Organic wines: the high road to mainstream

Wine drinkers who are hunting for organic wines, slow down! These wines aren’t created overnight, but we have taken such a fancy to the idea of them in Europe, in such a short time, that the winemaking business barely has a chance to keep up.

More organic wines, quality up, prices higher

The number of certified organic wineries in Switzerland has more than doubled in 10 years, from 240 to 560 hectares in 2017, but this is only 4% of planted vines. By comparison, reports Vinum magazine, in Spain, France and Germany more than 8% of vineyards have been converted to organic. Vinum editor Thomas Vaterlaus noted a year ago that organic wineries entering the annual Swiss Concours Vin Bio are now showing “great regularity in the high quality” of their wines.

There was a time, and some sommeliers still like to mention this, when you could spot an organic wine by its nose and taste, not always with pleasure. Quality is up, at least in Switzerland, and today the difference is a matter of less debate. “There is still some discussion about a possible difference in taste,” says Matteo Mota from Changins University, “with many thoughts about why this might be, whether it’s the water with organic vines’ roots going deeper, or the nitrogen difference.”

New research in Switzerland quantitatively compares the success of alternatives to herbicides; it suggests that while organic vineyards (bio in French) are certainly viable – organic wines on the market are living proof – the industry needs more information before organic wines can become significantly more widespread. One of the questions is whether consumers will be willing to pay more for their wine, because organic, quite simply, costs more to produce. Are consumers willing to take the time to understand the difference and what lies behind the cost?

The ongoing project’s first-year results were announced by Changins, the country’s main wine and vine haute école, in June. Changins in Nyon is the western Switzerland university that offers degrees in viti- and viniculture.

Benefits from organic come at a cost

What the project found, in brief: stopping herbicide use and encouraging a ground cover of permanent vegetation has many benefits for a vineyard, but there is a price to pay. Benefits start with measurably better soil fertility and a startling increase in biodiversity. But in the first transition year the quality of the grapes and the must, or juice that ferments into wine, are noticeably lower (note that this is temporary: as the vines develop deeper roots, quality returns).

The same observation has been made in French studies, as well as anecdotally in Switzerland by individual growers who are successful organic wine producers, but the Swiss project is notable for measuring biodiversity, soil protection, grape and must quality as well as the cost of five treatments, one of which, in a sense the control for the study, is herbicides.

Wineries need to be ready to use an arsenal of solutions to manage a re-conversion (“re” because pre-herbicides is the non-chemically treated state of the soil) to organic. These might include new irrigation, pruning method changes and yield management. Since many of the grafted vines currently planted are not strong enough to stand up to competition from other plants between rows in a vineyard, the shift to organic might work best when vines are replanted – but the economic lifespan for vines is generally about 30 years and replanting if you have healthy but relatively young vines is an additional cost that for many wineries won’t make business sense.

The price to pay clearly is an economic one, with the winery having less income yet higher expenses during a transition phase that can last from three to many more years while the vineyard adapts to its new organic lifestyle. It can take longer, says Matteo Mota, depending, for example on how favourable the weather is – allowing ground cover vegetation might cause frost or humidity problems in a cold or wet year and with these, disease. A long dry spell might mean the need to install irrigation systems. In places like Chateauneuf-du-pape, where the soil is very rocky, machine blades have to be replaced more frequently.

Long-term, there are certainly payoffs,starting with the benefits from biodiversity, says Mota. Life in the vineyard is more complex “and vines are generally more resilient in case of accidents or extreme situations.” But a producer first has to have the financial means to reach that point.

Mota is a soil science specialist and one of two professors overseeing the research teams. He and Yves Blondel, who is responsible for Changins’s instructional vineyards, are quick to caution that this study is in its early stages and quite small-scale: 3 rows of vines covering 465 metres, one grape variety – Chasselas – planted in 2008, in one location with mainly sandy soil and roots to a depth of 1 metre, on the shores of Lake Geneva. In Switzerland, to broaden the study base you would need to see the impact on vines at different altitudes, in different micro-climates (dry Valais, humid Ticino), in areas where machines cannot operate. The project will continue for 3 to 5 years, the time required for the transition to organic. It would be unwise to extrapolate and apply conclusions too broadly, they say.

Herbicides are easy, cheap – and lousy for soil, biodiversity

That said, Changins has an edge over some of Europe’s other vine and wine research institutes, students from abroad who are involved in the project told me; the approach to research is very much hands-on, applied research done in partnership with Swiss vignerons – growers and winemakers, versus more isolated laboratory-heavy academic research elsewhere. Cost matters, and “sometimes, scientific studies cannot realistically be implemented,” says Mota, “because the real cost changes the balance.”

The university’s R&D programme has been studying alternatives to herbicides for 10 years.

Changins is also known for a series of disease-resistant grape varieties that it has developed to fight specific problems where herbicides have been the cheapest and easiest solution in recent years. Vaterlaus of Vinum magazine, which carries out the national organic wines’ competition for Bio Suisse, says that these new grapes are providing some of the best organic wines, often better than more traditional or international grapes such as Chardonnay and Syrah.

Pre- and post-grad students at Changins began their research in 2017 to give a group of interested growers in Mont-sur-Rolle solid research results for soil maintenance options. The vines are part of Domaine Beau-Soleil. Thierry Durand, who manages this fourth-generation family winery, told me he is enjoying learning from their work, and the three rows he is contributing to the research is too little to jeopardize his livelihood from 6 hectares of vineyard. The winery has had the Vinatura label for integrated production since 1993. Durand is part of the local group of growers who want Changins to measure carefully the impact of reconversion to organic. His wines have the La Côte AOC.

An important finding of the new project has been to show clearly that herbicides protect soil poorly and are detrimental to biodiversity. Soil management, and as part of it, biodiversity, is a key issue for sustainable farming, which lies at the heart of organic farming and thus organic winemaking. Wineries that hope to produce healthy grapes in coming decades, and which see themselves as caretakers of the land, are keen to adopt sustainable farming practices. For anyone who hasn’t yet grasped why we need biodiversity when growing fruits, consider the case of areas in China where over-use of herbicides has been linked to the disappearance of bees, and apple and pear trees must be pollinated by hand.

Organic is not about the consumer, not initially

Organic wines, contrary to some popular notions, are not drinks designed to boost consumers’ health and protect us from cancer; these are wines designed to have a minimal negative impact on the environment and, importantly, on the health of people working the vines. If, in the end, people drinking the wines avoid consuming traces of chemicals, all the better. But the brouhaha surrounding traces of glyphosate in California wines was a bum steer for consumers because yes, traces are found in wines from vineyards using the chemical, but in tiny amounts. The real damage lies elsewhere, and we should try to understand why this matters.

We are going to see higher prices for our wines and we need to understand why. More intensive labour is part of the cost, as vines need to be treated more frequently with organic-approved products, although on the bright side this has been creating more jobs in wineries. The herbicide variant in the research study cost half per hectare than the best of the others: less than CHF350/hectare in the first year, versus nearly CHF700/hectare for scything, the least costly of the other variants.

In Switzerland, we will be voting on banning all herbicides; if voters say yes, and there is plenty of public support for the measure, farmers’ costs will rise. Farmers who see the handwriting on the wall, and this includes wine producers, are concerned that they need to understand – now – the implications of changing to organic before it is imposed on them, or in case it is.

In March 2018 a popular initiative was filed with the federal government in Bern, with more than 140,000 signatures, to ban synthetic pesticides and herbicides. A date for the public vote has not yet been set by the Federal Chancellory. And many wine producers themselves would like to make the move to organic – Raymond Paccot and a small group of growers meeting in Féchy told me 10 years ago that they were considering making the change, not so much because of consumer concerns but because of growing worries over their own health. And of course, consumers have become more aware of health and environmental concerns where their wine is concerned, in the past decade.

We can expect to see more organic wines as wine-lovers continue to demand them and wineries realize it is in their own long-term interest to produce them.

How the Changins project works

Rows between vines must be treated, chemically or mechanically or by hand, or some mix of these, and the same goes for the area between vines. If weeds grow too high in the spring they can cut airflow and worsen frost problems as well as encouraging pests that will harm the vines. During the summer vines needs protection from weeds that fight them for nutrients and water.

The Changins project set out to measure and compare soil treatment alternatives to herbicides, which are increasingly found in unacceptable quantities in our water sources; especially to the herbicide glyphosate (best-known brand is Roundup) which is under fire as a carcinogen; and to synthetic pesticides, also now considered a source of serious health problems.

The team is studying four non-chemical alternatives to soil management: powered serrated disks that slice the soil, blades (mechanical knives) that cut weeds between vines, brushes and scything to reduce weeds between rows without disturbing the soil (see photos). Vine areas are colour-coded according to the type of treatment they receive and each student studies each area for specific results.

Charlotte Burgat, for example, who has just finished her bachelor degree studies, focused on the botanical aspects. “On average, a single species – a problematic one at that – was observed in mid-summer in the herbicide-worked area, compared to eight species in the scythed areas,” she reported. Her results were similar to others found as part of earlier studies by Changins. Burgat, who is from a well-known Swiss winemaking family that was one of the earliest to focus on organic approaches, Domaine de Chambleau in Colombiers, Neuchâtel, says she wanted to take part in the study in order to help better manage the family vineyards once she is back there working. Others in the group told me the same thing – the upcoming generation of vignerons is enthusiastic about working vines organically and getting it right.

For wannabe vignerons or those who are clueless about mechanical vineyard works, here’s a helpful video in English from Napa Valley, California, that explains commonly used mechanical approaches to soil management.

Other notes:

• The viticultural parameters studied: chlorophyll in the leaves, yield, photosynthesis, the weight of pruned wood, the average weight of the grapes
• the environmental parameters: soil cover, height of the vegetation
• cleaning between vines was done essentially to limit competition for water
• the best results next to the vines were found when weeds were cut, not pulled up, thus using the brushes and scything gave the best soil protection
• regulating the life of the vines is crucial because if there is no stress, or too much, photosynthesis doesn’t take place
• Mota says part of their work is to tell wineries not to be discouraged after the first year, because it takes time to encourage vines to send their roots deeper – this is part of the transition post-herbicide use
• The university is also trying to help wineries find ways to share machinery, to reduce one of the high costs.

Where does this leave us

Organic wines will cost more because it costs more to make them. After I went to a demonstration of the equipment used in the vineyards in Mont-sur-Rolle, I stopped by Schilliger Garden Centre in Gland to pick up some plants. On the way out I noticed the new wine collection – not cheap wines, but several beautiful ones from France and Switzerland that I know, all of them organic. I listened while wine seller Benjamin Bec, who knows his products, explained to a couple how one of these wines is made. Hats off, to him for the good explanation, and to the couple who listened carefully, then bought some of the wine.

Meanwhile, research continues in other areas to find better, cheaper methods to grow grapes organically: researchers in the US reported success this week in using laser treatments to reduce weeds; back in Switzerland researchers are listening to worms to better understand how they work underground in the hope they can become useful partners for vignerons; a new seed called Noglyphos is under development that would provide a multi-purpose ground cover; and more, as wineries scramble to face a possible herbicide-free future.

The status quo with non-organic wines as we know them can’t continue. I think of a winemaker from the US who planted new vines on virgin land in the 1970s and who for some years won awards for his expensive wines, which cost what they do for marketing and image reasons. He is now trying to sell out, saying he is retiring, but he told me privately that production is lower and there are problems with the soil – could these be part of climate change, he wonders. I wonder if it isn’t his herbicide-based methods. He has spent more than 30 years zapping the weeds around his vines with that handy, cheap and famous glyphosate, he tells me, and the idea of shifting to organic doesn’t appeal to him, with the time investment it would take and the amount of profit he would lose because increasing already too-high prices isn’t an option.

After decades of a boom in large-scale industrially produced wines and growing awareness of the public health problems of wine abuse, I hope a growing number of us are ready for a less-is-more approach where wine quality counts and we’re willing to pay the price. Wine-lovers can help ease winemakers into this brave new world by understanding just what the vineyards are up against in their efforts to make wines that are healthier, that preserve the land, and that don’t harm people.

Related

Bio Suisse is the main certification organization for organic products in Switzerland. Their home page in English.

For wannabe vignerons or those who are clueless about mechanical vineyard works, here’s a helpful video in English from Napa Valley, California, that explains commonly used mechanical approaches to soil management.

Students taking part in the project: Helena Hebing, Simon Barlet, Charlotte Burgat, Nicolas Simon, Gemma Lopez, Elisa Bontognali.

Photos and charts from Changins, showing research results