COLA Expert's Help • Part 2 • Organic Grapes?

As it stands, the majority of grapes we use are farmed Organically, some certified and some not. We support this as much as possible. Most of the food we eat is Organically farmed as well. Wine is food, right?

We are releasing some new labels, and it appears that the rules are changing, or enforcement has shifted or?

Does anyone on the board have experience with putting any wording on approved labels about Organic?

I can’t say that I understand yet, but I get that unless we are a certified processor, we can’t use the fda mark or the name of the certifier.

It sounds like we are allowed to use the ingredients statement to include “Organic Grapes”. Does anyone use this approach? Do we then have to list yeast and yeast nutrients? Does the “contains sulfites” statement cover that part?

Alternately, it sounds like we might be able to get away with something like this:

“No synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides have been used in the cultivation of the grapes in this wine.”

Or

“The grapes in this wine have been farmed without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.”

Any ideas on label approval or comments having such a statement or information about Organic farming on the label are welcome.

Andrew, For the US you may put “made with organically grown grapes” on the label if the number of grapes organically grown are at or above 75% of the blend. USDA certified organic is a whole other animal, but this usually helps with consumers…they like the language. Also, using the terminology “sustainably farmed” or “sustainably grown” is a massive help with a good deal of market appeal. Check out http://www.sustainablewinegrowing.org/ to see if you can get your operations on the same page as their mindset. I know this helped me a lot when I was crafting a Hungarian wine sustainability program.

Hope this helped.
Cheers,
Justin

Andrew I have not done any organic labeling but try to keep up on all of these things as much as possible. I label ingredients and get a lot of questions from consumers and trade to I need to be up to date.

The vineyard does needs to be certified organic to use that word anywhere on the label. Synsky and a few others label “Ingredients: Organic Grapes”. I believe it to be an accepted term to use and you do not have to list your other ingredients which is a tough one to explain to my customers. Here is his take on the whole thing http://www.robertsinskey.com/farm-and-ferment/article/2011/02/18/natural-organic-or-biodynamic-oh-my

Also these links may help you out.

http://www.ttb.gov/pdf/wine-labeling-guide.pdf
Here is a good article regarding the continuation of no sulfur for “Organic Wine”

I have found it easier to work with the TTB regarding the wine as all I have to is turn over the winemaking records kept to be compliant with the 2001 food modernization act. Im not sure how you would prove to them the vineyard statements like “No synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides have been used in the cultivation of the grapes in this wine.” or “The grapes in this wine have been farmed without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.” Its definitely flexible as ingredients are not required like with the FDA. Ridge got thru “Hand harvested, sustainably grown grapes; indigenous yeast, naturally occurring malolactic bacteria, oak from barrel aging, calcium carbonate, minimum effective co2”. There are a lot of loaded marketing words they got thru there.

Good luck and keep us updated on what you find out and are able to do.

Thanks, Guys, for your comments on this idea.

It took me a while, but it looks like I found the right person at TTB. Those vineyards that are certified, I am putting: Ingredients: Organic Grapes

Those that are not certified but I know for sure are still organic, I plan to put: Farmed without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers.

I don’t yet have that on an approved label, but they tell me it is OK.

Previously, my problem was that I would read on the subject and different docs would conflict or be unclear. It is a serious protection racket and the rules are very arbitrary. Imagine that: the government and arbitrary rules?

Andrew, I think you are missing a word.

Fixed.

You are correct, sir.

It would be nice if “conventional” farmers had to say: “Farmed with Herbicides.” Or, whatever they choose to use. Not saying people should not use, but it might be informative.