Sobon Estate, a small family owned winery in the Sierra Foothills (Plymouth, California) has CCOF certification for many of their wines. I am most familiar with their Zinfandel, which are lush and fruity.

Organic wine poses interesting questions.

Live in Napa Valley for a while politically aware and you might see what I mean. Water is pulled from the river, landowners kill birds and riperian plants and trees without care, workers throw to the wind thousands of pounds of topsoil everyday and planes swoop down cropdusting. Not to mention the fact of how the workers live or that without all those illegal "aliens" we would have no wine altogether.

Wine grapes, no matter how well they are treated are MONO-CROPPED!

Wine is not food not food. It's a luxury item.

Please tell me why organic wine matters. And to whom. Which class of people feel comforted by the nomenclature and why we should be advocating it.

I'm new to Northern CA and wine country, but I understand that at least two wineries are putting out organic wines now: Frog's Leap in Napa has several, as does benziger Family Winery in Sonoma. I've tasted wines at both places, and I do think that their organic (and Benziger has some Demeter-certified biodynamic wines, too) wines are very good...

I think that the 'luxury item' aspect of wine is not enough of a reason to not care what you're drinking. If you don't want pesticides and crap in your food, your chocolate, your tea, etc - why wouldn't you pay a little more for the luxury of a tasty wine which is also less likely to be bad for you?

My husband and I have been enjoying Tablas Creek (Paso Robles) for a few years - they've been organic since 2003. Most of it we get right from the vinyard either while in the area or via their wine club/ordering by phone. My husband enjoys talking with them about the wine personally - it gives him a real connection to the wine when he drinks it and shares it with family/friends.

I love the Chianti Classico from Badia a Coltibuono. Their wines have been organic for several years (olive oils, too) and the grapes are hand-picked on this family estate in Tuscany.

If you want to be choosy over how organic an organic wine is, you may want to look into how long they've been organic, as the nasty compounds in pesticides stay in the soil far longer than a few growing seasons.

Yes, it's a luxury good, even for $22 a bottle, but wouldn't you rather your dollars support sustainable agriculture, luxury or not, than a mass-market brand that sources its grapes from who-knows-where? (2-buck Chuck comes to mind). My hope is that eventually other producers will catch on...

Disclosure: I work for a public relations company specializing in wine. Badia a Coltibuono is a client of ours (out of around 25 wine brands, a few of which are organic), but it is also a genuine personal favorite of mine and I encourage people to check it out.

Preston of Dry Creek in Healdsburg uses only estate grown certified organic grapes.

Check it out.