“However, it does make me wonder if they’re trying to make their process sound more involved than it is.” “It’s a process widely used with quality, smaller production wines, so that’s good,” says Thomas. Thomas wonders about the intentions behind including this detail. In her interview with D Magazine, Shadonix explained that California and Oregon grapes grown by Scout & Cellar are hand-sorted to remove clusters that may taint the wine during fermentation. Reputable certification programs, like those run by USDA Organic and Demeter International, exist for both, she says. Of course, there are all sorts of reasons for wanting to buy organic or biodynamic wines, Thomas adds, including environmental concerns. But it’s never going to be good for your diet.” Michele Thomas at Greene Grape / Photo by Aundre Larrow Consume it, definitely, get good-quality stuff. “It starts to feel really icky when it becomes packaged in this, ‘Oh, this is healthy for you, this is better for you,’ that is just not true.
Marketing “clean” and “better-for-you” wines is misleading, Thomas says. “They are using language that is very popular, ‘clean living’ and such, trying to appeal to the wellness crowd,” says Michele Thomas, a wine educator, sommelier and the general manager of The Greene Grape in Brooklyn, New York. The problem with making “clean-crafted” wines central to your mission is that some industry professionals say they don’t exist. “The final test is one of quality where we determine if the wine is delicious-if it’s not, we won’t sell it,” the statement continues. “This combination of the audit of farming and production practices followed by independent lab testing ensures that each and every Scout & Cellar beverage backed by the Clean-Crafted Commitment® is made from fruit grown without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides or persistent chemicals, and is produced without synthetic processing aides or sweeteners and is low in sulfites,” a Scout & Cellar representative wrote in a prepared statement. With Scout & Cellar, Shadonix resolved to sell only what she calls “clean-crafted” wines, which the website defines as bottlings “free of yucky stuff like synthetic pesticides and chemical additives and has fewer than 100ppm of total sulfites.” The site says that its wines go through “two rounds of independent lab testing” to ensure they meet this criteria.
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