Our Organic Certification

Our wines are fully certified in France and Europe.  

However, in the U.S., the cost is prohibitive for us and our business model, even though our wines are deserving. There are many steps an imported product must go through to be U.S.D.A. Certified, all of which are expensive, and all of which would then add a significant increase to our prices. So, we made the choice to stay affordable without U.S. certification, and therefore pass those savings on to our customers.

What's the difference between Organic, Biodynamic, and Sustainable Winemaking?

Organic: There’s two categories here, for legal purposes, that pertain to wine. "Certified Organic" wines require USDA approval and must be labelled as such on the wine bottles themselves. Wines that are not "Certified Organic" may also be organic, however, they will not have been established as such by the USDA and cannot have such a label on the bottle.  Either way, organic wines are those made from grapes grown without man-made fertilizers or additives. Grapes are grown organically, and are also made without any added sulfites, though naturally occurring sulfites will still be present. However, some organic wines, both certified and not certified, are still able to manipulate and add elements during the winemaking process after the grapes are grown. Organic wines that do not add anything foreign to the winemaking process may further be referred to as “Natural Wines”. While all of our Medivol wines are not USDA certified organic (in an effort to keep our costs as low as possible), they are still grown organically and made naturally.

Biodynamic: For farming and grape-growing to be biodynamic, special herbal sprays and all-natural composts are used instead of pesticides or chemical fertilizers to tend the crop, and all such applications are timed according to the lunar calendar. Biodynamic wineries are usually part of a greater-concern ecosystem that is also tended to by the winery, and treated more as a fully-integrated farm, with animals and additional crops rotated through the fields to provide biodiversity, natural cover, and natural nutrients that all benefit each other and keep the land healthy and balanced. A biodynamic wine means that the grapes are farmed biodynamically, and that the winemaker did not make the wine with any common manipulations such as yeast additions or acidity adjustments. All Medivol wines are proudly biodynamic.

Sustainable: This term refers to the practice of growing grapes and making wines in a socially responsible way. In addition to growing organic grapes and biodynamic farming and winemaking, sustainable wineries focus on conserving energy and water, and use renewable resources when possible to also protect the soil and air from any preventable contaminations. All Medivol wines are sustainably produced.