By E.B. Boyd

With Valentine's Day around the corner, earth-wise lovebirds around the country are planning for a romantic evening. But when it comes to picking the most sustainable wines, the choice isn’t as straightforward as you might like. The old rule of thumb — look for products labeled “organic” — doesn’t work

Eco-conscious wine lovers have plenty to choose from these days.

by Ellen Kaye

Tony Coturri balks at the idea of slapping a "certified organic" label on his wines. Although his is probably the only winery in California that could qualify as 100% organic, Coturri believes that making natural wine should "just be what you do." If he had his way, winemakers would be forced to list all their ingredients on the bottle—sulfites, fungicides, herbicides, pesticides, yeast additives—the whole lot. And what would the Coturri bottle say? "Just Grapes."

Burying cow’s horns in the ground. Scattering the ashes of field mice across a field. Studying the phases of the moon and the planets.

While this may sound like a lesson plan from Harry Potter’s alchemy class at Hogwarts, it might surprise you to know that the glass of wine you drank last night at dinner could have been created with these methods, which are part of the rapidly growing biodynamic movement.

 

Conscious farming doesn’t stop at organic. While foods that are farmed organically are free from the pesticides and herbicides that are part of traditional agriculture, it’s possible to up the ante of the growing process and produce food that’s also biodynamic.