Everyone knows that organic stuff is supposed to be good for you, even if the reason why is pretty unclear. (Something about pesticides?) Tbh this usually means it tastes fucking terrible, but we grin and bear it because how else are we supposed to get glowing skin like Beyoncé? According to wine experts, though, organic wine actually tastes better than the non-sustainable kind, so if you order it when you hit up happy hour this afternoon, you can get drunk and feel like an amazing human being.
In a study published in the Journal of Wine Economics (side note: how did people manage to make wine boring?) researchers from UCLA analyzed a bunch of data from wine-rating magazines. When I say a bunch, btw, I mean it: They gathered more than 74,000 reviews from wine experts. After all the science-y stuff was done with, they found that on average, ecocertified (aka organic) wines scored 4.1 points higher on a scale of 100 than their non-organic counterparts.
The weird part is that most people, obvs including me, assume that organic wines are shitty. In 2014, a different study found that two-thirds of wineries in California didn’t label organic wines as eco-friendly because they were worried people wouldn’t buy them.
Fun fact: Organic vineyards can’t use pesticides, herbicides, or fake fertilizers to grow their grapes, and organic wine doesn’t have any genetically modified yeast or added sulfites. FWIW, the FDA says sulfites aren’t actually the cause of your wine headaches unless you’re unlucky enough to be “sulfite sensitive,” which usually means you’re severely asthmatic too. So when you get a headache after drinking wine, it either means you’re having a tiny reaction to the natural histamines or your inevitable hangover is setting in. The more you know.
So, to recap: Organic wines are super good for the environment and apparently delicious too. Literally the only downside is that they’re way more expensive than the shitty Chardonnay I buy by the case, but global warming sucks and polar bears are cute. I guess I can deal.
I’m not saying getting drunk on midpriced wine is saving the planet, but it’s pretty close IMO. Just remember to recycle the bottle when you’re hungover AF the next day.
