Organic Wine? No Thanks!

I thought all wine was organic... except maybe Boone's Farm.

I'm sure Old Mad Dog is non-organic wine, heck even calling it wine is a stretch.

Organic wine? As opposed to ...

Ahhhh, Boone's Farm Apple! Just the thing to cut the dust after a bull ride in my youth. It was a favorite back in those fancy free days, cheap and almost tasty.

Could it be you just don't care for the type of wine it is, other than the fact it's organic?

Inorganic wine?
Is that sort of like "Free-range Ripple"?

Guess those pesticides are the "secret ingredient", that make the wine taste so good.
In this instance by organic they mean the grapes weren't genetically mutated and there were no pesticides used on them.

Correction: only organically "acceptable" pesticides and fungicides are used in organic wine production.
They still use pesticides, just not synthetic ones. The ones they do use (such as rotenone,pyrethrin, etc) are not necessarily safer, and not more effective, sometimes resulting in more applications needed than with synthetic ones.

In home wine making, which I think uses basically the same as commercial wine. The only two

chemicals I can think of are, Potassium Metabisulfide (which has several uses in wine making) and

Potassium Sorbate which pulls double duty, it is added to wines that have completed fermentation to prevent spoilage but also to prevent further fermentation of sugars.

I'm still waiting on organic Coca Cola.

Guess those pesticides are the "secret ingredient", that make the wine taste so good.
In this instance by organic they mean the grapes weren't genetically mutated and there were no pesticides used on them.

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I don't think Non-GMO is a requirement. Let's be honest, nearly everything is modified to some extent, it's the manner in which it's done that some have issues with.

I don't know what wines you tried, but there are some Organically farmed wines that are very highly regarded in the wine world.
http://www.beaucastel.com/en/
http://www.tablascreek.com/vineyard_and_winemaking
and I'm sure there are many others...

The problem with "organic" products is that the people selling them do not seem to know what "organic" means.
Organic is a real word with a real meaning. When I hear someone misusing the word, I assume that they are kind of... well... dumb.
Maybe "organic" products are are not bad because they are "organic." Maybe they are bad because they are made by dumb people.
That's just my hypothesis...

I'm still waiting on organic Coca Cola.

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Yeah,

good 'ol CoCola just ain't been the same since 1903,

the bastards had to change it!

According to Coca-Cola, Pemberton brewed the first mix of his new drink in his backyard, using a modest three-legged kettle. Coca-Cola also states that cocaine was never an ingredient in the elixir.
However, both of these facts have been proven to be myths.
According to Mark Pendergrast, author of "For God, Country & Coca-Cola," the syrup was meant to go along with the culture of the times. The syrup was to be advertised as a "nerve tonic" to calm people down. Also, it was advertised under Candler's reign to cure headaches and fatigue.
Pendergrast also says that Coca-Cola did in fact have a negligible amount of cocaine in it. Even though Candler said he would shut down the Coca-Cola operation if the drink was found to be harmful, the drink did contain coca leaves. The syrup had one half-ounce of coca leaf per gallon, amounting to about a little over one-hundreth of a grain.
To get technical, Candler always maintained that the drink naturally used coca leaves, which mixed different kinds of alkaloids, as opposed to the drug cocaine, which was a pure alkaloid. It actually took about 30 glasses to produce the actual dose of the drug.
The cocaine content of Coca-Cola remained until 1903. It made the drink very controversial, but it also contributed to Coca-Cola's success.

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Cocaine wasn't actually illegal in the US until 1914.
The man who invented the Coke recipe was himself a morphine addict (due to injuries sustained in the Northern War of Aggression) and was seeking an exotic elixir to try and alleviate his addiction.
Ah,

the pre-industrial good 'ol days,

back when everything was organic.

:P

I think, many times, bad wine is the result of the anti-fungals the stompers use when fighting a case of athlete's foot. The spray on powders seem to affect the taste more than the one's which are rubbed in between the toes. The various governments need to step in and require monthly inspections by certified podiatrists. Too much "toe jam" will also have a negative affect on even the most robust of reds.

Cool info, mlc. And, heroine was first marketed as a way to break the addiction to cocaine, by the Bayer company. Over the counter.


Wines, I just never... well, any alcohol... they all smell much better than they taste to me. I was just never dedicated enough to any of them to develop a taste for them. Wines in particular appeal to me because I grow and press a lot of fruit juices from my trees (organically grown), and wine just seemed like a natural thing for me to start making. But, as soon as it hits my tongue my gag reflex is initiated.
But, as far as being able to taste a difference in organically grown something, verses chemical fertilized and pest controlled something, I don't believe it is possible. But, there are people who have developed gastro problems and sensitivities to nuts and glutens because of the uses of chemicals and dna splicing. At least that is the word on the street. I haven't done any research, nor am I interested in such. Just sayin'
But, organically growing your food is just a more effective way to grow crops, IMO. I can make my own compost, and I have learned that by using cheaper methods of pest control, I don't kill off my beneficial and predator insects which increases my yield while saving me money. Our local Farmer's Co-Op has folks from various AG departments come in and talk to us, and without doing anything, the average loss of yields equals the offset of cost and damage done by spraying. So, many, many farmers here just opt for the cheaper and more effective means of pest control, which generally tends to be organic.
Now, to get the certification is much more detailed. But, even being sold on advantages... when I have to buy something at the grocer, I will not buy the more expensive "organic" version myself. But, eventually the prices will drop as more and more farmers find it the more effective way to farm.

Greta and I went to an organic vineyard in Tuscany last year, and the wine was excellent! There are crappy winemakers everywhere whether organic or not...The organic primarily refers to the way the grapes are fertilized and treated for pests. It's a lot more labor intensive than the usual vineyard.
Now on the subject of sulphites in wine- a friend of ours went on one of our Italy trips a couple of years ago. She asked if the wine had sulphites, because she couldn't drink any wine containing them. I showed her the label and nowhere on the label could you find the word "sulphites"...so all week, we drank huge amounts of wine and she had not a headache to show for it. At the end of the week, I explained to her that the words "Contiene solfiti" is Italian for "Contains Sulphites"

...I had a period where I was a wino beatnik,

just like tobacco, there is a huge learning curve involved with getting to know what's what,

and whichever profiles you may favor.
I fell in love with Valpolicella Classico because it hit all my triggers, and at that time it was only $10 a bottle,

my crashpad looked similar to the Peter Seller's joint in Lolita :P
...eventually I discovered a variant known as Amarone della Valpolicella,

which is higher priced, but it is the ultimate expression of the form,

it is well worth it though and I loved opening bottles of it and seeing the sugar crystals on the bottom of the cork, similar to baccy bloom!
As with tobacco, I favor intense robust full-bodied profiles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarone
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