National Fair Trade Month
October is National Fair Trade month in the United States. While Fair Trade wine has been available in Europe since 2003, it was only in 2007 that the first Fair Trade wines became available in the United States. As many of you know who have attended our many successful wine walks in the last year, I always try my best to offer the best quality wine available to me. While there are some ok wines available at our local grocery shops here in Ridgecrest, The selection of organic or fair trade wines is almost impossible to find. There have been times when I have had the time to drive to LA and get organic and fair trade wines to serve at the wine walks, it is not always something I can do.

Our next wine walk is scheduled for Nov. 22 and I am going to go out of my way to make that trip to LA and get some fabulous organic and fair trade wines for you to try. It has always been my philosophy at Botany's Desire to sell the best quality products in my shop. Offering Organic and Fair Trade products has always been my goal and was the reason I decided to open my boutique 5 years ago. We were the first to introduce the retail concept to Ridgecrest on a large scale.

So what is Fair Trade Wine?

Like other Fair Trade products, Fair Trade wine means that the wine was produced in a fair and humane way, to meet the Internationally recognized Fair Trade standards. Farmers are treated with respect, paid a decent wage, and the grapes are cultivated in an environmentally sustainable manner.

The Fair Trade Labelling Organization (FLO), which is located in Germany, developed the first Fair Trade standards for vineyards in South Africa in 2003. This has subsequently been expanded to include vineyards in Chile and Argentina. FLO works with third party certification organizations in different countries across the globe. In the United States Transfair USA is the official third-party certifier of Fair Trade products.

So make sure to attend our next wine walk in November so you can get your taste of these fabulous wines and if you happen to be out of town for dinner make sure to request fair trade if it available. While we can not sell wines of any kind in the boutique we do have a lovely selection of various other fair trade products such as choclates, teas and many textiles and gifts.