Organic Winemaking

USDA Organic Seal on a Frey Wine Cap

Organic Pioneers

You can trust that every bottle of Frey wine embodies the pinnacle of organic winemaking. As the first certified Organic winery in the USA, we have pioneered the organic standard in the United States. When we became bonded as a winery in 1980, there wasn’t a nationwide certification for organic wine. We helped start the Organic Wine movement over forty years ago, and we continue to bring you the highest quality wines available today. Not only do we make our wine with organic grapes, but we also make our wines organically, too. All organic, all the way: at every step Frey wines embody the strictest, gold standard of organics. As we’ll discuss in this blog, important distinctions between the different levels of organic exist, but we satisfy them all!

Making Organic Wine

Every organic wine must start with organic grapes. This vital ingredient creates the foundation of every great organic wine. As a result of a growing interest in organic agriculture, there are quite a few wines on the market that feature the words “made with organic grapes” on their labels. However, once those grapes are harvested, what happens during winemaking distinguishes the degree to which brands will go to pursue organic practices.

If you purchase a bottle of wine that says “made with organic grapes,” you will notice that the USDA Organic seal does not appear anywhere on the bottle. That’s because those wines were not fermented using organic methods. Today, in the organic wine industry, there are two tiers of organics: made with organic grapes and certified organic. Every bottle of Frey wine is made with organic grapes and processed organically. Our commitment to organic winemaking means that during fermentation we do not add any chemicals to our wines. No chemical stabilizers, no chemical additives, no artificial coloring, and nothing but the best organic processing aids. We don’t add anything that you wouldn’t want to drink! We do add organic yeast to some of our wines (our Biodynamic wines are actually made with naturally occuring wild yeasts on the grapes themselves). Also, we follow all the organic winemaking protocols to ensure we bring you a clean, USDA Certified Organic drink!

Organic Grape Crush

Why Organic Winemaking?

This is a question that we have been answering for over four decades. In short, there are dozens of reasons why we chose to exclusively produce organic wines. In fact, one of the most obvious reasons for our commitment to Organics is the incredibly long list of allowable additives in wine. We want the flavor of our wines to be representative of the vineyards where they were grown, the year they were produced, and all the subtle variations that make each vintage distinct. Processed in our organic facility, Frey wines aren’t some new offshoot from our brand to corner a piece of the growing organic wine movement in the green sector. Organic wines are the only wines we make! And we’ve been making our wines organically from the start. So, really, the question that we think everyone could be asking is: why are some wines not made organically?

Wine Tank Where the Organic Fermentation Happens

When we first started to bring organic wines to the market, the conventional wine industry got very upset. We were not only tackling the project of making a consistently good wine without chemicals, but we were also bringing awareness to the many chemicals that are introduced into wine from the grape to the glass. Although we are primarily interested in making you the best quality wines available, we also want to educate people about the chemical additives and environmental impact of producing wines using non-organic methods so that you can make informed decisions as consumers. Time and time again, people have turned to Frey Vineyards for their organic wine needs because we make very drinkable, ethically produced, and made with simple, whole ingredients wines.

Not Just Organic

Frey wines are not just organic, but gluten-free and vegan, too! We have consciously chosen to make special dietary restrictions a consideration so that there are no hurdles to enjoying Frey organic wines!

Gluten-Free

In our organic winemaking practices, we have also paid special attention to creating vintages that are accessible to all. In conventional winemaking, all kinds of additives are allowed. Gluten contamination happens during winemaking, and we take the strictest measures to ensure that our wines cater to our gluten-free enthusiasts. Several folks in the Frey family and members of the Frey Vineyards team are gluten-intolerant, so we take our gluten-free practices very seriously.

Vegan

During organic winemaking, the processes used to make our wines ready for bottling are subtle. Instead of using chemical additives to force the wine to change, we use organic methods at every step. Instead of using animal products as a fermentation aid, we prefer to keep our wines vegan so that everyone can enjoy our wines. Several folks in the Frey family and members of the Frey Vineyards team have chosen a vegetarian lifestyle, and we love supporting them with our vegan wines!

Organic Since 1980

Why compromise when you can have it all in a glass of Frey? We have been fine-tuning our exclusively organic production methods since 1980, such that we are pleased to present you with a full line of varietals and blends that are completely organic today. All our wines bear the USDA organic seal of approval on their labels. We grow our grapes organically and ferment our wines organically so that you can uncork the organic, assured that only the best is in your wine glass!