Organic wine: what certification guarantees you

Certification covers how the vines are farmed; the quality of the wine remains the winemaker's business. What makes the difference when tasting is the terroir, the vintage and the estate's work, exactly as with a conventional bottle. The finest successes in this range bring the two together: specifications respected in the vineyard and a sure hand in the cellar.

Yes, in the vast majority of cases. The specifications allow sulphites and lower the maximum dose compared with a conventional wine. The page for False Bay Slow Chenin Blanc spells it out in black and white: sulphur is the only added input, as a preservative. To choose on this basis, the product page gives the information, bottle by bottle.

The green leaf of stars means that the estate is certified organic by an approved body, whose number appears right next to it. It requires three years of conversion before the first harvest can be claimed, followed by an annual inspection. It guarantees a farming method and a list of inputs, verified at every audit.

Yes, since 2012, through a European regulation dedicated to winemaking. It restricts the list of additives and preserves the natural alcohol and concentration of the must, ruling out partial dealcoholisation and cold concentration. On the other hand, it still allows inoculation with yeasts, fining, filtration and ageing in new oak. A certified wine can therefore be made with very technical tools in the cellar, and its product page says so.

The label requires products of natural origin and lets the grower protect the crop. Sulphur and copper remain the two basic tools against powdery and downy mildew, with copper capped at an annual dose, and plant extracts provide support. Spray drift from a neighbouring conventional plot remains possible, as everywhere. What the label guarantees is farming carried out with those products, inspected every year.

Dry, windswept or high-altitude vineyards, from northern Greece to the Cafayate Valley, where disease pressure on the vines stays low and organic farming can be managed at a controlled cost. In a damp maritime climate, the same conversion demands more passes through the vineyard, more risk and deeper pockets. That logic is what draws the map of this range: high-altitude Argentina, Spain, Greece, Italy, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand and Portugal.

Mainly from eight countries: Argentina first, then Spain, Greece, Italy, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand and Portugal. The rest is scattered across a handful of rarer origins. Many of these vineyards are at altitude, up to 1,650 metres in Cafayate for El Porvenir's old vines.

The price shown on the product page always tells you whether it is for a bottle or a case. Part of the range is sold by the bottle, the rest goes by the case, and availability varies by origin: Argentina is by far the best stocked for single bottles, Spain and Chile follow, and Greece and South Africa offer a handful of bottles.

The two cuvées from Quinta das Maias, at €13.90, are the best entry point available by the bottle: a red and a white grown at 600 metres in the foothills of the Serra da Estrela, in the Dão, both fermented with native yeasts, the red aged in stainless-steel tanks. Just above them, E's Vino Chardonnay and Malbec at €14.90, then Malma Chacra la Papay and El Porvenir Amauta Tannat at €16.50, open the door to high-altitude Argentina.

Ageing potential depends on acidity, tannic structure and ageing in the cellar, as with any bottle. A lower sulphur dose makes transport and storage conditions a little more decisive. Storing the wine at 12–14 °C, away from light, is enough in almost every case.