Italy is the first country worldwide to have approved different and stricter wine-making standards than the ones approved by Demeter International in 2008 and still in force.
The reason for this decision is that the Italian biodynamic wine producers have never recognized themselves in the international standards, which didn’t take the peculiarities of countries like Italy and France sufficiently into account, where the natural wine movement is more rooted.
On an international level, the necessities of countries had to be taken into account, where, due to difficult climatic conditions and to a more technological approach to the wine, practices such as adding sugar, the use of non-indigenous yeasts, heavy addition of sulfites and sterile filtration are necessary.
Given the contrary vote of Italy and France in the international setting, Demeter International allowed the single countries to prepare stricter standards on some crucial points of wine-making.
The Forum of the Italian biodynamic Demeter wines, especially created last year, has worked to submit to all Demeter associates stricter wine-making standards, enabling to communicate higher quality wines, tied to the soil and the vine-grower who makes them.
These are the highlights of the new standards:
– Only hand-picked grapes can be used;
– Only indigenous yeasts can be used;
– Increasing the natural alcohol content (by adding sugar) is not allowed;
– Ingredients of animal origin are not allowed;
– The dosage of sulfites decreases the total SO2 limit to a maximum 70 mg/l for red wines and to a maximum of 90 mg/l for white wines (the organic standards allow 100 mg/l for red wines and 150 mg/l for white wines, while conventional wines can contain up to 160 mg/l for red wines and 200 mg/l for white wines);
– Possible filtrations can’t be under 1 micron;
– Silicon stoppers are not allowed.
All details will shortly be available on www.demeter.it
“The primary goal of the Demeter wine is expressed in the product’s vitality. It should thus preserve the fruit’s original life forces during the transformation passage into wine, giving back to those who drink it, through its aroma and taste, the perception of its place of origin, empathize with the food and be an easy to digest drink giving a sense of well-being to those who enjoy it. Demeter wine should bear an expressive spontaneity and transmit the personality of an intense and lively raw material. This can be measured by quantitative analysis and through other detection techniques such as sensitive crystallization and analysis of the formative forces. ”
