Organic Wines

Organic farming came about to counter the movement that arose to fight the devastation of the World Wars — a movement that grew to cause its own type of devastation.

Post WWI and post WWII were eras that struggled to come back from military destruction and that were marked by new industrial solutions to their problems (just as the wars had been marked by new industrial solutions to weapons production). Consequently, the 1950s and 60s saw the “Green Revolution,” where the introduction of industrial farming tools and agrochemicals allowed us to hold off starvation.

Unfortunately, as the new machines and chemicals became de rigueur, we learned how taxing they were both on the land being farmed, the people eating what had been farmed, and the people doing the farming. In response, English scientists Sir Albert Howard and Walter James, and American publisher and author J.I. Rodale began the Organic Farming movement — a return to pre-industrial practices, doing away with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Though they began their work all the way back in the 1940s, it would take decades before a significant number of farmers adopted organic principles.

Our store has a special love for organic wines (and biodynamic and even natural wines).

And why not? When you drink wine, you drink it for the grapes’ expression of their terroir through the vineyard masters’ and winemakers’ skills, not for the residual pesticides and fertilizers.

This Wine Wednesday, Heather from distributor Potomac Selections returns to pour some of their cool organic wines. We’re really excited for this free, walk-up wine tasting. It’s one shop favorite, one wine that we haven’t had in a while, and one that’s completely new to the shop! Feel free to come in anytime between 5:00 and 6:30 PM.