DrinkTheEarth.com Blog

As many wine consumers know, there is a distinction between certified organic wines, and those made following sustainable practices.  While there’s no need to throw stones at producers who are merely green-friendly without pursuing certification, eco-conscious wine drinkers rely on certifications to ensure that the wines they drink are truly organic.

One of the misconceptions in the marketplace is that any wine produced by a winery with organically-certified vineyards is organic.  While this is sometimes true, especially for smaller, estate-only producers, this is not always the case.  Many wineries often source grapes from outside of their estate for select wines, or use a blend from several vineyards.  For example, the estate vineyards of St Helena, California’s Spottswoode Winery are certified organic by the CCOF.  Therefore, all wines produced on their estate can officially make the claim of being made from organically-grown grapes.  However, select wines, such as their Sauvignon Blanc, are sourced from grapes outside the winery and are not necessarily certified (although Spottswoode has indicated to us before that they purchase grapes that are sensitively farmed from partners).

The best rule of thumb to determine whether a wine is organic is to check the label.  While certified organic wines are not required to promote their certifications on the bottle itself (for whatever reason, some consumers still feel organic wines are inferior), many of them frequently do.  A winery’s web site is another great source, as you can often download ’sell sheets’ that are meant for retailers, and contain more in-depth information about a wine or how it was made.  As a last resort, contact the winery directly.  Never assume that just because you’ve seen an organic wine from a particular winery, all of their wines are certified.

We just finished publishing our review of DrinkTheEarth.com’s Wine of the Week, the Snoqualmie Winery 2007 Naked Riesling.  Like many of its organic counterparts, this Prosser, Washington winery makes wines from organically grown grapes, and extends their sustainability efforts to the production process as well. 

However, we were impressed that they have seemingly taken this effort a step further, publishing an annual Sustainable & Organic Report.  First published in 2007, and again in 2008, this five-page report provides specific details on how the winery did against their previous sustainability and organic goals, as well as what it hopes to accomplish in the coming year ahead.  While other wineries are talking about their green efforts, how many are putting it in writing, and making available to the public in this manner?  If you know of other wineries, or even brewers or distillers who are doing this (whether certified organic or not), we’d love to hear about them.  In the meantime, we challenge other producers to achieve this level of transparency.

We are currently planning a tasting trip to the PDX/Northern Oregon/Willamette Valley region in early July, most likely arriving on July 4th.  Are you a producer of organic/biodynamic wines, beers, or spirits?  We’d love to visit you.  Not a producer, but have some great suggestions on places we need to go?  We’d love to hear from you too.  Drop us a note with your thoughts or ideas today.

With organic wines and beers getting much of the eco-friendly headlines these days, we were anxious to see how their counterparts in the spirits world were measuring up.  With that backdrop, as the first Earth Day in DrinkTheEarth.com’s existence rapidly approached, we could think of no better way to celebrate our appreciation for the planet than to sample a few of the best organic vodkas on the market.

We could have gone in numerous directions, as organic vodka is one of the few spirits that can be easily sourced in the U.S.  Not surprisingly, it is also the category that has garnered the most recent media attention.  After much contemplation, we settled on three; TRU, Crop Harvest Earth, and Rain Organics.  To eliminate any bias, we conducted the test as a blind, side-by-side tasting, and even included a sampling of a traditional vodka, Absolut, in the process.

Our first selection, which we later learned to be Crop Harvest Earth, carried a strong smell of alcohol on the nose.  Made from certified organic grain and bottled in Minnesota, each batch of Crop is distilled only as many times as required to remove any impurities.  Billing itself as the ‘cleanest’ vodka, Crop is distilled so efficiently that no carbon treatment or charcoal filtering is necessary.  With a silky feel in the mouth, we found it to be crisp, and smoother than we had expected. 

Moving on, our second taste was that of TRU Organic Vodka, made in Los Angeles, California.  TRU’s motto is “Drink It. Plant It.”  Not just a slogan, the company actually plants a tree for every bottle sold (over 50,000 planted as of March, 2009).  In addition to sourcing American organic wheat, the company emphasizes a carbon-negative existence, including the use of lightweight bottles, and shipping boxes that double as shelf displays.  During our tasting, we found a very well-rounded vodka.  Our ultimate consensus was this might have been the most versatile of the three organic options.

Last but not least, Rain Organics was probably the most unique of the three vodkas we tasted.  With a slight sweetness in the nose, the flavor included hints of butterscotch and caramel.  Rain is made from white organic corn sourced from a single farm in Yale, Illinois.  With seven layers of distillation, this vodka follows a rigorous process through production, and is made in the famed Buffalo Trace Distillery of Frankfort, Kentucky, the oldest distillery site in the U.S.  With the slight sweetness in the taste, we thought Rain would make a devastating dessert martini, but could also easily be had straight.

So which was our favorite?  That would be like asking Mother Earth to choose her favorite child.  In the end, we struggled to select a winner, but felt a little more educated for the next time we open up the bar for a vodka cocktail.  Regardless, not a bad way to wind down DTE’s first Earth Day.