Why is certification important?

Certification is very important because ithelps protect consumers from fraud.

Organic farming today is based on long-standing traditional farming methods as well as techniques and tools developed through modern research. However, many producers who claim to follow traditional farming methods, and limit or exclude the use of synthetic chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides, etc, are not formally registered with any certification agency verifying and overseeing that the organic regulations are being followed. Moreover there are new references like "sustainable practices, ecological development, long term planning, reasonable farming" etc, etc... which are in part dictated by the general "greenwashing" of businesses stemming from the desire of each business to look like a good citizen now that the power of the Green movement has taken everybody by surprise. It may be a positive trend overall but beware of empty words!

Although growers may claim their produce is organic even if it is not certified as such, certification is the consumer's greatest assurance that the grapes used in the wine were produced in accordance with legally established organic standards, and that the grower has been required to document and demonstrate the validity of its organic claim.

OWC requires certfication in the country of origin of all the wines we import. In some cases the NOP certification (the US equivalent) is obtained but when production is minimal the additional cost is not justified by any improvement of the guarantee to the consumer. The certificates of organic farming methods are available upon request to our office.