Since we bought our vineyards in late 2004 we have farmed them organically using only copper and sulfur in the vineyards along with many biodynamic preparations such as infusions of nettles, horsetail, willow and other natural remedies. We didn't apply for organic certification though, at the time it seemed unnecessary; for us, farming organically was a life choice, not some fashionable band wagon we were trying to jump on. Recently though, we've felt differently. More and more it is apparent to us that we need to have that certification, even if we never put the logo on our label, we must be able to say that we are certified organic.
The certification process takes 3 years. The first year you can't say anything on your label or anywhere in your literature about organic conversion. The second and third years you are allowed to say that your wine is made with grapes that are "in organic conversion" and finally after the third full year you can be organically certified. Currently in France there is only a certification for "organically grown grapes" and not organic wine or winemaking, that is changing though and we will soon be able to be certified in both, grape growing and winemaking.
It was Martin Kössler our German importer that first asked us to go ahead with the organic certification, he is a big proponent of organic and biodynamic wines and is planning a convention of sorts in 2009 and wanted us to be a part of it. Martin felt though, that if we were to participate, we needed the certification, and I agree. It's too easy to say you're organic and/or biodynamic and then say that you're not certified because you haven't taken the time or because you don't believe in the label, more and more I truly believe that it's an important process that needs to be supported by all farmers who refuse to use chemicals in their fields.
We met with the agent from Ecocert who will oversee our conversion. First we visited each parcel (we have 6) he looked at the surrounding vineyards, for potential contaminations from neighbors, looked at the soil, at the weeds growing in our vineyards and at the general state of our vines. He asked us some questions and finally I realized that he was trying to find out if we were earnest, trying to see if we were hiding anything and wanted simply to be certified without really believing in the process. Of course in the end it was pretty easy to see that since we have all kinds of weeds and other interesting plants growing in our vineyards, that we were pretty serious about organics. We then had to take him to the place where we store our tractor so that he could make a list of any chemical products that we might still have in reserve before going organic. We showed him the half bag of sulfur and the half bag of copper that was left over from last year, both of which are allowed in organic agriculture, and he seemed content that we were on the up and up. 
So we signed a bunch of papers, he gave us a three ring binder in which we now have to keep track of
all of the products we purchase for use in the vineyards etc. We are on the way to being certified organic grape growers, and as soon as we can be certified for winemaking we will be too. There's another good one. There are lots and lots of people out there who grow their grapes organically, then when it comes to winemaking will put anything and everything into the vat including GMO yeasts, enzymes, vitamins... all sorts of industrially produced things. That seems completely incomprehensible to me. Our one caveat is SO2, which is used as a preservative in wine, I'm not willing to give it up, I've tasted too many funky, bizarre, unstable wines recently to go 100% SO2 free. We don't use a lot, and I'm sure could use even less, but we're just not ready to go there quite yet.
At least your clients can be sure without having come to your vineyards, that they will not drink residues of pesticides, weed-killers and so on, when they savor a glass of La Gramière - with all the discussion going on in Europe since last week, because of the residues found even in high price Bordeaux Crus, this will be a serious argument for wine and nature lovers!
Posted by: Iris | April 02, 2008 at 06:15 PM
Hey, I like those funky, bizarre, unstable wines! There's a new wine place in town you'll have to visit next time you're in SF.
A real question: why did the prior owner use weedkillers? To preclude competition for water and nutrients vis-a-vis the vines?
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