Organic, Biodynamic & Natural: A Plain Guide

Organic, biodynamic, natural — they overlap, but they're not the same thing. Two of them are about farming; one is about winemaking.

Organic — the farming

Organic means the grapes are grown without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. It's about what does (and doesn't) go on the vineyard. It says nothing about what happens in the cellar.

Biodynamic — farming, taken further

Biodynamics treats the vineyard as a single living system, following an organic-plus approach with composts, cover crops, and a lunar calendar. Stricter than organic in the field — again, a farming standard, not a cellar one.

Natural / low-intervention — the winemaking

This is what happens after the harvest: native-yeast fermentation, no added sugar or industrial additives, minimal or no added sulfites, and little to no fining or filtration. A wine can be made from organic grapes and still be manipulated in the cellar — "natural" is the part that keeps it honest all the way to the bottle.

How we choose

We look for both: thoughtful farming and a hands-off cellar. That's the wine that tastes most alive.

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