Organic vs Biodynamic vs Sustainable vs Natural Wine

As if buying a bottle of wine isn't confusing enough with trying to interpret what's on the front label especially on many imported wines. Their labels sometimes aren't even in English!  :)

There are corporate-farmed grapes and industrial settings for making many popular, high volume wines. Those producers don't talk about that, but smaller wineries in the premium end like to differentiate themselves with how the grapes are grown and how the wine is made.

Disclaimers: This won't be an all-inclusive look at each category below, but more of a lite primer. Everybody doesn't even agree on some of the definitions. Outside of the U.S. laws may be different.

Organically Grown Grapes
The fruit is grown without artificial chemical fertilizers or with the chemicals used to control insects, fungus or weeds. Ongoing gov't certification is required. Sulfur is still used, but the amount used is controlled. Two notes:  1) This doesn't exclude organic sprays, 2) This is for the growing of the fruit only.

Using sheep to mow the vineyard

Organic Wine
The fruit is grown organically plus no chemicals used in the winemaking process. Often these are to fix a problem with a certain batch of grapes or to act as a preservative. Generally, this means organic wines should be consumed sooner rather than later. Note: Organic does not imply vegan. For instance, egg whites can still be used for fining to clarify a wine.

Biodynamically Grown Grapes
This is organic plus mysticism or what I'd call spiritual and astrological bits. Some things are done according to the phase of the moon. Other things have to scientific reason. Scientific proof or not, some farmers swear by the results.

Burying cow horns full of cow dung in the vineyard
in Biodynamic farming

Sustainably Farmed Grapes
This is a holistic approach covering the long-term health of the vineyards, the surrounding flora and fauna, the neighbors of the vineyards, and the people who work there. You might bring in birds or insects to naturally control a pest problem. You allow the local weeds and wildflowers to grow among the rows of vines rather than plowing them under. Sonoma County will be 100% sustainably farmed within a couple years.

Natural Wine
This implies minimal intervention in winemaking, using natural yeasts and minimal sulfur. It might be from organic grapes, it might not. The problem is there is no legal definition of a natural wine or even a common definition in the wine community. Think of it as a (mostly) additive-free wine.

Opinion
These different methods as all ecological practices that most would agree are better for the land and maybe your body. None are guaranteed to give you a better wine. In fact, I believe you could risk a lesser quality wine with some of these practices.