Organic Wines Gaining Ground and Respect

[S.Annadana]

Sipping Organically
By: Alan Richman, Specialty Food News



TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO, VERONIQUE RASKIN, CEO AND FOUNDER OF THE ORGANIC WINE COMPANY, an importer and distributor headquartered in San Francisco, started selling two organic wines made from grapes grown on her family's property in France. Now she boasts more than 60 choices overall--and she's just one of many organic beverage dealers who are seeing growth.
According to the Greenfield, Mass.-based Organic Trade Association (OTA) sales of organic wine--including varieties made from organically grown grapes and biodynamic wine--have increased from $40.3 million in 2002 to $90 million in 2006. The accumulated growth of the category over four years is 123 percent.

Organic beer, including types of ale, is doing even better in terms of percentage. It went from $7.8 million in 2002 to $25 
million in 2006, a 191 percent leap. "Demand for all things organic has been steadily rising," notes John Steinhubl, director of the Import Crafts Specialty Group at Anheuser-Busch, Inc., in St. Louis. The giant brewer's entry in the organic subcategory is Stone Mill 
Pale, which is brewed at a plant in Merrimack, N.H.

Purchase Motivators
"Consumers are increasingly concerned with the health values of everything they eat and drink, including wine and beer," states Marc Schoninger, owner of Bath Natural Market, a natural products specialty store in Bath, Maine.

Shoppers' general growing attention to health and wellness does appear to be a leading sales driver in organic alcoholic beverages. For example, the lack of added sulfites in organic wines is a draw to consumers who suffer headaches 
or other symptoms from drinking conventional versions.

Steven Frenkel, owner of Organic Vintages, located in Ukiah, Calif., believes that consumers should be educated that as many as 200 chemicals are commonly used in conventional wine production. "It's not just sulfites that wine buyers should be 
wary of, but a number of other additives, too," he says. "Also, consumers should be made aware that grapes are among the most heavily sprayed crops--except when they are organically grown."

Tom Hansen, fine wine buyer at Hannaford Bros. Co., a chain of about 200 supermarkets (approximately half of which carry organic wine and beer), also notes that organic beverages continue to show steady sales increases. They have become so familiar to shoppers that the retailer recently integrated its top ten selling organic wines into mainstream sets, while also maintaining a rack in the stores' Nature's Place section.

"The fact is that just about everything in the organic aisle is popular today," agrees Jon Cadoux, founder of Portland, Maine-based Peak Organic Brewing Company. "Consumer response is positive to both our pale ale and nut brown ale."

Sales Obstacles
Impressive growth aside, organic wine and beer remain a budding subset in the more mainstream acceptance of organic foods. This is in part due to food's positive publicity versus libations, believes Frenkel. Organic foods benefit from labeling regulations that require manufacturers to list ingredients on food packaging. If conventional wine producers had to list some of the additives they use, more consumers would turn to organic options, he theorizes.

Wine is "playing catch-up" right now, notes Raskin about the product's relatively late entry into the organic movement as opposed to produce and packaged foods. Wine and beer are "latter day categories to be added to the organic canon."

With wine, in particular, there are inherent complexities in producing consistently fine organics that have played a role in slowing its sales versus other categories. "Wine is impacted by variations in growing seasons and in the terroir of the region where grapes are grown," says James Caudill, public affairs spokesperson for Hopland, Calif.-based Bonterra Vineyards. "Some are well suited for organic production, and some have difficult growing conditions that generally make it harder to produce a dependable supply 
of grapes."

Laws that determine when and where alcoholic beverages may be sold in the U.S. can also be a challenge, says suppliers. Max Oswald, director of sales and marketing for Otter Creek/Wolavers, a brewer of five styles of organic ale, notes that it is difficult for organic wine and beer merchants to build reliable channels of distribution. He says, "We must go through traditional beer distribution channels to get our product to market. We currently have more than 60 distributors in 20 states, but it can be difficult to find the right partner that is interested and understands how to sell our products. In areas where we have distribution, we have great trends."

Taste of Terroir
Two of the biggest sales obstacles can be consumers' pre-conceived notions of substandard flavor and premium prices in organic wines or beers. This can be true even among those who are organic shoppers in other categories.

To combat the flavor challenge, many retailers rely on strategic grab-and-go merchandising or events that incorporate organic varieties. For example, Fernanda's, a gourmet specialty food shop in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., holds weekly wine tastings. Meanwhile, in Lexington, Ky., Krim Boughlem and his wife, Andrea Sims, owners of newly opened Wine + Market, are planning an ambitious program, including holding classes, doing event catering with wine and cheese, and setting up wine cellars in people's homes.

Consumers need to be made aware that organic wine and beer often offer superior flavor to their conventional counterparts, report retailers and suppliers. In the case of wine, according to Paolo Mario Bonetti, president of Organic Vintners, Inc., located in Boulder, Colo., all fine wine--including organic offerings--should further express varietal character and a sense of terroir."

Many winemakers note that organically grown grapes can reflect terrior much better than those conventionally grown, because they are not encumbered with chemicals and other additives that are not native to the vineyard. "A good wine comes from good grapes, but a remarkable wine comes from great grapes," states Phaedra LaRocca Morrill, sales and marketing director for LaRocca Vineyards, a winemaker based in Forest Ranch, Calif. "This is why many wineries are finding that organic viticulture is producing higher quality fruit for their wines."

The same concept applies to organic beer. "All gourmet ales should deliver a journey of flavor, offering distinct varieties of taste from first sip to final swallow," says Cadoux. "And organic ingredients do it better in alcoholic drinks, just as they do in foods."

As for price premiums, retailers report that the cost differential is rapidly disappearing. "It is possible to buy a really nice bottle of organic wine for under $12," notes Schoninger. On the beer side, Cadoux says that there might be a margin of about 50 cents between a six-pack of Heineken and his Peak Pale Ale, but that works out to "less than 9 cents a bottle." The consensus is that consumers buy into the organics' value once they taste, smell and experience the quality of the products.

Future Trends
Biodynamic wines are an emerging wave in ecologically focused beverage purchasing. According to the rules of biodynamic agriculture, a form of organic farming, grapes are produced on a farm where soil, plants and animals are considered a closed, self-sustaining system. Compost includes herbs instead of artificial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. The method is thought to improve soil fertility, crop nutrition, and pest, weed and disease management--leading to better tasting crops.

Lee Chasalow, co-owner of Daryl Wine Bar & Restaurant, New Brunswick, N.J., has begun placing greater emphasis on biodynamic options in his current wine list of close to 200 sustainable and organic selections. Biodynamic wines gaining attention at the restaurant include Don Davide Reserve 2006, featuring Torrontes grapes. The wine, which retails for $16.75, is from the Michel Torino company in Argentina. Other biodynamic selections include Macon-Milly Lamartine 2005, Heritiers du Comte Lafon, and Taurasi Vigna Cinque Querce 2004, Salvatore Molettieri.

"Organic may no longer be enough," Chasalow suggests. "With biodynamic products, there is a greater sense of terroir because biodynamic growers leave the weeds and wild flowers in the vineyard. As a result, the wine grapes have to struggle to establish themselves. It's this struggle that gives them more strength and body."

Source: SpecialtyFood.com