Premium Organic Wine ranks high on taste | DRINK / WINE

Interesting post on ScienceDaily.com (via The Consumerist) about how premium organic wines have consistently higher taste markings than non-organic, similarly priced varieties (based on Wine Spectator's rankings).

"The researchers studied 13,426 wines from 1,495 California wineries. Vintages ranged from 1998 to 2005, and more than 30 varietals and 25 appellations were represented.

First, Delmas and Grant tracked down each wine's rating from Wine Spectator, a prominent wine publication. Then they tabulated the number of wines made with grapes that had been certified by a third party as organically grown, a grueling and expensive process that obligates the vineyard to devote considerably more time and effort to cultivating grapes than conventional agricultural methods, which rely on chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers."
[via ScienceDaily.com]

Oddly, marketing wine as eco or organic on the label severely devalues the bottle (leftover associations from the 70s and 80s when organic varieties used lower quality grapes -- and also the false assumption that they lack important preservatives).

"While the higher Wine Spectator scores still prevailed when producers slapped eco-labels on their bottles, the financial rewards for going to the trouble of making certified wine evaporated. The "made from organically grown grapes" label not only wiped out the price premium for using certified grapes but actually drove prices 7 percent below those for conventionally produced wines, the researchers found.

The average price for a wine with an eco-label was $37.65. By contrast, a certified wine without an eco-label commanded an average price of $40.54."
[via ScienceDaily.com]

Point is, if you want the best bang for your buck in the premium wine department, you might want to try out a bottle of the organic stuff.

-jmd