Your Favorite Wine: Red, White or Green?

Like many people, I don't necessarily know a lot about wine, but I do know what I like. I know that I prefer Pinot Noir over Merlot, and that my favorite Chardonnays are the buttery, oaky ones from California. When I'm shopping for wine or ordering at a restaurant, I tend to look for producers that I've had before and liked, or for wines that are from the handful of vineyards I've actually been to.

But I will admit that, although I now agonize about what ocean my salmon swam in, or whether my eggs are cage-free, and I buy organic produce as often as I can, I've never really given much thought to how wine is produced. Until now, that is.

It stands to reason that if I'm going to make the commitment to eat eco-friendly choices like organic produce and meat and fish that are raised without hormones and other chemicals, I should also try to drink organic wine wherever possible. As I said before, I'm by no means a wine snob, but I can't help but worry that I won't be able to find organic wines that are as well-crafted and have the same complexity as some of my favorite conventional producers.

As with any other certified organic produce, in order to be certified organic, wine must be made with grapes that are grown without chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides. And during the winemaking process, the wines must be made without the manipulation and shortcuts that some producers use to create a tasty quaff-techniques like reverse osmosis, excessive filtration, and flavor additives. In the U.S., organic wine cannot contain added sulfites (which is good news to those who get headaches from drinking red wine, which are usually brought on by the sulfites in the wine). If a producer does use sulfites, then they can still label their wine as being "made from organic grapes."

Sulfites, by the way, are the reason that it's not always easy to find organic wines. Many winemakers argue that it's difficult to make a decent bottle of wine without using them, since they help keep wine balanced. Without them, the levels of certain bacteria are unchecked and wine can quickly go sour. In fact, many winemakers who forgo the sulfites in the interest of making an organic wine recommend that their bottles be consumed within a year. Winemakers also say that eliminating sulfites can often tone down bright, fruity flavors, and they compare drinking unsulfured wines to eating food that doesn't have enough salt.

I'll tolerate a little bit of sulfites in order to have a better bottle of wine, so I usually look instead for wines that are simply made from organic grapes. But one of my new favorite producers, Frey Vineyards in Northern California, produces truly organic and even biodynamic wines. And I can happily tell you that I don't see a difference in quality between Frey's wines and any of their conventional counterparts, particularly in the Petit Syrah, which has flavors of spices and black cherry that pair well with my favorite chili recipe, and the Pinot Noir, whose strawberry notes are perfect with salmon.

I'm also always on the lookout for wines from Grgich Hills. Their Chardonnay is crisp and fruity and their Zinfandel (one of my husband's favorite grapes) has just the right amount of oakiness. Plus I like that the winemaker uses wild yeasts, solar power and all estate-grown grapes. The winery's founder, Miljenko "Mike" Grgich, is legendary in the wine community—it was his Chardonnay that beat out some of the greatest French Burgundies in a 1976 blind taste test in Paris, which paved the way for American wines to get respect and credence in the international wine scene.

Adding the names of a few organic producers to my mental list of wine labels I know and trust has made it easier to take one more step to leading an organic lifestyle.

In My Kitchen
Every week, I tally my grocery bill, and give you a peek at what's on the dinner table at our house.

Groceries: $115.32