by a specification that takes into account inputs, sulfite levels, filtration methods, etc.
Only natural inputs are permitted, such as indigenous yeasts, sulfur or copper.
To produce a good organic wine, winegrowers are allowed lower levels of sulfites than those permitted for conventional wines (on average about 50 mg/l less). Sulfites, also known as sulfur, occur naturally on the grape skin; they are not dangerous, but still be careful, because in excess, they are responsible for your headaches. So an organic wine, in addition to being good for nature, is better for your health!
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Biodynamic wine
Biodynamics is a philosophy of life. Biodynamic winegrowers live in harmony with nature and pass on their love of theland to their wines. Inspired by lunar cycles, the vines grow in a healthy environment. Companion planting is widely used to promote natural cooperation between plants and respect the ecosystem. In biodynamics, fertilizers and natural fertilizers are also used, and you can find solutions that might make some of them smile, such as cow horn manure, which is a powerful builder of the soil structure. Winegrowers also take care of their vines with plant-based preparations such as nettle, dandelion, oak, chamomile or valerian. Dried plants can also be used (burdock, yarrow, fern, willow, elderberry). When you see all this natural care, you would almost want to turn into a grapevine! Treat yourself at home too with homemade fruit juices and herbal teas from the garden to do your body good.
Biodynamic wine is good for nature thanks to its responsible viticulture, and just as good in the bottle. The Biodyvin and Demeter labels ensure that winegrowers follow proper practices during winemaking so that the wines meet very specific criteria. The permitted sulfite levels are even lower than those for organic wines, and the winegrowers follow cosmic rhythms. For example, they avoid working the wine during lunar nodes, which have a negative influence, or when the planets are in conjunction, because life processes are slowed down and weakened.
The biodynamic philosophy is fascinating, and if you want to learn more, you can read our articles on biodynamics: Biodynamics: should you walk naked in the vineyards?; Biodynamics: one step further than organic farming; Winemaking and biodynamics
Natural wine
Natural wines, also called nature wines, have existed since time immemorial but have never had legal status. Recently, the nature method wine designation was created to break new ground and bring some visibility and credibility to these very special and deliciously unique wines. This first official label is a logical continuation of the commitment and determination of natural winegrowers who work every day to produce a healthy, responsible, natural wine. The Association of Natural Wines (AVN), founded in 2005, brings together committed winegrowers and is based on the principle of transparency. In this association, good advice makes for good friends, so there’s no room for jealousy—we share winemaking methods so that everyone can adopt a higher-quality production method that is more environmentally friendly.
A natural wine is a wine with nothing to hide. It shows its flaws and its qualities to everyone. The vines are grown just like organic and biodynamic wines, in harmony with nature, without chemical pesticides and with natural fertilizers, far removed from the chemical fertilizers used for conventional wines.
The little extra? The grapes are harvested by hand. Nothing beats doing it yourself. So yes, hand-harvesting takes longer, but it’s for a good cause!
During winemaking, natural wine contains even fewer sulfites than its counterparts; its levels are close to zero, and some winegrowers choose not to add any at all. These are known as SAINS wines (Sans Aucun Intrants Ni Sulfites added). And yes, even though no sulfites are added, there will inevitably be traces of sulfur that are naturally present on the grapes. The yeasts used are indigenous, and no harsh methods of wine transformation are permitted.
Natural wine is less stable because it is practically unmodified and unbalanced, and as we often say, when we work with nature, we know that it has the last word. Sulfur helps stabilize the wine and prevents it from oxidizing if it is mishandled during transport between the winegrower who produced it and the shop where you buy it. These living wineshave the advantage of offering you a unique experience, and you are free to appreciate their distinctive aromasor not. Nature has plenty of surprises in store: some natural wines resemble grape juice, others have a slight fizz on the palate, some are very bold, while others have very soft tannins. In short, natural wine cannot be described—it must be tasted.
Make your taste buds dance with our selection of fine white wines, red wines and rosé wines. All our wines are organic and committed, for a more beautiful nature and a happier gut.
