Why Organic Wine Tastes Better

Usually, when we talk about organic and biodynamic farming, we talk about how it’s better for the planet, the health of the workers in the fields and the communities in which those farms are located.

Over the years, tens of thousands of lawsuits have been filed against companies like Monsanto (it has shelled out $11 billion and counting to date) over the noxious effects synthetic farming chemicals have on both the environment and health of humans; several countries now ban certain chemicals like Roundup, which is produced by Monsanto. Plus, studies have demonstrated that organically and biodynamically farmed food and beverages are healthier – higher in antioxidants, nutrition and polyphenols than their conventionally farmed counterparts.

But we are not primarily drinking wine as an act of community service and sacrifice, or as some sort of constitution-boosting elixir. We drink wine because it’s yummy. And as it turns out, organically and biodynamically farmed wine appears to taste better too.

The evidence

Multiple studies of scores from Robert Parker, Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator have shown that organic wines perform better than their peers.

In 2016, Magali Delmas and Olivier Gergaud, professors at UCLA and the KEDGE Business School in Bordeaux looked at 74,000 scores of wine produced in California from the trio above, and found that organically and/or biodynamically certified wines earned 4.1 percent higher than the rest of the pack.

The duo returned in 2021 with the results from a study that considered 128,000 wines scored by top French guides Gault Millau, Gilbert Gaillard and Bettane Desseauve, showing that organically certified wines scored 6.2 percent higher scores on average than the rest. Biodynamically certified wines – which don’t just eschew chemicals, but also require growers to plant and harvest at certain times and integrate animals and native plants into a holistic and closed-loop farming system – earned 11.8 percent higher scores.

But why do these wines taste better? We reached out to producers, critics and experts for insight.

Chemical superioriority

In addition to tasting better, studies show that organic and biodynamic wine are chemically superior, says Deborah Parker Wong, associate professor in the wine studies department at Santa Rosa Junior College and Cabrillo College and national editor for the Slow Wine Guide USA, pointing to two studies comparing the phenolic compounds of wines produced in different ways.

But chemical composition can only tell you so much, Parker Wong continues.

In a 2021 white paper analyzing wine quality under integrated, organic and biodynamic methods, the authors showed that the way a grape is cultivated directly affects the way it tastes.

“Different farming methods show a clear hierarchy of quality,” Parker Wong says. “Organic and biodynamic farming methods produce wines that are more expressive and more resilient to oxidation. Wine derived from biodynamic management had the highest aroma intensity.”

Those academic observations mirror what the team at Languedoc‘s Gérard Bertrand sees happening in their 2200 plus acres of vineyard, which have been en route to 100 percent biodynamic certification since 2002. (They are almost there, with 100 percent certification expected in the next year or so).

“Biodynamic farming has a lot of impacts on the environment, and our first goal is creating a more sustainable environment,” says the estate’s co-wine director Guillame Barraud. “But we have also seen the consequences of our farming program in the taste of our wine. We have much better acidity, and have created much more resilient grapes that are thriving even amid climate change.”

Barraud adds that while “biodynamic farming is not magic, we have tested our wines using these methods for many years, and we are seeing a decreasing ph level, and increasing level of acidity, even as the climate warms. Even if we were able to maintain acidity in these conditions, I would consider it a win.”

But in the end, the proof is in the glass.

“We do verticals of our wines, and we taste the difference across the decades,” Barraud says. “For me, the taste is more important than the chemical analysis.”

Others, like Maria Soledad, head winemaker at Poderi dal Nespoli in Emilia Romagna, makes wine from close to 450 acres of organically farmed grapes, about 30 percent of which are certified, say that farming sans chemicals absolutely makes for better wines. She says that the healthier the farming practices are, the better off the vines perform.

“The soil is healthier, and the plants show increased resistance to diseases and environmental stress,” Soledad says. “The vines become more efficient at absorbing nutrients and managing water reserves, and more capable of overcoming the continuous periods of drought we’re seeing due to climate change. All of these factors contribute to the health and quality of the raw material, in our case grapes, resulting in a greater final product.”

Evoking terroir

Winemakers like Juan Pablo Murgia, of Mendoza‘s Bodega Argento, are convinced that organic farming leads to purer and more evocative flavors. Bodega Argento has 962 acres of organically certified vines.

“We are very conscious about soil care,” Murgia says. “The living activity of organic soil helps boost root systems and allows them to connect vines with the soil. This is one of the most important aspects of creating terroir-driven wines with deep character, flavors and grape essences.”

Several studies, including this meta-analysis, show that organic systems result in soils with 32 percent-84 percent higher microbial activity.

Nate Wall says he joined Troon Vineyard‘s winemaking team almost six years ago with the goal of observing the transition from conventional to organic (with biodynamic components), both in the field and the glass.

“I experienced my ah-ha moment on organic and biodynamic wine in 2006 at one of the first international biodynamic wine conferences in the world held at the French embassy in DC,” Wall says. “I was floored. I’d never tasted wines from across the world of such a high quality. It took me more than a decade, but I finally found the opportunity to create wines myself that speak of the place, in our case Applegate Valley in Oregon.”

Wall believes, like Murgia, that healthier and livelier soils create wines with “something to say. The flavors are not muted or behind a veil. I find that non-organic wines are more generic and less articulate about the place they’re from.”

He says he’s witnessed the biggest impact with Syrah.

“We have Syrah planted across all of our four soil types at Troon, and comparing them is fascinating because there is such a difference, and it only increases every vintage,” Wall says. “And when we compare older plantings that were converted and new plantings farmed without chemicals from the beginning, we also see a huge difference. There is a lot more concentration of flavor and density in the newer vines. It’s night and day.”

Parker Wong, through her work with Slow Wine, has traced the evolution of wine from estates like Sonoma‘s Donum Estate, as they have transitioned from conventional to organic and biodynamic certified farming.

“My tasting notes reveal differences in the wines and qualities that have emerged” over that time, Parker Wong notes. “I know that some of those differences are attributable to the vintage effect and winemaking practices, but the fruit is different, and I perceive it as better and more interesting.”

Thoughtful farming

Wine growing and making often walks the line between science and art. Farmers and producers who are thinking in a nuanced way about what they’re doing, and spending more than the average amount of time on it, will inevitably create better juice.

Kurtis Ogasawara, director of winemaking at Napa‘s Robert Mondavi, which sources grapes from the recently organically certified To Kalon vineyard, has a practical perspective: organic growing requires more hands-on action, which naturally leads to a better product.

“Organic farming requires a meticulous plan for each block to ensure we support the vine’s growth throughout the season and maximize quality using soft hands,” Ogaswara says.

Brent Stone, COO and winemaker at the certified organic King Estate, with 450 acres under vine in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, believes that terminating wine’s paint-by-the-numbers era, coupled with superior farming practices creates exceptional wines.

“In the mid-19th Century, society felt everything could be replicated with a basic recipe and tried to get too narrow in the approach to agriculture, as well as in many other areas,” Stone says. “By evolving toward a lower input, biodynamic and organic regime, our wines have grown more complex and exhibit greater typicity. We are allowing the ecological system on our farm to move back towards what it was like when grapes evolved and clones and crosses were selected centuries ago.”

The feel-good component

Don’t underestimate the power that a product’s perceived halo can have on taste.

While many of the critics’ scores that rate organic and biodynamic wine above their conventionally farmed counterparts were tasted blind – meaning they were scored higher based on their taste alone, not because the critics knew they were produced in a certain way – it would be silly to dismiss the feel-good factor of drinking stuff that isn’t laced with chemicals linked to widespread environmental destruction and cancer.

Or as the Washington Post’s wine columnist Dave McIntyre puts it, pointing to a column he wrote referencing the OG organic tastes better study from 2016, notes that organic and biodynamic wines “often taste more lively, even more compelling, than other wines.”

But it may be just as much about perception as it is about taste, McIntyre adds.

There is a “growing recognition and concern about climate change – we are all environmentalists now, from putting solar panels on our homes and rain gardens in our yards, driving electric vehicles, reducing use of plastics, etc.” McIntyre notes. “We want the products we buy – especially those we put into our bodies, to reflect the same priorities.”

While McIntyre is quick to also note that taste is “subjective and personal. But even if there is no difference in taste, I would still favor the organic wine because the certification tells me something about how it was made. It tells me the people who made it care enough about their community and our shared planet to commit to conducting their business in a manner that reflects the way I try to live my life.”

Interestingly, McIntyre’s purchasing choices dovetail with Jessica Mozeico’s decision to move toward organic at Et Fille in the Willamette Valley.

“My dad and I co-founded Et Fille, which means ‘and daughter,’ 20 years ago,” she says, explaining that there are 3.5 organically farmed but not certified acres under vine.

“Around 2017, two things happened in rapid succession that impacted the direction of the winery: my daughter was born when I was 42 and my dad died in a tractor accident,” Mozeico says. “In the wake of losing my dad, business partner, and best friend, I knew that how I continued the business without him had to honor the future. I wanted our choices as a winery to be with the intention of leaving our land, seasons and community better for my daughter’s generation.”

Joshua Greene, editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits, isn’t convinced that organic and biodynamic farming practices make wine taste better.

“It’s an illusion,” Greene says. “I don’t think that organic and biodynamic farming make the wine better, I think that there are just a lot more high-level vineyards using organic and biodynamic farming methods. When Frey became the first organic and biodynamic winery in the US in 1980, they were fringe. But now it’s completely mainstream, and is even considered a criteria for making great wine.”

Greene is also quick to add that he isn’t “in any way against” the movement toward organic and biodynamic wines.

“With climate change becoming a daily reality for all of us, it’s responsible to farm sustainably,” Greene says.

Organic wine is better for the planet and human health. Many critics and producers believe it tastes better. And people – especially the under-40 set producers are so eager to cater to – not only want it, but are willing to pay more for it.

It would be naïve to believe that this means “case closed, everyone will convert,” because habits die hard, converting isn’t free and certain terroirs are inherently more challenging to farm organically – but it would be equally naïve (there are other words that spring to mind as well) for producers to not consider all of the long-term benefits of farming organically and biodynamically.