Whole Foods Market, the nation's leading supermarket chain focused on organic and natural foods, household and personal care items, announced that it will become the first national retailer to carry USDA certified organic NSA (no sulfites added) wines from legendary wine-making regions in Italy and Spain.

University of Florida scientists have developed grapes used in wine production that are more resistant to insects and fungus, in what may lead to the first commercially available genetically modified wine.

Go Green Expo makes its third appearance in Los Angeles this weekend at the LA Convention Center with hundreds of vendors and dozens of speakers, films and performances for the whole family.

Drinking organic wine: a pleasurable way to help protect your heart.

Cooking with organic wine: a quick way to add sophistication to any dish.

One of the easiest, but underutilized, ways to glaze meat, fish and seafood, salads and veggies, and desserts is to make a wine reduction sauce. As the name implies, you’re simmering wine over a low heat until it reduces by half and becomes syrupy:

Go to your local vegan restaurant and you're sure to find organic booze. They usually come in brown bottles with artsy labels.

And the organic beer trend is not only picking up steam in the United States, but a brewery in New Zealand is changing the countries perception of what good ale is.

Mike's Organic Brewery is seeing a major up tick in sales, especially as more and more young people get hip to organic - those whippersnappers sure love their hooch!

Special beers or “craft beers,” like organic brews, are getting popular in New Zealand. So much so that Mike's is having a hard time keeping local stores stocked.

Instead of slogging back pint after pint, people in New Zealand are drinking fewer beers when they go out, so they want a higher quality cocktail.

Organic beers are a lot like micro-brews. They're all pretty different; usually stouter and darker, not watery like conventional drinks.

Mike's brewery mixes it up, offering a porter, strawberry ale, pilsner, and others. And they're so popular one retailer had to place an emergency order days after the store received it's first delivery.

I chill out in New York City a lot and at my favorite vegan joint they sell a few organic beers. They taste interesting and they do the job too - wink, wink.

Image Credit: Mike's Organic Brewery

The National Organic Program (NOP), has set the same standards for wine as it has for food. USDA certification is strict. It guarantees that grapes are grown without synthetic pesticides or chemicals; and the wine is processed without added sulfites or sulfur dioxide. Bottom line, you can't add preservatives to certified organic food products or wines. And sulfites are considered by the USDA a preservative.

Certified organic wines, can have naturally occurring sulfites (all wines contain naturally occurring sulfites as a byproduct of the fermentation process), but the total sulfite level must be less than 20 parts per million. So for the for those who are super-sensitive to sulfites (asthma sufferers, for example), certified organic wines are the way to go. If sulfites are added to the wine and the total count of sulfites in the wine is taken above 10 parts per million, it must make the statement, "Contains Sulfites."

There are four wineries in California that take the additional step of processing their wine without added sulfites and are certified organic. They are Frey Vineyards, Coates Vineyards in Orleans, La Rocca Vineyards in Forest Ranch, and Organic Wine Works.

If you want to buy organic wines that don't contain added sulfites, my top tip is to read the label.  The ingredients and process used to make the wine will determine the label it carries.

Check out our articles and videos on organic wines:

Red Organic Wine Tasting - Episode 19

Wine and Cheese Tasting - Episode 23

Organic Vines for Better Wines

Interviews with Two Italian Organic Winemakers
Winter Organic Wine Pairings
Organic Wine Crush and Fermentation DIY Wine Making
Organic Wine-A-Tasting DIY Wine Making

We measured the grapes and found they had a sugar level of 24 to 25 which would give them a potential alcohol of 12.5% which is right where we want it, these organic grapes were picked at just the right time by Charlie Barra of Barra of Mendocino to have this perfect sugar level. We also measured the acidity which came out to .76 and the pH 3.3 to 3.4 as well as the relative gravity which was 1.092 to 1.096 which were all desirable measurements.

That night I started the yeast in 50% juice and 50% water and added the yeast to the grapes ever waiting patiently in the trash cans the next morning. This process of fermenting the grape juice with crashed wine berries is known as maceration, during this process the red wine acquirers its structure and color. As a general rule of thumb, the longer the juice and grape solids are in contact, the more tannin and color that will be extracted, and the more full-bodied and colored a red wine will be. Maceration can take from 3 to 21 days but there is a lot to get into for the ease of this wine we macerated the wine till the yeast fermented all or most of the sugar which for this wine was 9 days.

While the wine is fermenting in the trash cans the yeast will raise the solid grape parts to the top, thus you need to punch down the solid grape parts, you can easily do this with an oversize spoon or paddle all you're doing is just pushing the solid grape mass down into the grape juice. I love punching down the grapes for it releases amazing aromatic smells of a winery, you truly know you're making wine at this point. The fermentation process will vary based on the temperature that the grapes are at. I measured the grapes specific gravity percentage of alcohol and temperature on a daily basis to know when we would be ready to press the grapes. For this organic zinfandel it took nine days till it was ready to be pressed.
Stay tuned for my next blog on do-it-yourself organic wine making where I'll talk about pressing the wine.

If you want to read the first part of the series :

Organic Wine - A Tasting - DIY wine making.

You may also be interested in these other articles about wine:

Interviews with Two Italian Organic Winemakers
Winter Organic Wine Pairings
Organic Vines for Better Wines
Organic Wine-A-Tasting DIY Wine Making

• Organic Vines for Better Wines 
• Interviews With Two Organic Wine Makers 
• Organic Wine Pairings: Chinese & Thai Food 
• Organic Wine Pairings: Mexican, Indian & Japanese Food 
• Organic Wine Pairings: American Classics 
• Healthy Alcohol Consumption May Reduce Heart Attack Risk 
• Fall Entertaining: Pair Artisan Sausages With Wine