Organic Wine Drinking in Deutschland

By Nicole Ness
Staff Writer

Last week, with my fiancé Paul, I embarked on a trip to Nuremburg, Germany, to attend Biofach, the world’s leading exhibition for natural and organic certified products. Along with having the opportunity to travel to a country I had never been to before, I also had the privilege of attending a prestigious international organic food and wine show. 

Despite the occasional language barrier this show gave me not only the chance to sample a huge array of organic wines from around the world but also to get an idea as to how the organic wine market is shaping up across the globe. I thought my organic wine knowledge was fairly sound, but I quickly discovered that there is a ton out there I don’t know. My knowledge of the subject was expanded, and I was left with more questions than answers, along with new areas I want to explore.

I attended a vastly informative seminar on United States organic wine trends, experienced the inaugural year of an internationally known organic wine award, and most importantly, was able to try a bunch of new and crazy wines I had never before been exposed to.

43,000 people attended the four days of Biofach. While Paul did his business on the organic food side of the show, I had the pleasure of embarking on an international journey of organic wine, spanning 17 countries with around 270 wine exhibitors and over 600 wines.

As I first entered into the hall specifically dedicated to the wine side of this humongous show, I was overwhelmed and admittedly a little intimidated by what lay in front of me. Where to begin? It was nine o’clock in the morning and I had the whole day to explore.

The first order of business was always a big black cup of German coffee and a look through my wine tasting catalogue, a welcome and much needed tool for planning my wine sampling attack. To remain sober for at least the first part of the day, I looked for productive non-wine drinking activities to start out my morning.

Now, I am not saying that I can’t hold my alcohol, or had any plans to get all crazy with the wine tasting, but with that many wines, and even if you do spit a lot of it out, you are bound to catch yourself a pretty good buzz. And judging by how some people looked by the end of the day, with even the most sophisticated of folks swaggering a little, I was not the only one facing this dilemma. All I know is I was not about to be that American girl who couldn’t hold her wine and embarrassed the hell out of her fiancé in his business realm- no sir!

The first thing that became glaringly obvious to me right off the bat about Biofach was the obvious lack of American wine representation. To be exact, there was only one winery from the US, Frey Vineyards out of California, and these wines weren’t even available for tasting. After attending an informative and question-provoking seminar called “Structures and trends of the US organic wine market” I may have discovered the reason.

The most important and confusing thing I learned from the seminar, was how different organic wines laws in the US are from those in Europe. In the United States, to be considered truly organic, there can be no sulfites added. In Europe there are still no clear regulations pertaining to sulfites although this is very close to changing.

The addition of sulfites is a highly debatable subject. It is an additive and an allergen but also an antioxidant thought to help not only with the aging of the wine but also to help cut down on potential flaws in the wines due to naturally occurring bacteria. Paul Frey of the Frey Vineyards family, insisted that sulfites are not a necessary element in the winemaking process. But Europe exhibited hundreds of organic wines with sulfites and the United States had only one winery in attendance. That left me pondering the sulfite question, and although I do not know the answers, it is certainly something I want to learn more about.

This year marked the first annual MUNDUSvini Biofach Organic Wine Award. MUNDUSvini, of German origin, is the largest officially recognized wine competition in the world. Much like the highly coveted ratings given out by American publications such as the Wine Spectator or Wine Enthusiast, this award “provides producers with recognition of their hard work, allowing them to measure their own standards of performance in international competition and the awards they win permit prestigious labeling of the successful products of marketing.”(Biofach website) These wines were readily available for tasting and gave me a glimpse into the wide range of natural (if not organic by American standards) wines that the rest of the world is currently producing.

Since there were so many wines to be tried, I decided to try and focus on the wines I knew nothing about and from countries whose wines I am seldom exposed to. This turned out to be a great idea, and I ended up making some pretty cool new discoveries. Of course I HAD to sample the wide array of organic Champagnes along with a variety of Proseccos (rough life, I know!) but I did want to make it a point to experience the German version of sparkling wines called Sects. Although I was not in love with the ones I tried, it gave me a good reference point to compare and contrast to sparkling wines that I am familiar with.

I also had the privilege of experiencing a wide range of phenomenal German Rieslings of all sweetness levels. It was great to taste them all side by side and really get a feel of what German wines are all about. Of course I could not experience Germany without trying some insane dessert wines and I must say these were truly the highlight of my wine journey for the week.

Some of the more obscure red wines I tried included a Bulgarian red wine blend of Cab/Merlot/Mavrud (delicious), and the Austrian wine Savoir which knocked my socks off.

For me this was the trip of a lifetime and I can’t wait to (hopefully) go back next year. It is exposure like this that not only reminds me of what a cool job I have, but also makes me giddy with excitement for all of the unique experiences that this profession provides and will continue to provide for me in the future.

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