ORGANIC WINE: Organic or bust?

With the LIWF giving organic wine the same coverage it last year gave rosé, should we prepare for pesticide-less plonk to go the way of the pink stuff? Patrick Schmitt reports

If the Top 100 tasting at the London International Wine Fair is a reliable indicator of consumer trends, then organic wine will become the next rosé. While last year’s selection was restricted to all things pink, this year’s line-up contained nothing but organic and biodynamic wines, a parameter carefully chosen to reflect a current growth area. But is organic wine really set to take up to 10% of the UK wine market, like rosé? And will there be a global organic wine boom? In the short term, no.
While sales of organic produce have grown enormously in root vegetables, chicken and milk, due to a mixture of reasons – well-publicised scares, increased availability and easily identifiable taste and packaging differences – organic wine has not. It has not been promoted by celebrities, it doesn’t necessarily offer instantly recognisable sensory benefits and, crucially, supply is limited. Then there’s the current economic climate to consider. As the squeeze on consumer spending tightens, the units drunk by your average citizen may not decline, but the amount spent on them almost certainly will. Organic wine, which is more expensive to make and therefore cannot compete at the entry level of the market, is hardly likely to see a sales surge when shoppers are quite literally counting the pennies. Finally there’s the merchandising. While views vary on whether to give organic wine its own bay, when it comes to individual wines, it is felt they are not clearly enough “organic”. Some blame the packaging designers, others the retailers, who could do more on shelf to highlight the farming method.

A growing market
But, despite the drawbacks, were the wine fair organisers wrong to focus on organics? Again, no. Organic wine may occupy less than 1% of the UK market but growth is occuring, and that’s relative to a near-flat total market for wine. TNS on page 54 reports a 22% increase in sales of organic alcohol and 42% rise for organic wine alone. (The market for organic wine in the UK is estimated at 500,000 cases.)

Then there are the product launches. With both supply and demand of organic wine on the up, more importers and producers are creating novel concepts to bring organically grown grapes to the consumer’s attention.
Finally, there is a scare. An investigation by Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN) has found residues of pesticides, including those classified as being carcinogenic, and released its findings. This follws a report by the French Ministry of Agriculture which identified 15 pesticides which are transferred from grapes into wine during vinification.
However, even those championing organic wine would rather consumers were not driven into the sector through alarmist information. “Like the publicity surrounding mad cow disease, this news will be a negative motivation for people to migrate to organic and personally in the long term I hope organic wine doesn’t rely on negative news for growth,” says Simon Legge, European marketing director for Bonterra, adding, “it has to prove itself and be noticed more on shelf.”
In any case, David Gill MW, of Bottle Green, Britain’s largest organic specialist, believes that: “Chemical residues are the result of sloppy vineyard management and shouldn’t be an issue – alcohol will kill you long before the residues and organic wine is not about being better for you, but it is about stable agriculture.”
But whatever the incentive to buy organic wine, where and how can consumers find it? Would it be better housed in its own retail section? When it comes to merchandising organic wine, producers would rather the farming method wasn’t treated as a separate category. “The wines must stand up for themselves and should be placed alongside conventionally produced wines,” says Lance Pigott, founder of organic specialists Vintage Roots. “I am a strong advocate of getting rid of the organic graveyard,” says Legge, while Gill recalls Sainsbury’s historic appraoch to organic wine. “The supermarket used to merchandise organic wine separately and it became a ghetto,” he says. “They put the wines back on shelf and sales increased by 40%. Organic wines need to stand up on their own two feet.”

However, most would like to see organic wines highlighted by retailers. “The wines should be intermingled with others but retailers should signpost them, perhaps with a green dot,” says Legge. “With fruit and veg, or chicken, you can clearly see if it is organic. But with wine, when you are faced with 400 bottles, you have to really try to pick out if it is organic, and the information might be on the back label. At the moment, on Bonterra, we have put a neck tag to highlight the fact the wine is organic, but some of these get lost and we would rather not be doing extra packaging.”

The branding debate
As for supply, there are conflicting views and examples of what works when it comes to branding organic wine. For some, clearly labelled organic-only brands are the best route, for others, the use of organically grown grapes should simply be a discretely stated added extra. Certainly Brown-Forman’s Bonterra, which shifts around 50,000 cases in the UK and 250,000 cases globally, is proof of the potential of an organic-only brand. Others attempting to mimick this Californian label’s success, however, tend to opt for an umbrella brand, allowing them to source organic grapes from a range of regions. For instance, Hugh Ryman, Kevin Shaw and Robert Joseph have launched Greener Planet, “a trustable brand umbrella with a person and a place”, according to Joseph. The brand is being handled by Buckingham-Schenk and includes a range of organic wines, each one featuring the producer. There is also a charitable aspect to the product, with a percentage of income generated donated to Water Aid.

Ehrmanns, too, has high hopes for its organic umbrella brand called Terroir Organics, using producers from Argentina, Greece, Spain and South Africa. “I strongly feel this could have as much appeal as Green & Black or Duchy Originals,” says Marianne Fillion, new product development manager at the UK importer. “The price point would be around £6.99 – under Bonterra but above Stellar Organics – where there is a gap.” Stellar, based in South Africa, may, like Bonterra, have one source country but is growing fast, with widespread distribution in the UK. The winery is also supplier of Sainsbury’s own-label “So Organic” no-added-sulphur Cabernet Sauvignon, and will soon supply the supermarket’s own-label organic sparkling.
Others are less convinced by the potential for organic-only brands. Thierry’s Terra Organica umbrella organic brand has been “slow-starting”, according to Matthew Dickinson, commercial director at the company, despite the fact the range includes the UK’s only organic Prosecco. Similarly, Gill at Bottle Green believes an organic-only brand “is not the most effective way to sell organic wine – organic might be an extra reason to buy, but it won’t be the reason to buy”.
Currently the importer is launching organic line extensions for the Australian Andrew Peace label – including a Chardonnay and Shiraz – as well as an expanding range of organic wines from Hungarian producer Hilltop, which plans to convert its 550-hectare estate entirely to organic viticulture.

Supply problem
Overall though, if there is one aspect to the organic movement halting further growth it is supply. As Legge comments, “Generally speaking from our Californian experience there are a limited number of vineyards certified organic and a limited number of growers with the will and tenacity to see things through for three years for organic certification.” Similarly, Vintage Roots’ Piggot says that “there is not enough hectarage under organic growing conditions for a large-scale organic brand,” although he cites Chile and Argentina, where relatively high-volume individual organic producers exist, including Emiliana and La Riojana. As for Europe, “In France, Italy and Spain there is a lot under organic but the vineyards are mainly family run,” he adds.
Nevertheless, when it comes to wine types, it is interesting and important to note that organic wine, if not yet fashionable in itself, does cover all the fastest-growing vinous sectors. “Organic does cover the trends out there, there is an organic wine in every category,” says Piggott, pointing out that there is even an organic Pinot Grigio rosé.
So while organic wine may not be cheap – it costs anywhere between 10% and 30% more to produce – or especially volumous, it shouldn’t be shunned on stylistic grounds. Not only does organic viticulture usually result in lower yields, protect the soil for future vintages and, some believe, produce wines with a more accurate expression of terroir, it also includes almost all countries, grapes and wine types. In other words, going organic is good for the environment and does not preclude retailers or restaurants from having a comprehensive range.

db ©  June 2008