Estate Living Digital Publication Issue 5 May 2015 | Page 10

Through the
Organic Wine
Glass

The concept of organic wine sounds great in
theory, but for some, it is a relatively unfamiliar
one and consumers often assume (quite
wrongly) that the wine probably doesn’t taste
as good. Yet, crushing grapes with the soles
of feet and using natural repellents to ward
off insects is simply a return to the original
wine making processes before the advent of
scientific pesticides and mass production.
“It is odd how farming with chemicals is
known as conventional farming whilst
organic is perceived as something different,
something other than normal,” comments
Josef Lazarus, owner of Lazanou Organic
Vineyards, an award-winning boutique wine
farm in Wellington. “This concept has always
confused me. I have always maintained that

conventional farming is a deviation from the
norm. The norm was always organic, until the
introduction of chemical-based herbicides
and pesticides.”
A glass of organic wine is not going to cheat
you of the real deal both for they look and
taste identical to conventional wine, differing
only in the way they are made. Whereas
conventional wine farmers manage their
vineyards through a multitude of herbicides
and pesticides, organic farming restores
the natural ecosystem into balance. Aside
from the processes, organic wines also have
lower sulphite content in comparison to
conventional wines, which generally helps
to deliver deeper, more vibrant colour,
explains Klaas Coetzee, winemaker at Stellar