Green wine

wineries have joined the move toward more eco-friendly products. But there are two important things to understand in discussing eco-friendly wine.

First, it's not as easy to identify a green wine – which can fall into one of four categories – as it is an organic potato, which is either organic or it isn't. Second, no one has quite figured out whether eco-friendly wines taste better because they're environmentally sound or because better winemakers use those techniques.

Eco-friendly wine falls into four groups:

• Made with organic grapes. Wine that uses organic grapes, the process of which is regulated by the federal government. This method, though, doesn't guarantee that other parts of the winemaking process, like wood barrels used for aging, are organic.

• Organic. Wine made without added sulfites, though the grapes themselves don't have to be organic. Also regulated by the federal government.

• Bio-dynamic. The next step beyond organic, based on principles established by European philosopher Rudolf Steiner almost 100 years ago. It includes guidelines for crop diversity and planting. Certified by the private Demeter Institute.

• Sustainably farmed. This is the newest certification, part of a project by the Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers that established the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance a couple of years ago. It calls for growers and wineries to use environmentally friendly, socially equitable and economically feasible methods to grow grapes and make wine.