Uproar in wine country: organic wine entrepreneur angers Dutch wine merchants
A large newspaper advertisement at the end of December: ‘Is there poison in your wine?’ It was an advertisement by Derrick Neleman, a wine entrepreneur who makes organic wine in Spain and sells it in the Netherlands, among other things under the name ‘Fucking good wine.’ His advertisement caused an uproar; other wine sellers are not happy with Derrick’s campaign.
According to Derrick Neleman, average wine is full of poison and chemical junk, he wrote in the advertisement. And he can back that up: he knows winegrowers who switched to growing grapes organically because family members became ill from the pesticides they had to use.
Glyphosate
Various studies link Parkinson’s disease to the use of agricultural pesticides. And research by Een Vandaag showed that certain wines in Dutch supermarkets contained, among other things, traces of glyphosate – a weed killer, not exactly pleasant stuff. That is why Neleman printed in huge letters in the newspaper: Is there poison in your wine?
‘Unacceptable!’
Dutch wine merchants immediately rose up in protest. The Royal Association of Dutch Wine Merchants (KVNW) calls the advertisement ‘unacceptable’ and asked Neleman whether he would take a different approach to his advertising campaign. The chair of the KVNW, Peter van Houtert, told trade magazine De Ondernemer: ‘(…) it is not right to “frame” wines from fellow importers in this way. We encourage sustainability; an industry sustainability plan has been drawn up, but we do not want to polarize. As the KVNW, we stand up for the interests of the entire wine industry.’
No wine without poison
Only 6 percent of wine production is organic, and Neleman wanted to draw wine lovers’ attention to that, Derrick told De Ondernemer. Is it true that regular wine contains poison, while organic wine, such as Neleman’s, does not? Wine writer Lars Daniëls dares to question that. ‘The residues found in wine are (well) below the toxicological limit. In that sense, every wine contains poison, because wine without sulfur dioxide does not exist.’
A spat
It is true that sulfur dioxide may also be used in organic winegrowing. Does Neleman use it in his vineyards? No, he says. His wine is completely free of pesticides, it also says on his website. And those toxins below the limit? The accumulation of different toxins is not very good for your health either, and besides: they are in there. According to Neleman, more winemakers should use fewer pesticides and work as naturally as possible, which is why he is trying to shake things up a little. But he will no longer manage that through the wine merchants’ association, because he resigned his membership after this spat.
Read also:
- At this well-known supermarket, you can now only buy organic dairy
- What should you buy organic, and what not?
- Ilja Gort reveals: this is how much wine really costs
Source: Trouw, Perswijn, De Ondernemer
