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How much organic wine benefits from the now global organic boom was once again shown by the successful entries for the International Wine Award at BioFach 2007: With 1,129 wines from 294 vintners from 13 countries, a new record was set at the world's largest organic wine trade fair (see Wein-Plus-News of 15.02.07: "Ten times Grand Gold for organic wines").

Unbroken global organic boom - also for organic wines

Sensory specialist Martin Darting, who is in charge of tasting and evaluation on behalf of the Nuremberg Biofach, was able to report an almost breathtaking increase in the number of certificates of achievement sent in by organic winegrowers: Whereas at the beginning of the wine awards nine years ago there were about 100 wines from about 30 European winegrowers, after four years there were already about 300 wines; two years ago their number rose to 495. Further steep leaps in development were recorded last year with 777 wines and this year with 1,129 wines - a spectacular increase of 45% over the previous year.

In a multi-stage, extremely demanding tasting and evaluation procedure(www.bioweinpreis.de), high and top prizes were awarded to wines that were particularly convincing in terms of origin and varietal typicity, aroma, character and content. In the meantime, the complete range of grape varieties has established itself among the entries; among the predominantly white wines from 2004 and 2005, it is also here the leading variety Riesling that was able to secure the largest share, analogous to the German grape variety distribution.

10 times Grand Gold - convincing in typicity% aroma and character

Among the red varieties, dominated by Pinot Noir, mainly wines from the exceptional vintage of 2003 - often with high alcohol, low acidity, but also ripe phenols - were submitted for evaluation. Their taste profile was nevertheless predominantly characterised by individuality, often by dense, pronounced spiciness and varietal-typical, fruity aromatics; "international styling" in the sense of bulky wines overloaded with toasty notes hardly made an appearance. The still minimal share of the new fungus-resistant varieties ("Piwis") will probably soon increase significantly, as Klaus Rummel, long-time Piwi experimenter with a demonstration winery in Landau-Nußdorf (2005 1st place in the Organic Farming Promotion Prize of the Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection) was able to convincingly promise in a BioFach lecture.


Trends and tendencies

Martin Darting sees the leaps in quality in the German organic winegrowing scene as being mainly due to the generational change: "Young winegrowers often gain international experience during their apprenticeship, but also before taking over the business, through internships and job shadowing in South Africa or Australia, for example. The quality orientation imparted in the winegrowing apprenticeship, but also in Geisenheim, is then reflected in the tendency of the winegrowers to turn away from the "taste mainstream": at best, two-thirds of all wines are still on an "easy-drinking" level, one-third already belong to a higher quality level, which could also be described as "modernised tradition".

Renate Künast informs herself at the Ecovin joint stand

Even though the quality leaps have become obvious everywhere, Martin Darting expects the big quantitative increases in the international organic wine sector to come from an initially unexpected place: He predicts an increased commitment "in the next few years" especially for Turkey, India and China; Turkey, for example, already has about 590,000 ha of vineyards (Germany about 104,000), including twice as much organic vineyard area (about 4,000 ha) as Germany. While the German organic vineyard area is stagnating and has been levelling off at about 2,000 ha for some years (cf. e.g. www.ecovin.de), it is growing steadily in other European countries - above all France, Austria, Spain.

In the organic wine segment there seems to be a mirror image of what is already happening in the incomparably booming market for organic food: Great demand with emerging scarcity tendencies. Admittedly, the barometer of the now clearly sustainable turnover in the organic sector shows an overall double-digit plus for the 4th quarter of 2006 (the front-runners with 14.5 % are the organic supermarkets; Klaus Braun, Biohandel 3/07) - after all, organic products on the plate and in the jar increasingly correspond to a reflected lifestyle and a deepened ecological awareness, which is not least shaped and motivated by food scandals and climate change.

Nevertheless, there is an increasing gap between supply and demand, a discrepancy between the markets with the highest sales and their designation of their own organic cultivation areas: In Europe or North America - according to IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Methods, also patron of BioFach) - simply "conversion is lagging behind market growth" (Biowelt 2/07). The trade journal "Ökologie & Landbau" (Yussefi/Zerger, 1/07) sees it no differently for German conditions: "The number of organic farms in Germany is almost stagnating, while European and international competitors are securing more and more market share in the important European sales market for organic food".

So in Germany of all places - the strongest and therefore most contested market for organic products in Europe (in 2005 the turnover in Germany alone was about four billion euros) - the markets are being occupied by foreign producers who react more quickly. This also applies to organic wine: its market has been virtually "swept clean" by large-scale buyers, especially in food retail and organic supermarkets, states Peter Riegel, who, as market leader among the large organic wine specialists in specialised and upmarket food retail, exemplifies the professionalisation of the organic trade and the qualities it represents.

International producers are increasingly securing shares in the market with the highest turnover for organic products - Germany.

Since the German wine market as a whole remains "stable" (according to the German Wine Institute in its 2006/2007 statistics) and (especially German) organic wines are in such demand that the first bottlenecks are becoming apparent, their consumption is obviously at the expense of conventionally produced wines. But not only that: the continuously growing demand has to be met by foreign producers, as German organic wine production obviously cannot keep up - in the medium term, significantly more vineyards would have to be converted. But this takes three years, and many winegrowers shy away from it because of the effort, the risks involved, but also because of the reduced conversion subsidies. Wines from Austria - for example, from the Austrian biodynamic winery Michlits or from Greece - for example, exclusive organic wines from vines on Mount Athos from the Tsantali winery - have successfully gained access to the German market.

In any case, the organic boom is likely to continue for the foreseeable future - not only in Australia, the USA and Europe, but now also aggressively in Southeast Asia, so that an organic trade fair of its own will soon celebrate its premiere as a subsidiary of the Nuremberg Biofach: After the established BioFach fairs "America", "América Latina", and "Japan", "BioFach China" will open for the first time on 31 May 2007. But with demand continuing to rise, where will the organic wines for German wine lovers come from? China, which already has 450,000 ha of vineyards for conventional cultivation, could certainly step in soon. Nevertheless, in view of rising producer prices and an ever-increasing number of top organic winegrowers, there seems to be reason for confidence: "Organic viticulture continues to grow globally (...) There are also signs of conversion in Germany" (Weinwirtschaft 3/07, Wolfram Römmelt). The stagnation of organic vineyards in Germany, the beneficiary of the global organic boom, does not have to be a permanent fate.


www.biofach.de
www.bioweinpreis.de
www.riegel.de
www.tsantali.gr
www.meinklang.at

Date of the next BioFach: 21 to 24 February 2008

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