Is organic wine quality better just because it’s organic?

New study says that’s likely, though a variety questions remain

A second study focusing on organic wine quality has concluded that French organic wines taste better than other, non-organic French wines of the same price. That’s follows the results of a 2016 study, which showed more or less the same thing for California wines.

So what’s the catch?

That’s the question I try to answer in a freelance story for the new pix.wine website. The two studies, carried out by researchers at UCLA and the KDGE Business School in Bordeaux, seemed to point to definite quality differences between organic wines and non-organic wines at the same price.

In one respect, this isn’t surprising, given that organic products like tomatoes and milk are often considered of higher quality. But organic wine definitions and certifications vary, and there are also eco-friendly, but less rigorous, designations like California’s sustainable wine and France’s ‘reasoned’ agriculture.

“After the the California study, it was always the question of whether this was true elsewhere,” says Magali Delmas, an environmental scientist at UCLA and the co-author of the two reports. “And the French study makes the case even more for distinguishing between biodynamic [a more strict definition of organic], organic, and other standards. It’s something that leads to quality through the use of the practice.”

Which leads to the sticking points. The studies used scores to rate wine quality, and we know I feel about that. And where does price fit in for wines that don’t cost the same amount? Doesn’t it make sense than a $30 wine is going to get better scores just because it costs $30, and not necessarily because it’s organic? And there is even the argument that conventional $10 wine is going to taste better than organic $10 wine, since it’s so difficult to make organic wine at that price.

Photo: Alex Block on Unsplash