Organic vineyard and winery inspection: certification and checklist

In the US, the annual organic inspection is decided less in the vineyard than in the consistency of your records. There is no separate government notification: everything runs through your certifier.

Certification

Organic certification falls under the USDA National Organic Program (NOP). You apply to a USDA-accredited certifying agent, such as CCOF or Oregon Tilth, and submit an Organic System Plan describing your practices, inputs and recordkeeping. The plan must be kept up to date, and land must be free of prohibited substances for three years before harvest.

For wine, the label claim matters: "Organic wine" means no added sulfites, while "Made with organic grapes" allows sulfur dioxide up to 100 ppm and cannot carry the USDA organic seal. The inspection checks you against the claim you make.

The checklist

General documents

• Organic System Plan, updated for this year
• Previous inspection report, with noncompliances resolved
• Field maps and acreage matching the certified blocks

Vineyard

• Complete spray and input records, by block
• Invoices for all pest control products, fertilizers and amendments
• Inventory consistent with purchases and applications
• All inputs allowed under the NOP National List
• Buffer zones documented where neighbors farm conventionally
• Harvest records: tons per block and date
• Blocks accessible for leaf sampling, or fruit if any remains, for residue testing

Winery

• Grape receipts traced to the blocks they came from
• Cellar records: fermentation, racking, blending, bottling
• Winemaking additives allowed under NOP, with invoices and spec sheets
• Sulfite analyses consistent with the label claim
• Cleaning and sanitation records
• Separation from conventional wine, if the winery handles both
• Mass balance by lot: gallons in, in tank and bottled
• Lots identified and accessible for wine sampling
• Labels naming the certifier ("Certified organic by…"), with the USDA seal only on "organic" wine

Sales

• Sales invoices carrying the organic claim
• Cases sold consistent with cases bottled and in stock

What fails is rarely a prohibited product. It is a racking that was never written down, or a lot that does not close in gallons. In GrapeFlow, vineyard, inventory and winery live in one system, and a lot's path from block to bottle can be pulled up at once.

Information as of publication. Confirm current requirements with your certifying agent and the USDA NOP.