Want to start a fight in a tasting room? Ready to see some Riedel get winged across a table at a great restaurant? Do you want to hear a sommelier pontificate endlessly on a subject other than how the bottle of Chambertin you just bought is holding up?

Just say this: “Green wines are better wines.”

Pandora’s box just opened.

There are few subjects debated heavier in the wine world than if the efforts of “green” producers make for better wine.

In our opinion at The Wine Company, after years of experience and tasting wines and visiting vineyards is …. well … yes, usually.

Here is why: vineyard owners that farm sustainably, organically, or biodynamically are simply more present in their vineyards and more in touch with their vines. It’s simple logic: a farmer that walks the fields five days a week has a better chance of sensing minute changes and thus not having to take dramatic steps to adjust to problems (i.e. spraying a ton of chemicals). There are organic farmers that ignore their vineyards and make bad wine. And there are conventional farmers that ignore their vineyards and make bad wine.

But the secret tends to come down to one thing: focus. The wineries that are obsessive about their vines are also the ones making incredible and dynamic wines. 

Learning about the ‘green’ wine movement is important and if you’re going to take sustainable, organic, or biodynamic wines seriously you have to understand how they are defined. A fine resource to get started with are our pages on Sustainable, Organic, and Biodynamic Wines, which provides a list of producers to seek out.