Sustainable Vineyards and Roundup

A few years ago Sonoma County made a big deal about the county's vineyards going 100% sustainable -- the first region in the country to do so. Sustainable certification is not the same as organic. It is earth-friendly (whatever exactly that means), but also socially responsible with its neighbors and employees. It is a great step.

They do, however, allow things like glyphosate weed killer, better known by the brand name Roundup. This chemical has been declared as a likely carcinogen. A test was done on several wines from around the world and found the one organic wine had the lowest level of glyphosate (still getting run-off from other nearby agriculture probably) and the highest was Sutter Home (a high-volume industrially-manufactured wine).

Glyphosate works on growing plants. In vineyards it can be sprayed between the rows of vines to knock down the weeds. There are other ways to do this by planting other cover crops to choke out the weeds or by just mowing or tilling them. Using Roundup is cheap and easy.

Vineyard mowing
image from pressdemocrat.com

In theory Sonoma County vineyard managers will use Roundup only as a last resort. For some vineyards, its use is more likely. Many, if not most, smaller vineyard owners are staying away from Round-up and many are what you'd call semi-organic, but not officially certified. Getting organic certification requires time and money and ties your hands and not everybody is comfortable with not having a last resort plan if it means saving their vineyards from some pest.

Glyphosate, however, is different. Sure, you will never drink enough wine in your lifetime to hit a danger limit. There is a cumulative effect of everything else you consume. For instance, there was a study of some breakfast cereals and, like wine, they all contained some residual glyphosate. Cheerios, as it turned out, was by far the worse and I've stopped eating it and largely switched to organic cereal.

So what can you do? There are very few organic wines out there. U.S. law does not allow added sulfur. This can change the flavor and means the wine must be consumed soon. Organic wines will usually taste different. If you don't want to go that way then I would at least avoid the large scale industrial-type wines and stick with smaller producers. This is strictly an unscientific opinion, but I trust my local family farmers to do the right thing.