One of my favorite stores to wander into when I'm downtown is the Ten Thousand Villages Fair Trade Store. The merchandise is always high quality and a remarkably good value despite the fact that the people who craft the items are assured timely and fair payment for their work, plus ongoing contracts to guarantee future income.

Now Fair Trade has come to the wine world with the first nationwide introduction of Fair Trade Certified wine. So what does "Fair Trade" really mean? In the wine world, many family vineyards in developing countries have a tough time meeting market demand for quality grapes AND paying their workers enough, ensuring safe working conditions, and getting a good enough price for the crop to eke out their own living.

Fair Trade Certified means a producer is guaranteed a minimum price for the grapes, their workers earn a living wage, and wine-producing communities receive community development funding. At Stellar Organics Fair Trade Certified vineyard in South Africa, for example, workers have established a commercial community organic vegetable garden with its own educational garden used to train children in organic farming. Income from the garden and vineyard go into a university education fund for children of the workers.

Continue reading "Wine of the Week: Fair Trade wine" after the jump.

In South American countries like Argentina and Chile, small vineyards are susceptible to low market prices that don't generate enough income to meet their family's basic needs, which limits opportunities to invest in improvements. Fair Trade certification helps farmers cover their cost of production and supports small grape growers so they can compete against larger business competitors. In addition, Fair Trade products meet specified environmental standards, including a premium for organic certified grapes and the ban of harmful agrochemicals and GMOs in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods.

I tried several Fair Trade Certified wines recently, and am happy to report that they're not only good for the conscience, but they're not bad on the palate, either. Starting retail price is just $9.99, so the value is there just as it is at my favorite Fair Trade shop downtown. My favorite wines were the FairHills Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 from Argentina and the Wandering Grape Cabernet-Shiraz 2007 from South Africa.

Look for these Fair Trade certified brands at the following retailers: Whole Foods, Target, Sam's Club, and some specialty wine stores.

Stellar Organics wines
Wandering Grape wines
Neu Direction wine
FairHills wines