I visited a 3 day workshop on organic and biodynamic wine for Weinakademiker and Masters of Wine at the college at the Fachhochschule Geisenheim in Germany this last weekend. Geisenheim is involved in the EU project ORWINE www.orwine.org which is a project supporting “Organic viticulture and wine-making: development of environment and consumer friendly technologies for organic wine quality improvement and scientifically based legislative framework”. Our lectures were not only on current research on organic and biodynamic viticulture and winemaking, but also on developing a standard legal definition and legislative framework for organic and biodynamic wine in Europe.
When I asked Richard Sanford (Sanford Winery, Alma Rosa Winery) about his commitment to organic and sustainable viticulture and its influence on wine quality in 2001 he replied, “the influence of organics on wine quality is a positive side-effect: it is simply the right way to do things.”
Now, with a growing number of the world’s most prestigious producers producing stunning wines from grapes grown organically or biodynamically, it would be nice to now what works, why it works, and what the long-term effects on environment and wine quality will be. Geisenhem has some long-term research studies going.