Wines and SpiritsOrganic winemaking - the SOB
,Wine making and appreciation has been described as an artform. Today, "green" drops are regularly available in most bottle shops and cellars. More and more vineyards are adapting sustainable practices in their wine making, harking back to the traditional wine making principles.
Today, about 94 current Australian wine producers (4.1 per cent of the industry) have so far gone back to wineò€™s original green roots. To qualify as organic producers, winemakers must make their wines from organically grown grapes while adopting organic principles in the production process.
Some have been seriously organic since the early 1970s, while the majority only started going green in the 1990s.
So what"s the SOB Sustainable wine - sustainable wine generally means its production minimises the use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides. Non-organic chemicals may be used minimally in certain conditions. Sustainable wine can also relate to practices that keep the environment in mind.
Organic wine - organic wine is certified by one of the qualified certifying in Australia, typically the Australian Certified Organic (a division of the Biological Farmers Association) or the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA). To qualify for organic certification, a vineyard verfies that it does not use certain chemicals, including pesticides and herbicids and that vines are handled minimally.
Bio-dynamic wine - adapts organic principles with a focus on the ecosystem and nature. Stemming from the theories of Rudolf Steiner, biodynamic principles are designed to be in tune with the Earth"s natural rhythms with a holistic approach to the preparation and nurturing of the vineyardsò€™ soils. Demeter is the oldest seal in Australia, and is administered by the Bio-Dynamic Research Institute to certify biodynamic wines.
Find great organic wines on the Green Pages.