Daniel’s Deliberations

On organic Wines and BioGro Certification

This week we had our audits both for the winery and as a company who exports certified organic wines. This was from the outfit called BioGro who certifies all types of of consumable organic products from wine to chocolate. You may recognise the symbol and name from the back of many products in New Zealand supermarkets and from our own 2019 Decibel Malbec. BioGro is one of a few auditing entities that help producers of organic products bring confidence to the consumer that we are doing all the things necessary to ensure what we put in the bottle is actually organic. So what is organic? Well, that’s a kind of a big question.

For us in the wine industry, it is really about the vineyard and the inputs or lack thereof, that really matters. In a basic manner, this means no mass spectrum herbicides or pesticides. Essentially we can used natural products such as soaps, oils and biologicals to fight off pests and diseases. On the winery and sort of business side, it’s all about making sure there’s no cross contamination with ‘non-organic’ wines along with smart things like recycling, composting and humane pest control. So this means lots of cleaning and record keeping. It seems like a lot to deal with when you first dive in. But if we are truly committed to making a difference in environment, it’s a small price to pay. We have decided as a company to do this and, well, this is the way to do it. It is not easy but it is definitely worth it.

However, let’s backtrack a bit. Many people still ask questions like, ‘I thought all wine was organic?’ There is also still a stigma around organic winemaking that it is very hands off and you basically just let mother nature do all the work. Ok, let’s start with the first question. In short, ‘NO!’. The vast majority of wine growing, and any farming for that matter, around the world involves quite a lot of chemical inputs that are at best hazardous to work with and at worst have massive class action lawsuits running against them for claims of causing cancer and other harm to humans and long-lasting damage to the environment. Let’s start with the most common one we all know of, glyphosate. There are many forms of this mass spectrum ‘weed killer’, commonly known as ‘Round Up’ for those cavalier gardeners out there. But let me digress into a story that best explains my position….

A few years back I had returned to the Philadelphia area with my family just in time to attend my grandmother’s funeral. Nancy ‘Nana’ Brennan was a great woman, always kind and fun, and outlived all the other grandparents to the grand age of 93. I grew up around the corner from her and ‘Pop’ Brennan’s house in a town called Delran, a suburb of Philadelphia. We spent a great deal of time at her house and were very close. In typical grandma fashion, she would still send me and my young daughter birthday cards with a small bit of US cash in it. I could go on and on about Nana but this story begins at the reception after the funeral, I was catching up with one of my father’s old friends; a nice man by the name of Jim. I will leave him otherwise anonymous. I can’t remember why, but he brought up the fact that there were some big lawsuits coming down on the company that makes ‘Round Up’ because it maybe caused cancer. He thought this was some sort of injustice and another example of our crumbling but litigious society.

Well, this struck a chord with me. I replied calmly and looked into his eyes. ‘Jim, Monsanto who is now owned by Bayer, deserves every bit of heat that comes down on them. Not only have they been a major player in the destruction of our natural environment but they are the major factor in destroying the US’s greatest asset; its soils. Not only that, they have used predatory tactics and their own massive teams of lawyers to ruin the American farmer and their land. I feel no sympathy for them.’ I spoke for another three or four minutes straight in front of family and friends to Jim, or possibly AT Jim, across a table of cold cut sandwiches, coffee and donuts. In hindsight, I feel a bit bad for coming down so hard but the passion was fresh; because I had only recently seen Robyn O’Brian speak at the NZ Organic Conference and provide lots of ammunition. Jim mentioned this to the wrong guy on the wrong day.

I highlight the above story for a couple reasons. Firstly, it shows the very practical reasons on why I am so passionate about organic wine growing. Despite the challenges, costs and extra work that goes into organic growing, there is truly everyone’s best interest at heart. Secondly, it is those challenges that make it so fun.Here in Hawke’s Bay the organic wine scene is vibrant with new ideas and solutions to the problems that face us. There is constant dialogue between growers, winemakers and even our customers on how we are facing these challenges. This could be with a new biological product being released to fight botrytis in the vineyard or a hot new piece of tech such as lasers, yes lasers, to scare off birds from decimating your crop.

On the winemaking side, I think the organic space is ripe for innovation as well. We are watching in real time, wine drinkers palates evolve into styles that seem to fit well with this type of farming and consequential winemaking techniques. I’m not just referring to orange or ‘natural’ wines. I am thinking more about those acid driven, crispy whites and juicy, fresh crunchy reds. These styles suit picking a bit earlier with higher acids and using grapes that are not over-cropped or overripe that need all the extra sprays and water to get them to some sort of picking stage that results in an over-extracted high-alcohol wine bomb. Those wine bomb styles seem to be harder and harder to sell and less and less en vogue. I see this as a good thing, showing a maturing of the wine consumer, at least the wine ‘fans’ we are interacting with around the world. And it truly is around the world. We have partners and wine lovers here in NZ, around the USA, the UK, Sweden, Japan, Korea, Cayman Islands, Canada and Ireland who are all asking for more and more of these styles of wine.

So it is with great pleasure and excitement we announce that this coming year we plan to have at least four, but probably five, more certified organic wines coming your way. We have taken this journey with our beloved growers. It takes them three years to achieve organic status and we have waited patiently and watched the great results of their hard work. A big shout out to the folks working the vines and putting their money where their mouth is at Two Terraces, Paritua, William Murdoch, and Osawa Vineyards who are growing our certified organic fruit for us this year. I really appreciate it, especially in a tough year, and I promise to make the best damn wines I can and tell your stories to our peeps around the world.

Cheers,
dB